Books 32 & 33: The Mauritius Command & Azincourt *audiobooks*

I've slacked, since my last post about Emperor's Axe, I've read and listened to a further 4 books, but haven't written about them. So I thought I'd condense the audiobooks into one post, and then do separate posts about the actual books. Reason for this being that the audiobooks are of a similar genre, whilst the books aren't. So here goes, books #32 and 33

First up is the next in the Aubrey & Maturin series, 'The Mauritius Command'. Picking up a couple of years after the previous book, Jack has married Sophie and has settled into married life, albeit grudgingly without a ship to command.

However his fortunes change as Stephen appears with news of a command, and a new appointment. They are to sail to Cape Town with a diplomat on board HMS Bodicea. En route, they capture a French Ship, and send it as a prize to Gibraltar, allowing Jack to get his crew up to his very high standards.

Arriving at Cape Town, he is appointed as Commodore by the Admiral, and tasked with taking the islands of Mauritius and la Reunion.

He takes under his command a variety of characters in his captains, two of whom are at odds with each other. And is reunited with his old steward and coxswain as they move and easily take la Reunion with little resistance.

The rest of the book focusses on the taking of Mauritius, and the struggles with subordinates and eventually authority. The experiences of the invading troops who Jack's fleet supports, and Jacks mirror each other, as they are eventually replaced by senior officers who steal the glory for themselves.

Jack is eventually given the honour he deserves and takes news of the victory in Mauritius back home, an honour that would see him recognised and provided with opportunites above all others.

As in all the previous books, there is more exploration of Stephen's character as an intelligence agent, rather than a surgeon. He of course provides medical assistance where needed, but in this book he plays a pivotal role in the capture of the islands. Jack in this book takes to high command like a duck to water, whilst seemingly missing the frontline action, he proves himself as a skilled tactician using all of his assets to the best of his ability. He manages to manage the differing personalities under his command admirably.

This is the first book of the series so far, that actually focusses on historical events, up to this point, O'Brian has given Jack fictional commands, however this is the first one where we find Jack shoehorned into an actual historical event, and it is brilliantly done.

Onto the next Aubrey book!

Whilst I waited for the next Aubrey & Maturin audiobook to become available, I went to an old friend, Bernard Cornwell, and to a book which I have read before, but only once. Azincourt (yes it has a z in it).

As the title imaginatively suggests, it's about the battle of Agincourt, one of the best times that Britain defeated the French! There seems to be a theme in his books, that Bernard takes pleasure in making the French suffer, how very British!

I'd forgotten how much I liked this book when I read it, it tells the story of the battle through one of King Henry's longbowmen, Nick Hook who, outlawed from his Lord's land, finds himself a mercenary archer during the Siege of Soissons in Burgundy. Soissons falls, yet Hook escapes alive, with the protection of the Saints Crispin and Crispinian, as well as protecting a girl, Mellisande, who he saved from a traitorous mercenary.

Upon his return, he is recruited as an archer into the ranks of Sir John Cornewaille, as the English Army sets out to invade France. Initially they beseige the port town of Harfleur, which thins the ranks of the English army through sickness and disease and eventually though the storming. Here he meets Mellisande's father, a French nobleman, who vows to kill Hook when they meet on the battlefield. However this does not happen during the fall of Harfleur.

Rather than return to England after the costly siege, King Henry decides to march his army across the north of France in a show of defiance to the French. They get as far as the Somme, where they are blocked by the French Army, somewhat larger than the English Army, at a placed called Azincourt.

With the two armies camped close to each other, heavy rain overnight turns the ploughed fields into a quagmire, and the French advance on the English, in heavy armour, through knee deep mud. Something which can't be easy at the best of times, but through mud would've been next to impossible. To make matters more difficult, the English have around 4,500 longbowmen, who rain death and destruction down on the approaching French.

The rest they say, is history. A famous victory for England, played out through two viewpoints (if one can be so). The first, through Hook, and the second through his now father in law, who senses the first movements of the battles as he can't see a thing through his armoured helmet!

Hook captures his father in law, and earns his trust and respect, therefore cementing the relationship between Hook and Mellisande.

That's the plot in a nutshell. It's not a battle I've looked at much, mainly because I'm not overly keen on medieval warfare, but it's a fantastic moment in history.

Cornwell really does have a good way of bringing history to life, as in the Sharpe novels. One thing that I found myself grinning at was the number of Sharpeisms that he brings into this! The best one was the number of 'bastards' in the book!

I can never really criticise Bernard Cornwell's books, he's one of my favourite authors. His battle scenes are sublime, and his characters are real. The books themselves are usually well researched, although there is of course some artistic license involved, putting the main character at the right place at the right time. The Battle of Agincourt is very well played out in the book, with vivid descriptions of the action, the struggles and the mud bringing it to life. Perhaps my main gripe of it is the dialogue, the dialogue didn't quite strike the same chords that O'Brian's dialogue does. But that's about it!

Both O'Brian and Cornwell are fantastic authors, and both know what they're writing about. I haven't read any more of O'Brian's novels, but he is the master of the Naval historical war genre. Bernard Cornwell tried with Sharpe's Trafalgar, and whilst it's a decent book, lacks the same depth as O'Brian does! I can imagine that it is the same both ways, with O'Brian's characters not as comfortable on land.

The Mauritius Command: 2.5cm

Azincourt: 3cm

Total Read so far: 33 books, 102cm

Total left to read: 91cm