Desolation Island - Adventure & Survival Novel by Patrick O'Brian | Historical Fiction Book for Adults | Perfect for Book Clubs, Travel Reading & Literary Enthusiasts" （注：根据您提供的原始标题"Desolation Island"判断可能是关于Patrick O'Brian的经典航海小说，因此优化方向为： 1. 包含作者名和核心关键词"adventure novel" 2. 明确文学类型"historical fiction" 3. 补充受众定位"for adults" 4. 添加使用场景：书友会/旅行阅读/文学爱好者收藏） 若实际为其他商品类型，请提供更多原始信息以便精准优化。

A devoted fan of the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series from book one, MASTER AND COMMANDER, I've been slowly savoring these novels. This one, the fifth in the series, takes a little while to really get started.The uninitiated reader should not begin with DESOLATION ISLAND which, try as the author might to provide a modicum of amplifying information about events that occurred in earlier volumes, doesn't entirely succeed in helping the reader of the previous books recall all of the earlier events alluded to let alone, I would venture to say, assist the new reader navigate through them.But never mind. Except for the especially well versed, or the extremely diligent, reader, there are always aspects of the Aubrey-Maturin books that one just lets slide: not knowing a spritsail from a foresail isn't going to detract from your enjoyment; in fact, it might help you better relate to the resident lubber, Dr. Stephen Maturin. I relish these books because of O'Brian's wonderful mastery of language that seems to capture so well the world of the early eighteenth century British Royal Navy. One can afford to let a thorough understanding slip a bit to stay immersed in O'Brian's intoxicating love of words.O'Brian's novels revolve around the friendship between the captain, Lucky Jack Aubrey, and the ship's doctor, Maturin. (If this makes you think of Star Trek, you're not far off.) The way they interact is one of the joys of reading O'Brian. Of course, one also reads these books for the enthralling depictions of life at sea and the gripping sea battles. In addition, O'Brian throws in bit of the espionage genre to enjoy, insofar as that in addition to his day job as a surgeon, and his avocation as a naturalist, Dr. Maturin is an agent of the British government. Finally, there's a thread of humor that runs throughout the novels. (In DESOLATION ISLAND, for instance, Maturin is listening to the captain's orders being repeated, and "licking a piece of ice--it was quite fresh--once again meditated upon the enormous amount of repetition in the service" (p. 250).)The significant problem with DESOLATION ISLAND is that the things that one enjoys about the O'Brian novels are in somewhat short supply for the first couple of hundred pages: the relationship between Jack and Stephen is not that much further developed; there's little battle action (though what there is is intense); with much of the book taking place on an isolated vessel, the espionage theme is constrained; and the humor is somewhat a pale echo of the earlier books. Fascinated by Chinese culture, I was at first delighted to see that a character introduced here, Herapath, is an American translator of classical Chinese poetry. Unfortunately, I had to suffer along with Maturin when the doctor found that circumstances made it difficult for him to learn much more about Herapath's interests.Like the Monty Python peasant who said a witch turned him into a newt, the book does get much better. The last hundred and fifty pages or so are quite marvelous, in fact. O'Brian takes us to a place we weren't expecting, and the journey there is engrossing. These final sections really do redeem the entire work. And so, not put off by DESOLATION ISLAND, I look forward to further voyages with Lucky Jack Aubrey and Dr. Maturin.