I returned to listening to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series with the eighteenth book, The Yellow Admiral. This is a relatively low-key standalone episode, with an extensive land-based section early that sets up the plot for the rest of the book. The characters continue to change in response to personal obstacles, there’s a few nice set-pieces, and the ending promises interesting things to come. (Since I only have two full books left in the series, I exercised willpower and did not immediately start the next one.) I will say, though, that the extensive speeches in praise of a particular kind of traditional English life struck me as unusual for the series, almost intrusively so. But then, I tend to be suspicious of nostalgia.
A spoiler post follows.