"Publishers Weekly" thinks readers may find this novel the best of the series, with Maturin's love letters "functioning as a chorus to the action." The naval actions along the Chilean coast earn Aubrey a "just reward". They noted also the introduction of "Horatio Hanson, bastard son of a nobleman, who comes on board as a midshipman, a dashing young foil for the ship's elders." The comparison to Jane Austen's writing is made again for this novel: "O'Brian has rightfully been compared to Jane Austen, but one wonders if even she would have done justice to "those extraordinary hollow dwellings, sometimes as beautiful as they were comfortless.""