Patrick O` Brian`s Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain Jack Aubrey & his friend & surgeon, Stephen Maturin, sail the Leopard to Australia with a hold full of convicts. Among them is a beautiful & dangerous spy
- & a treacherous disease which decimates the crew. The ingredients of a wonderfully powerful & dramatic O` Brian novel are heightened by descriptive writing of rare quality. Nowhere in contemporary prose have the majesty & terror of the sea been more effectively rendered than in the thrilling chase through an Antarctic storm in which Jack`s ship, under-manned & out-gunned, is the quarry not the hunter.