Another great book in the seafaring Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. In this book, Captain Jack Aubrey leads an outmanned and outgunned force to the seas off Mauritius and La Reunion against a large group of French ships and a strong fortress on land. As with the prior books in this series, O'Brian does a great job of developing the varied characters that make up the story -- not only Aubrey, and his best friend and ship;s surgeon Stephen Maturin, but also Lord Clonfert, Admiral Bertie and Captain Corbett. The friendship, respect, jealousies and rivalries of the various officers in the Navy, and the interplay of sometimes cooperation and sometimes disconnection between the Navy and the Army come through really well in this book. Mixing friendship, romance and the action of sailing through storms and engaging in ship-to-ship combat, O'Brian is always in total command of his great story-telling abilities and his talent at making historical fiction come alive. Each time I read one of these books, even though it can be difficult to understand all the maritime parlance, I have such a fun experience and can't wait to read the next one.