The Fortune of War - Patrick O'Brian
The opening chapter skips over the rest of the voyage to Australia and all events there. We open with Aubrey receiving his new commission, and we are quickly onboard a well-run mail ship back to England.
This novel also felt a bit like a lull in the series, sort of like we are waiting for something to happen.
Quite outside of all of the characters’ control, a fire starts on the mail ship, and it quickly sinks. This is super sad as Stephen loses all of his collections from Desolation Island and from Australia.
The cause of the fire is hinted at as being from smoking below decks by Stephen’s assistant. The use of a power outside their control is poor writing.
The battle against the constitution takes this inability for the characters to be masters of their own fate to another level altogether. Aubrey can see disaster coming under the captain they are rescued by.
He says nothing because the strategy is based on everything he agrees with, and it isn’t his place to question this captain.
Because of this, they are annihilated, taken prisoner and brought back to Boston. This is where the story takes place. Stephen must use all of his wiles to free Aubrey and also get Diana out of the States.
The master manipulation is superb, but even he is almost killed twice. He confounds the French intelligence services. He plays the US intelligence services that think they are playing him.
In the end, Aubrey has to sail them out to the English blockade in a fishing boat. So everyone is involved in their escape.
We see a side of Stephen we have rarely glimpsed before. Once their lives are under threat, he coldly murders the heads of the French intelligence.
We end on a cliffhanger as the boat they were rescued by is the last in the blockade and is waiting for the Chesapeake to come out and meet her.
Stephen is about to marry Diana so that she can become an English citizen again. This feels sad as Stephen doesn’t love her anymore, but then he sees her spirit again as she starts shooting the rats in the hold, and he is keen again. This is a great bit of writing.
