Paul Kennedy writing in "The New York Times" says O'Brian's tales differ from others: "But these naval tales are blended into a larger panorama of Georgian society and politics, science, medicine, botany and the whole conspectus of contemporary Enlightenment knowledge about the natural world." A key to the success of the novel is "his invention of dual heroes, the bluff and ultracompetent Aubrey being always accompanied by his eccentric ship's surgeon, Stephen Maturin". As this story brings the series to the final end of the Napoleonic wars, Kennedy asks, will this be the last novel? He thinks the closing, when the Admiral bids Aubrey to go to Chile, suggests there is more to come, as the real life of Thomas Cochrane, a sometime model for Aubrey, finds Cochrane in Chile in 1814.