H.M.S. Surprise follows the variable fortunes of Captain Jack Aubrey's career in Nelson's navy as he attempts to hold his ground against admirals, colleagues and the enemy, accepting a commission to convey a British ambassador to the East Indies. The voyage takes him and his friend Stephen Maturin to the strange sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and through the archipelago of spice island where the French have a near-overwhelming local superiority.

"O'Brian is astonishingly good"
THE TIMES

"I don't see that anyone could wish for anything better than Mr O'Brian's sea stories"
SUNDAY TIMES

Reviews

‘Few, very few, books have made my heart thump with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it. [O’Brian’s] erudition is phenomenal, as is his capacity for creating another completely believable world. I might have given a better idea of this book if I had simply written 600 times the word
“superb”.’ Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Times

‘As sinewy, and virile as its predecessors, this is a copper-bottomed investment for the numerous fans of Jack Aubrey… we sail breathlessly through perilous seas to the Far East. Vivid and authentic as is Mr O’Brian’s mastery of period and life at sea, it is in his creation of characters that he excels.’
Sarah Lake, Daily Telegraph