Master and Commander Books in Order: (Patrick O'Brian)

If you’re a fan of historical fiction, the clinking of cutlasses, and the salty sea breeze, chances are you’ve heard of Patrick O’Brian’s epic seafaring saga, the Master and Commander series. To understand the plot fully, it’s important to read the Master and Commander books in order.

The Master and Commander books are also known as the Aubrey-Maturin series, taking its name from the two central characters. However, after the series was made into a successful movie starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, the novels are now more commonly known as the Master and Commander books.

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What are the Master and Commander books about?

The Master and Commander books were written by Patrick O’Brian and set during the early 19th century. The series follows the maritime adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his ship’s surgeon, Dr. Stephen Maturin, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars.

Patrick O’Brian’s meticulous research and vivid storytelling have made the series a classic in the genre of naval literature. In fact, the first novel of the series is widely considered “the best historical novels ever written” (Richard Snow, New York Times).

How many Master and Commander books are there?

There are twenty books in the Master and Commander series, from the first book, Master and Commander, to the final book, Blue at the Mizzen.

There is also an additional book, The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey which would have been the 21st book in the series. This book includes the chapters Patrick O’Brian left behind before he died.

Master and Commander Books in Order: Written List

Master and Commander Books in Order: Detailed Descriptions

Master and Commander Books #1: Master and Commander (1969)

It is the dawn of the nineteenth century; Britain is at war with Napoleon’s France. When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson’s navy, is promoted to captain, he inherits command of HMS Sophie, an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. With the aid of his friend Stephen Maturin, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling naval battle after another, their journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns and manpower the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched.

O’Brian renders in riveting detail the life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson’s navy: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.

Master and Commander Books #2: Post Captain (1972)

It’s 1802. The Treaty of Amiens has brought an end to the hostilities between Great Britain and France. Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, naval surgeon Stephen Maturin, are enjoying the respite in the English countryside, besotted with two beautiful cousins, Sophie Williams and Diana Villiers―until Aubrey loses his fortune and they flee to France to escape his creditors.

While in France, Napoleon smashes the Peace of Amiens and war begins anew. Aubrey and Maturin, now finding themselves behind enemy lines, make their way back to England. Maturin is sent to Spain on an intelligence-gathering mission and the now-solvent Aubrey assumes command of a strange warship, pursuing his quarry straight into the mouth of a French-held harbour.

Amidst the rollicking adventures at sea and mishaps on land, Aubrey and Maturin’s friendship is tested by their romantic entanglements with the cousins in this brilliant second instalment of the epic series.

Master and Commander Books #3: HMS Surprise (1973)

In H.M.S. Surprise, British naval officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin face near-death and tumultuous romance in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company.

Tasked with ferrying a British ambassador to the Sultan of Kampong, they find themselves on a prolonged voyage aboard a Royal Navy frigate en route to the Malay Peninsula.

In this new sphere, Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and seamanship against an enemy who enjoys overwhelming local superiority. But somewhere in the Indian Ocean lies the prize that could secure him a marriage to his beloved Sophie and make him rich beyond his wildest dreams: the ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet.

Master and Commander Books #4: The Mauritius Command (1977)

The year is 1810 and Great Britain is again at war with France. British naval officer Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, living in domestic bliss with his young family―until his friend Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore’s pennant and mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion.

But the difficulties of carrying out these orders are compounded by two of Aubrey’s own captains: Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny. Meanwhile, news from home that will change the course of Aubrey’s life struggles to reach him.

Master and Commander Books #5: Desolation Island (1978)

Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin sail the Leopard to Australia with a hold full of convicts.

Among them is a beautiful and dangerous spy―and a treacherous disease that decimates the crew.

With a Dutch man-of-war to windward, the undermanned, outgunned Leopard sails for her life into the freezing waters of the Antarctic, where, in mountain seas, the Dutchman closes.

Master and Commander Books #6: The Fortune of War (1979)

Captain Jack Aubrey arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the British Navy. He and his friend, surgeon Stephen Maturin, take passage for England in a dispatch vessel.

But before they can reach their destination, the War of 1812 breaks out. Bloody conflict precipitates them into new and unexpected predicaments where Maturin is reunited with his embattled love, Diana Villiers, and his past activities as a secret agent blow back on him with a vengeance.

Master and Commander Books #7: The Surgeon’s Mate (1980)

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by dispatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government.

But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World and the attention of two privateers soon becomes menacing.

The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as tense and as unexpected in its culmination as anything Patrick O Brian has written.

Master and Commander Books #8: The Ionian Mission (1981)

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return in this novel to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But Jack is now a senior captain commanding a line-of-battle ship in the Royal Navy’s blockade of Toulon, and this is a longer, harder, colder war than the dashing frigate actions of his early days.

A sudden turn of events takes him and Stephen off on a hazardous mission to the Greek Islands, where all his old skills of seamanship and his proverbial luck when fighting against odds come triumphantly into their own.

Master and Commander Books #9: Treason’s Harbour (1983)

Stranded in Malta, Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin must be careful, for the salons and dockyards are infested with Napoleon’s spies, and there is a traitor in the British intelligence network.

This instalment takes Aubrey and Maturin sailing on the pirate-plagued waters of the Red Sea, trudging over the Sinai Peninsula and even the depths of the sea floor in their efforts to stay one step ahead of the treachery afoot.

Master and Commander Books #10: The Far Side of the World (1984)

The War of 1812 continues, and Captain Jack Aubrey sets course for Cape Horn on a mission after his own heart: intercepting a powerful American frigate outward bound to wreak havoc with the British whaling trade.

Meanwhile, Stephen Maturin has a mission of his own in the world of secret intelligence and comes face to face with the harsh realities for women of the age. Disaster in various guises awaits them in the Great South Sea and in the far reaches of the Pacific―typhoons, castaways, shipwrecks, an ill-fated affair, murder, and criminal insanity―as well as a bold rescue by a crew of seafaring female warriors.

Master and Commander Books #11: The Reverse of the Medal (1986)

Captain Jack Aubrey, accomplished at sea but dreadfully vulnerable on land, finds himself ashore after a successful cruise. With his prize money burning a hole in his pocket, he is persuaded by a kind stranger he meets at a tavern to make certain investments.

This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionage the province of his friend Stephen Maturin, now tasked with rescuing his imperilled friend as he also attempts to locate his wayward wife, Diana Villiers.

Is Aubrey’s humiliation and the threatened ruin of his career a deliberate plot?

Master and Commander Books #12: The Letter of Marque (1988)

Captain Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime he did not commit.

His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually cast as a ship’s surgeon to mask his discreet activities on behalf of British Intelligence, has bought for Aubrey his former ship the Surprise to command as a privateer, more politely termed a letter of marque.

Together they sail on a desperate mission against the French, which, if successful, may redeem Aubrey from the private hell of his disgrace. A night time battle with an unusual climax, a jewel of great value, and Maturin’s fondness for opium make this segment of Patrick O’Brian’s masterful series both original and profoundly exciting.

Master and Commander Books #13: The Thirteen Gun Salute (1989)

Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life as a privateer. Now he is to shepherd Stephen Maturin―his friend, ship’s surgeon, and sometimes intelligence agent―on a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes that would put English merchant shipping at risk.

Along their journey, Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans; a killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work the Diane off a reef; and, in the barbaric court of Pulo Prabang, a classic duel of intelligence agents unfolds: the French envoys, well entrenched in the Sultan’s good graces, against the savage cunning of Stephen Maturin.

Master and Commander Books #14: The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)

Shipwrecked on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies, Captain Aubrey, surgeon and secret intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck. A vicious attack by Malay pirates is repulsed, but the makeshift vessel burns, and they are truly marooned. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the whimsy and ingenuity of Patrick O’Brian―or Stephen Maturin―could devise.

In command now of a new ship, the Nutmeg, Aubrey pursues his interrupted mission. The dreadful penal colony in New South Wales, harrowingly described, is the backdrop to a diplomatic crisis provoked by Maturin’s Irish temper, and to a near-fatal encounter with the wildlife of the Australian outback.

Master and Commander Books #15: The Truelove (1992)

A British whaler has been captured by an ambitious chief in the Sandwich Islands at French instigation, and Captain Jack Aubrey is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order.

But stowed away in the cable-tier is an escaped female convict. To the officers, Clarissa Harvill is an object of awkward courtliness and dangerous jealousies.

Aubrey himself is won over and indeed strongly attracted to this woman who will not speak of her past. But only Aubrey’s friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin, can fathom Harvill’s secrets: her crime, her personality, and a clue identifying a highly-placed English spy in the pay of Napoleon’s intelligence service.

Master and Commander Books #16: The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)

At the outset of this adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue an American privateer through the Great South Sea. The strange color of the ocean reminds Stephen of Homer’s famous description, and portends an underwater volcanic eruption that will create a new island overnight and leave an indelible impression on the reader’s imagination.

Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen’s mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America. Jack will survive a desperate open boat journey and come face to face with his illegitimate black son; Stephen, caught up in the aftermath of his failed coup, will flee for his life into the high, frozen wastes of the Andes; and Patrick O’Brian’s brilliantly detailed narrative will reunite them at last in a breathtaking chase through stormy seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn, where the hunters suddenly become the hunted.

Master and Commander Books #17: The Commodore (1994)

Having survived a long and desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances. For Jack it is a happy homecoming, at least initially, but for Stephen it is disastrous: his little daughter appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or contact, while his wife, Diana, unable to bear this situation, has disappeared, her house being looked after by the widowed Clarissa Oakes.

Much of The Commodore takes place on land, in sitting rooms and in drafty castles, but the roar of the great guns is never far from our hearing. Aubrey and Maturin are sent on a bizarre decoy mission to the fever-ridden lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the slave trade. But their ultimate destination is Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion that will test Aubrey’s seamanship and Maturin’s resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent.

Master and Commander Books #18: The Yellow Admiral (1996)

Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the Admiralty by his erratic voting as a Member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbour, a man with strong Navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters.

Even Jack’s exploits at sea turn sour: in the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack’s private fears for his career.

Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers.

Jack is savouring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie’s forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba.

Master and Commander Books #19: The Hundred Days (1998)

Napoleon, escaped from Elba, pursues his enemies across Europe like a vengeful phoenix. If he can corner the British and Prussians before their Russian and Austrian allies arrive, his genius will lead the French armies to triumph at Waterloo.

In the Balkans, preparing a thrust northwards into Central Europe to block the Russians and Austrians, a horde of Muslim mercenaries is gathering. They are inclined toward Napoleon because of his conversion to Islam during the Egyptian campaign, but they will not move without a shipment of gold ingots from Sheik Ibn Hazm which, according to British intelligence, is on its way via camel caravan to the coast of North Africa. It is this gold that Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin must at all costs intercept.

The fate of Europe hinges on their desperate mission.

Master and Commander Books #20 Blue at the Mizzen (1999)

Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo, and the ensuing peace brings with it both the desertion of nearly half of Captain Aubrey’s crew and the sudden dimming of Aubrey’s career prospects in a peacetime navy. When the Surprise is nearly sunk on her way to South America―where Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are to help Chile assert her independence from Spain―the delay occasioned by repairs reaps a harvest of strange consequences.

The South American expedition is a desperate affair; and in the end Jack’s bold initiative to strike at the vastly superior Spanish fleet precipitates a spectacular naval action that will determine both Chile’s fate and his own.

The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2010)

Blue at the Mizzen ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station.

The next novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of the author’s death, would have been the chronicle of that mission, and much else besides. The three chapters left on O’Brian’s desk at the time of his death are presented here both in printed version-including his corrections to the typescript-and a facsimile of his manuscript, which goes several pages beyond the end of the typescript to include a duel between Stephen Maturin and an impertinent officer who is courting his fiancée.

Of course we would rather have had the whole story; instead we have this proof that O’Brian’s powers of observation, his humour, and his understanding of his characters were undiminished to the end.

Master and Commander Books in Order: Summary

The Master and Commander books not only immerse readers in the thrilling world of naval warfare but also delve into the complexities of friendship, duty, and personal evolution. So, whether you’re returning to these beloved tales or a first-time adventurer ready to set sail, I hope this complete list of Master and Commander books in order proves to be helpful.

If you’re looking for more reading inspiration why not check out my other book lists and book reviews. I have book reviews listed by author and book reviews listed by genre. I also have author reading lists and series order lists to help inspire you.