Four star review, originally posted here on January 11, 2024.
First: Anyone who likes this book should also check out “Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival” by David Stark. Both are crazy stories about adventurers getting their asses kicked in the olden days.
Second: I did the audiobook. I’ve read mixed reviews from people who disliked the narrator, so let me offer this counterpoint for anyone considering the audiobook: The narrator is fantastic! Maybe every sentence wasn’t perfect, but he kept me much more engaged than most non-fiction audiobook narrators I’ve heard. I would describe his voice as “fast Barack Obama.” They both emphasize particularly absurd statements exactly the same way.
Third: Some of the one star reviews crack me up. “Too much history in this history book!” Dudes, come on. It’s a history book! Yeah, it’s the history of a crazy survival story, so it’s a bit less dry than other history books. But it’s still a dang history book. You’re going to learn all sorts of cool stuff about 18th century seamanship. If you don’t feel like learning stuff, and just want to read the narrative, then this is not the book for you.
Okay, finally, this book is great. It was tough to follow all of the characters because there were so many, but that’s just the nature of telling a story like this. There was a decent mix of storytelling and historical context, which I appreciate. Despite my above comments about the audiobook narrator being good, I still think this is another one I would have appreciated more in paper form. I found myself backing up a lot to catch things I’d missed, which is less than ideal for audiobooks. The actual murder, for example, I kinda missed because I was busy getting super lost during a trail run. It was several minutes before I realized “oh shit, that was the turning point of the whole story! I should have paid more attention! Why did he shoot that guy?!” So, basically, yet another book that MIGHT have gotten 5 stars from me if I’d picked a different format (doh!)
Helga without the H 