The Ionian Mission

by Patrick O'Brian

Another 368 pages down. I am talking about this book separately as I don't know if I'll finish another before the year is out.

The Ionian Mission was pretty lackluster. It starts out interestingly enough. Stephen is married to Diana. They live in separate houses, well Diana in a house, Stephen in an inn. One would assume that they share a bed from time to time but who knows.

Jack has gotten into more legal trouble, although it is never really explained. Yet. That said, not much happens. There are battles that almost happen. Much of the book is spent on blockade in the Mediterranean(?) which is quite dull for the sailors and not very gripping for the reader. I mean I enjoy reading about the day to day life on the ship but after a hundred pages or so I'm ready to move on. Then Jack is thrown into a hurried mission, the Ionian Mission, to interview three Turks. He chooses wrongly, I guess; it seems to me that none of the three really had the same goal as the British, outing the French, but were intent on outing the other Turkish leaders.

At the end there is finally a battle and quickly after it ends, say 1/2 page after the colors are struck, the book ends. I glanced at the beginning of the next book in the series and it didn't look like it picked up right after this one. One interesting thing to note is that on the Turkish ship they have brass cannons (that may have melted during the constant firing during the battle) and they have two cannons that shoot marble balls. Is this for real?