Encargados de rescatar al gobernador Bligh, tristemente famoso por el motín de la Bounty, el capitán Jack Aubrey y el doctor Stephen Maturin se embarcan en el Leopard rumbo a Australia. En sus bodegas llevan un numeroso grupo de convictos.

Okay so I have always wanted to read some of the Jack Aubrey/ Steven Maturin novels since Master and Commander came out because it is one of my favourite movies of all time. I chose this one rather than the ones used in the movies because it told the tale of Jack and Steven taking convicts to Australia and I thought the "Desolation Island" rereferred to in the title was Australia. It isn't, its an island in the middle of nowhere that the ship they are on, the Leopard ( a converted brig) finds itself anchored on after a conflict with a much more powerful Dutch ship. As a back story, Steven is sent on board to see if the convict Mrs Wogan is perhaps an American spy as Britain is on the edge of war with America. There is a stowaway who is in love with Mrs Wogan, who becomes Steven's assistant surgeon on board, a lot of illness, a race away from the Dutch ship chasing them, whalers, a surly know it all first mate instead of the ill Mr Pullings, and South American foreign ports in this very entertaining adventure.
I will say however, that I should have read this as an e-book as there was so much of the nautical and medical terminology that completely alluded me. If I had read it as an e-book I could have hit the "Look Up" feature on any word, as it was, I had to stop reading and google some of the words to find out what they meant. Kudos to the author Patrick O'Brian for, even though the book was written in 1978, it reads like a classic written at the time when it was set. ( I had just read Swiss Family Robinson and a lot of the prose was very similar!)
Interesting how Jack's joke about Weevils is actually from this book, not far Side of the World or Master and Commander, so obviously the screenwriters had read more than just these two novels of the series. Will I read anymore? Yes, possibly but only on e-book as lookig up words kept distracting me from the action in the plot. (What are Spankers and Mizzens anyway?) ( )

I haven't got time to properly read this lovely book again, but I love the close descriptions, the period phrases thrown in just often enough (like "cutting his coat according to his cloth"), and the close Third Person narrated internal monologue that keeps enough vivid action imagery to hold interest for several surprising pages.

Well worth a first or second read.
7 Feb, 12019 HE
Shira ( )

Buena, creo que hasta ahora la mejor de la serie, deben llevar a unos presos a Bay of Plenty y en el medio transcurren aventuras varias, los persigue un barco holandés, casi naufragan ( )

I haven't got time to properly read this lovely book again, but I love the close descriptions, the period phrases thrown in just often enough (like "cutting his coat according to his cloth"), and the close Third Person narrated internal monologue that keeps enough vivid action imagery to hold interest for several surprising pages.

Well worth a first or second read.
7 Feb, 12019 HE
Shira ( )