Jacks assignment: to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Runion and Mauritius from the French. That campaign forms the narrative thread of this rollicking sea saga. But its substance is more beguiling still. Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek The year is 1810 and Great Britain is again at war with France. British naval officer Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, living in domestic bliss with his young familyuntil his friend Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodores pennant and mount an expedition against the Frenchheld islands of Mauritius and La Runion. But the difficulties of carrying out these orders are compounded by two of Aubreys own captains: Lord Clonfert, a pleasureseeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny. Meanwhile, news from home that will change the course of Aubreys life struggles to reach him.