O'Brian, author of biographies, novels, and various tales, has again produced a work of sea fiction with Jack Aubrey and his close friend and physician Stephen Maturin as main characters ( The Letter of Marque, LJ 8/90). Set in the waters around the Dutch East Indies during the Napoleonic War, this adventure combines diplomacy, early 19th-century science, and life aboard His Majesty's Frigate Diane as Aubrey attempts to thwart French designs in these waters. This is sea fiction with excellent technical detail for readers with a sophisticated vocabulary. Recommended for public libraries.-- Harold N. Boyer, Marple P.L., Broomall, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The 18th in O'Brian's Jack Aubrey series will please current fans and likely make new ones. Newly rich Aubrey ( The Letter of Marque ), again a Royal Navy captain and even a ``rotten-borough'' M.P., is given command of the frigate Diane with orders to bring king's envoy Fox to conclude a treaty with the sultan of Borneo before Napoleon does. Aboard is Jack's friend Dr. Maturin, English secret agent and avid naturalist. After a placid trip (via Antarctica) and some stormy local politics (involving two English traitors and the sultan's catamite) the treaty is made. Fox's growing arrogance breeds ill will and when homeward-bound Diane hits a reef Jack gladly sends the envoy ahead in a cutter. O'Brian's style has been compared with Jane Austen's: even the dinners (in country house, London, ship's mess, sultan's palace, Buddhist monastery) are distinguished wittily. Perhaps the most charming segment is Maturin's idyllic stay in a remote valley, where he blissfully encounters and studies a variety of tame exotic beasts. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved