The Far Side of the World

The narrative and the narrator are as well matched in this series of British seafaring adventures as Captain Aubrey and his "small, elderly, but sweet sailing frigate, SURPRISE" This book features intrigues of Napoleonic espionage in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.Tull's vocal virtuosity has a widely disparate group of O'Brian's salty characters upon which to work, from the powerful, but endearing, Captain Aubrey, to the quiet, scientific landlubber, Dr. Maturin. Hearing the vernacular of the early nineteeth-century English navy, complete with the clipped tones of the stuffy upper-class officers and the heavily accented slang of the lowly seaman, the listener feels he's right on board ship. Occasionally, though, the heaviness of the accents and speed of delivery border on the unintelligible. The collaboration of the two Patricks in this series is producing brilliant results. J.D.N. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine