The series follows the partnership of Royal Navy Captain Jack Aubrey and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin during the wars against Napoleonic France.
The author showed "capacity for creating another completely believable world", while another reviewer said the novel is "stretching its genre [naval adventure] but never escaping it."
Unconcerned, Stephen goes on a mission to Minorca and arranges for Jack, still acting commander of HMS Lively and now on blockade duty near Toulon, to pick him up at Port Mahon.
Sir Joseph Blaine visits Stephen, who tells him of his capture and Aubrey's predicament, requesting that Jack be advanced his pending reward and released.
The rocky islet and the nearby Surprise are suddenly struck by intense squalls; Nicolls drowns and Stephen survives for two days on bird-fouled water and the blood of the resident boobies.
They also put in at Rio for mail, where Jack learns that Admiral Linois, who once took him prisoner, is patrolling the Indian Ocean at the head of a French squadron.
Refitted and repainted, Surprise maintains a cautious distance while rounding the Cape of Good Hope, held by the Dutch who are allied with Napoleon.
He is watching a parade with Dil when he sees Diana Villiers, who has returned to Bombay ahead of her companion, the wealthy merchant Richard Canning.
Surprise engages its smallest ship, the corvette Berceau, shredding her rigging; Jack bluffs by signaling to imaginary reinforcements beyond the horizon.
As a personal reward, Canning offers Jack the opportunity to transport a chest of jewels as freight, which will earn him a portion of the cargo's value upon his arrival in England.
Arriving at Madeira, Jack is dismayed to learn that Sophia is not there; Stephen finds a note from Diana returning the ring he gave her and explaining that she has travelled to America with a wealthy man named Johnstone, whom she has agreed to marry.
Within a day's sailing, Jack overtakes the frigate HMS Ethalion under his loyal friend Heneage Dundas and finds that Sophia is aboard.
[citation needed] At the opening of HMS Surprise, the Admiralty discusses what to do with the Spanish gold seized during the battle, for which the victorious British captains and their crews, including Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, expect a substantial share of the prize money, as was usual.
Aubrey's defense of the China Fleet against a French squadron under Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand, Comte de Linois, in the Indian Ocean is a fictionalization of the real-life Battle of Pulo Aura in February 1804.
Commodore Nathaniel Dance gave the orders attributed to Aubrey, disguising several of the larger East Indiamen as Royal Navy men-of-war and forming the line of battle which successfully intimidated Linois into abandoning the pursuit after only a brief exchange of fire.
Dance was celebrated for his aggressive tactics during the battle and later knighted for his heroism, while Linois was criticized for failing to capture the extremely valuable fleet.
"[3] Library Journal reviewed this novel as part of an abridged audio edition, finding "superb depictions of life" and highly recommended it, mentioning "O'Brian's exquisitely accurate historical detail".
Mark Pumphrery, writing for Library Journal, remarks the friendship of the Aubrey and Maturin, which "plays out against an expanse of ocean, from India to the Atlantic, with a full complement of battles and adventures at sea for devotees of naval fiction.
I read it cruising through the tame Adriatic, and several times found myself forced to pace about the deck to calm my pulse....Patrick O'Brian's erudition is phenomenal, as is his capacity for creating another completely believable world.
[8] The rest of the cast was: Several of the novel's plot elements, including Maturin performing surgery on himself to remove the bullet, were adapted into the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.