The Mauritius Command: Aubrey/Maturin Series, Book 4

My third book of this series that I've downloaded. Based on a true naval and land battle (or series of battles) in the Indian Ocean. Great historical references to the value of espionage during wartime. If you're addicted to these books this is just one more you'll have to get.

I began the series after a friend recommended Master and Commander to me knowing how much I enjoyed reading the C.S. Forrester, "Horatio Hornblower" series.

I'd recommend these to fan of naval action, especially to any fan who enjoys subplots of life intertwined in a book.

The first three audio books I purchased were narrated by Patrick Tull. #3 and #4 were by Simon Vance. I would not recommend anything narrated by Simon Vance. He lent a particularly cartoonish flavour to the books that set my teeth on edge.

Luckily, Audible was able to obtain #4 and #5 with Patrick Tull. Mr. Tull's characterizations were more in keeping with the situations and characters. Mr's Vance's, on the other hand, danced on the edge of being a cross between the "League of British Gentlemen" and a Monty Python skit.

I'd would buy any of this series narrated by Mr. Tull.

Print a map for this one, or find one of the Patrick O'Brian sites to guide you. Does get detailed as to locations. I follow along now with Google Earth to help keep up. The only thing I didn't like was the big jump in time at the begining. Years have gone by and nothing has happened. Book didn't quite make it so clear, I thought I had skipped a book, stopped listening and got home looked on my pc and yep, right order, just a huge leap in time.

were are indebted to the two Patricks of these novels. They helped us survive a posting in the middle of nowhere in Spain, absolute desolation. This book, which we listened to twice, got us throw much of the suffering with its humour, action and the introduction of more characters and plot changes. Plus the historical accuracy made it even better. A must read.

Patrick Tull does a great job reading this series. I have read this series by whatever book was available in the local library. But I found that Audible has them all. So I have started with book one and going through just skipping the ones I have read before. I think this was a slower pace story than others but provided a lot of history of the British & French action over the Mauritius. Had to go to the map to fully understand how the ships were blockading the area. Great battle scenes.

The Mauritius Command tells the story of an historical Royal Navy campaign, set in the "Aubrey/Maturin" universe.

At story's open, Jack is grounded on half-pay, living with his wife, their twin daughters and his mother-in-law. Jack longs to return to sea, and he gets his chance as the Commodore of a squadron of ships sent to disrupt the French bases and privateering in the Indian Ocean. Stephen Maturin accompanies as both medical man and intelligence agent. In addition to the actual effort of stopping the French, Jack and Stephen must finesse their relationships with the other officers and men in the squad.

This is almost a purely nautical and military adventure. Jack's domestic life is pretty settled, and Stephen's on-again-off-again romantic life is not referenced, so "home life" isn't a major theme in the story.

Patrick Tull's narrative style is lively and has a very "nautical" feel. However, his regional accent, gravelly voice and early-1990's production may be hard on American (and other) ears. There is a second version narrated by Simon Vance; I happen to prefer Tull's version.

Customary disclaimers:
1. Loads of nautical talk, no translation provided. Wikipedia can be a helpful reference (it was for me).
2. Although this is fourth in the Aubrey/Maturin series, you can appreciate this one without being familiar with the previous ones.

The book is great, the reader is great. Nothing more to say.

If I can at all avoid another book read by Patrick Tull, I will. I LOVE the P. O'brian books about the Royal Navy and sailing ships, but I frequently felt like ripping my earphones out of my ears and stomping on my MP3 player.
Mr. Tull swallows convulsively and frequently during his reading like he's taking a drink or has something caught in his throat. It was so distracting I found myself bracing for the next swallow rather than hearing the story and that with the volume turned down hoping I wouldn't be able to hear it. He. . . also . . .reads. . .each . . . word deliberately for a space then rushes through the next few sentences, for no apparent reason - like fast during action, slow during emotional times - nor any logic that I could find. His characters sometimes have an accent and sometimes don't. Maturin sometimes has a brogue and sometimes doesn't. All of his characters' voices are inconsistent so you can't tell who's talking unless you can tell from the context, and sometimes you can't tell from that either.
All said, I did NOT enjoy listening to this book and only finished listening because it was the next one and I had already bought it, and I hate skipping around in a series.
MAYBE if I had read Mr. Tull's narration first I could have tolerated it, but after listening to Simon Vance's vastly superior interpretation of these books, I will never have the patience again.
Mr. Vance had voices for each character - very easily identified and believable. He didn't give Maturin a brogue, but then even though Maturin was Irish, he was raised in Catalan and spoke several languages and very well may not have had a strong Irish accent. It was so very enjoyable listening to Simon Vance I fell in love with the books all over again!
So if you can at all get the books read by Simon Vance rather than Patrick Tull, DO make the attempt. You won't regret it. And definitely read these books - they are Awesome!

~ Jean

Yes O'Brian's dry humor and deft dialogue can be listened to over and over.

Actually Jack because he is not super man but a man with many more weaknesses then strengths. Not at all like the heros of today's books.

He is simply the finest narrator possible for this series. I had the misfortune of listening to one of the series wo him and lasted only 2 chapters.

Everyone that would like to visit early 1800 should read or listen to one of this series or all

That Jack Aubrey got a great prize that fixed his money problem

unknown

no

Narrator could be heard turning pages etc