O’Brian, Patrick: (16) The Wine-Dark Sea (spoilers)

SPOILERS for The Wine-Dark Sea; here’s the non-spoiler post if you got here by mistake.

Finally they carry out the South American mission! And its failure was nicely set up, with Dutourd, Vidal and the Knipperdollings, and Castro. Plus, we get to see Sam Panda again. (I thought the scene with him and Jack, when Jack is returned to the ship from the shattered launch, was one of the most charming things about the book.)

(I was a little surprised that Stephen wasn’t sympathetic to the Peruvian natives, whether or not their efforts at revolution were futile.)

A volcano! I think all they need is a tsunami to run the table of natural disasters at sea?

The Martin subplot: I don’t remember having a sympathetic character transform like that after so long a time. I keep wanting to tease some wider significance out of it as a result, but without success.

Surely even if Jack’s eye doesn’t recover, he can manage?

Have resisted the urge to start the next one immediately, at least for a day, because I’m getting so close to the end. The problem is that none of my other audiobooks are sounding appealing at the moment.

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