This book's slow as a wet week! I still enjoyed it, but I'm glad to read that Aubrey and Maturin are on their way home, because the extensive voyage that's taken place over the last several books has honestly dragged on a bit. I was actually glad to get to a battle here, that's how slow things were.

I don't know. I've really got nothing else to say about it. I'm interested for Maturin to get home and see what's going on with his wife and daughter, and the hope of that kept me going through most of this. Which isn't to say that there weren't interesting bits: Martin's something of a duffer, but his guilt-ridden, disastrous self-medication was reasonably compelling, and I enjoyed Maturin's South American sojourn, if only because seeing that Andean bromeliad, Puya raimondii, is now on my bucket list. What a fascinating plant!!!