So to the 17th episode of Patrick O’Brian’s fantastic Aubrey-Maturin story cycle. In the last volume, The Wine-Dark Sea, we saw the effective conclusion of a mini-sequence of novels which has taken our heroes around the world, to Australia, South America, and various islands of the South Pacific. The Commodore opens by ushering H.M.S. Surprise to Shelmerston, the home port of many of her hands, and setting the stage for the next, enjoyably varied instalment of the series.

I say varied because here we have many of the ingredients which have made earlier episodes so enjoyable: Stephen Maturin’s re-immmersion in the world of British secret intelligence; Jack Aubrey’s re-discovery of a wife and children he has not seen for many years, not to mention his assertive mother-in-law, now earning a living as a bookmaker, of all things. There are domestic tribulations for both men, but these matters have to be dealt with as best they can be before Jack embarks on his new commission (taking Stephen with him as surgeon, of course) – as Commodore of a task force of ships bound for Africa’s slave coast, there to act against the slave trade. He also has a second mission – to intercept and destroy a fleet of French ships bearing an invasion force to Ireland, in the hope of aiding Irish independence and opening a new front against the British.

The seagoing portions of the book are as well written as ever, with Aubrey having to experience the difficulties of higher command, effectively as an Admiral, for the first time. He has to content with a tyrannical captain who has never faced the enemy, as well as a homosexual captain whose liaisons with favoured crewmembers are causing the breakdown of discipline on his ship. The experiences of the fleet in putting down the slave trade take Aubrey to a part of the world he has hitherto given the widest possible berth, and we get an good insight in to the squalid realities of the trafficking in human souls. There is then a pursuit of the French invasion fleet, culminating in a hard-fought action off the Southern coast of Ireland, in which Aubrey does no harm to his hopes of further advancement.

The Commodore contains so many of the ingredients that have made this series a resounding success, and I enjoyed it a great deal. The ‘Austen-sur-mer’ prose is as polished as ever, and the central friendship at the heart of these books continues to bring delight. If I was going to be ultra-critical, I would say that there are some sequences that feel a bit rushed or disjointed, such as the final battle sequence; however, they should not be allowed to detract from what is still a very fine book.

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