The Surgeon's Mate: Aubrey/Maturin Series, Book 7
4.7 | 3,273 ratings
Price: 20.51
Last update: 02-24-2026
Product details
- Book 7 of 21 : Aubrey/Maturin Novels
- Listening Length : 15 hours and 4 minutes
- Author : Patrick O'Brian
- Narrator : Patrick Tull
- Publication date : December 19, 2003
- Language : English
- Publisher : Recorded Books
- ASIN : B0001A0WW0
- Version : Unabridged
- Program Type : Audiobook
- Best Sellers Rank:#5,028 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
- Adventure Travel (Audible Books & Originals)
- Adventure Travel (Books)
- Sea Adventure Fiction
- Customer Reviews:4.74.7 out of 5 stars(3,273)
Top reviews from the United States
- R. Williams... should be required reading for anyone who loves a great story with compelling charactersEvery Patrick O'Brien novel - especially all of the Aubrey Maturin series - should be required reading for anyone who loves a great story with compelling characters, adventure, suspense and just the slightest touch of romance. Add to that that they are steeped in actual history - based on the logbooks of the RN captains who sailed in the era about which he writes - these are history lessons in the most entertaining form imaginable. Highest recommendation i could possibly give.
- W. Stanleyamong the best in the seriesIt is difficult to review what is great about this book without spoiling, so suffice it to say that O’Brian was at the peak of his powers when he wrote this and the next three volumes, and had some notion of where he was heading. This episode stands out for his ability to evoke multiple times time and places, as well as complex political affairs, in an engaging way. Some of the earlier books relied on somewhat preposterous if enjoyable scenarios (think bearskin) but this one stays more believable and is more suspenseful as a result. A great read.
- M. L. AsselinTHE FORTUNE OF WAR Part DeuxTHE SURGEON'S MATE, the seventh installment of the Jack Aubrey- Stephen Maturin series about the British naval captain and his surgeon friend at the start of the nineteenth century picks up the story as "Lucky" Jack and the Doctor, along with Diana Villiers (the woman Stephen has long pined for), head back to England after escaping Boston aboard the HMS Shannon and its subsequent defeating of the USS Chesapeake. The story continues with a series of loosely related episodes: Jack's losing himself in an affair with a woman of questionable character in Halifax, his and Stephen's mission to win over a Catalan unit from the French at Grimsholm (now in Finland) and capture the fortress there, and the imprisonment of Jack, Stephen, and Stephen's Swedish assistant Gedymin Jagiello by the French and our heroes' attempt at escape. Stephen's secret life as a super spy for the British Crown also becomes threatened.
Throughout the book, the reader might assume the title refers to Jagiello, but it becomes apparent by the end that this is not so. Jagiello, in any case, is an odd character who's not well fleshed out. He seems to be present mostly for comic relief, and late in the book he also serves as a plot device.
THE SURGEON'S MATE is the least satisfying of the Aubrey-Maturin novels at this point in the series, at least as a stand-alone novel. Although the last fifty pages are exciting, most of the rest of the novel, while still engrossing--Patrick O'Brian's prose style still pleases--is even more episodic than usual. It reads like a coda to the previous (and superior) book in the series, THE FORTUNE OF WAR (see my review on Amazon.com) than it does a cohesive work of its own merit. Still, to any fan of O'Brian's novels, this is not an important consideration. - Amazon CustomerConstantly amazed!Such writing and story telling! I wonder if we shall ever see the likes of Patrick O’Brian again? I have read the whole series over countless times. Enjoy!
- Pamela SnowWhat a pleasure!I am an (ahem) older female reader with a lifetime of serious reading behind me. I have recently become fed up with most of the self-indulgent, going nowhere, whiney contemporary lit I've explored and finally decided to give O'Brian a try. Keep in mind that I am most definitely NOT a military buff, or even a big history fan, but the O'Brian books are just pure pleasure. Clever, amusing, engaging, each one different, great characters. I see now why I have been hearing gushing references to them over the years. Yes, I confess that I sometimes skip a bit of the more arcane sailing terms, but no problem. The dual protagonists are great foils for one another and all I can say is yippee! There are 20 of these books!
- AmazonianYou could not speak fairer than thisA continuation of the greatest series of naval stories ever. The boys are dragged from pillar to post all over the northern hemisphere. Excessive celebration ashore in Nova Scotia with an ambitious young lady leads to some anxious moments later for Jack, while Stephen aspires to a more conventional relationship with Diana. A tense cat and dog chase across the North Atlantic finally sees the boy's return home, but, fortunately for Jack, life as a landsman is brief, and he is off again, dispatched to save the world from despotic French cataclysm.
A shipwreck and imprisonment in Paris rounds out the story, a rousing tale leavened with the (mostly) accidental amorous adventures of the protagonists' new friend, Jagiello. If you do not enjoy this novel, you are a slab-sided scrub and cove. It has a beautifully constructed plot told in wonderful prose by the master of the genre. - Rick ManganelloSplendid!This is my second reading of this exceptional series of adventures. To keep it from speeding by too quickly, I’m simultaneously reading O’Brian’s biography and carefully following the action on Google Earth. Although the Baltic island at the centre of things proved fictitious, it was possible to follow their movements precisely. I’m clearly an Aubrey-Maturin junky.