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Reading: Treason's Harbour
Jul. 6th, 2018 03:10 pmI'd been reading quite a lot of space opera and suddenly realised that I was tired of spaceships and space stations, artificial gravity and recycled air and manufactured environments. I wanted to read a book with landscapes and weather and a strong sense of the natural world, and Patrick O'Brian seemed like the obvious answer.
Treason's Harbour actually turned out to be a particularly good choice in this respect; it opens with a wonderful description of the harbour at Valetta, where Jack and Stephen are waiting for repairs to be carried out following the events at the end of The Ionian Mission, and takes them on a journey across the Suez isthmus, down the Red Sea and back. While Jack tries to bring off a success that will restore his flagging career, Stephen is engaged in a game of cat and mouse with a French spy ring where it's not entirely clear who is the cat and who the mouse. There is more intrigue than action (which I secretly prefer as I don't find the battles that easy to follow) and some lovely comic scenes, and I think this may be one of my favourites of the series so far.
Treason's Harbour actually turned out to be a particularly good choice in this respect; it opens with a wonderful description of the harbour at Valetta, where Jack and Stephen are waiting for repairs to be carried out following the events at the end of The Ionian Mission, and takes them on a journey across the Suez isthmus, down the Red Sea and back. While Jack tries to bring off a success that will restore his flagging career, Stephen is engaged in a game of cat and mouse with a French spy ring where it's not entirely clear who is the cat and who the mouse. There is more intrigue than action (which I secretly prefer as I don't find the battles that easy to follow) and some lovely comic scenes, and I think this may be one of my favourites of the series so far.
