Further adventures (the 14th installment) of Captain Aubrey & Co., shipwrecked in the Dutch East Indies, and finding their way to the penal colony at Botany Bay in the early 19th Century. The passage on Botany Bay is one of the most evocative (and frightening) descriptions we know of the first European settlement in Australia. If you haven't yet been introduced to O'Brian's vivid portraits of Nelson's British Navy, here's your chance to dip into this fine series (stories from which formed the basis for the recent movie Master and Commander).  (AUS17, $13.95)

The Aubrey/Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian