• The Thirteen Gun Salute

  • Aubrey/Maturin Series, Book 13
  • By: Patrick O'Brian
  • Narrated by: Tim Pigott-Smith
  • Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (29 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Thirteen Gun Salute  By  cover art

The Thirteen Gun Salute

By: Patrick O'Brian
Narrated by: Tim Pigott-Smith
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.48

Buy for $13.48

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following his dismissal from the Royal Navy, he has earned reinstatement through his daring exploits as a privateer. Now he is to shepherd Stephen Maturin - ship's surgeon, sometime intelligence agent, and now unofficial adviser to His Britannic Majesty's envoy - on a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes which would put English merchant shipping at risk.

The journey encompasses a great and satisfying diversity of adventures. Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans; a killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work their ship of a reef; and at the barbaric court of Pulo Prabang a classic duel of intelligence agents unfold: the French envoys, well entrenched in the Sultan's good graces, against the savage cunning of Maturin.

The heart of The Thirteen Gun Salute is the story of a friendship, and it is here that we have the most perfect window on the soul of that age. Maturin's unsparing, melancholy intelligence mirrors the scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment; Aubrey, bluff, competent, and endlessly courageous, embodies the fierce the fierce energy of the dawning century. Again and again the listener is refreshed by their enthusiasms and wit, their music, quarrels, and laughter.

The thirteenth installment of Patrick O'Brian's hugely successful Aubrey/Maturin series.

Don't miss the rest of the Aubrey/Maturin series.
©1989 Patrick O'Brian (P)2001 Random House Inc., Random House AudioBooks, a Division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

"The best historical novels ever written." (The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about The Thirteen Gun Salute

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

Another great story from Patrick O'Brian. Overall, the reader was very good except for being wildly off on Maturin's voice. There is no relationship between the character and the voice used here.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another triumph by Patrick O'Brian

Another brilliant tale of Aubrey and Maturin full of literary and emotional pleasures. I have read the series from start to finish a number of times with deepening pleasure, with one notable exception and that is the author's strange decision to deprive the reader of how Dr. Maturin killed the French spies, Wray and Lederman. After being taken on this part of the great series--Wray's treachery--an underlying theme through many of the novels, and with no other discourse have them both delivered for dissection was surely one of O'Brian's few disappointments.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!