Gregory N. Flemming

I really wanted to like this - I read Ashton's Memorial shortly before this book came out and found it fascinating - but unfortunately this book has a major lack of focus that made it very difficult to get through, even though the main text clocks in at less than 200 pages. Flemming offers a lot of auxiliary stories to shed more light on the main narrative (which makes sense, given how little direct evidence there is about the actions of any one pirate in history), but he tells them all with exactly the same style and emphasis. But he also tells stories of other ships and crews who later come into contact with the main narrative, again in the same style and with the same emphasis - which means it's impossible to tell why any given story is relevant, if you'll have to remember any of this later, or what the actual point of the book is. I found it more confusing than enlightening, and I've read quite a bit on the history of the Golden Age of Piracy; someone picking this up without as much background is likely to be even more confused.… (plus d'informations)

Very interesting book. A hybrid between a scholarly work on pirates, the life and times of Phlip Ashton - a colonial sailor, and how his tales came down to us 300 years later. It seems at times to take off in the narrative as an adventure novel as the story of Ashton that is the core of the work is quite exciting all by itself, and then at other times the work bogs down into scholarly digressions. There were many subtrips into what the various pirates that impacted Ashton's time with the pirates were doing at various times. A bit of digression in that area would have been interesting - but there were a few more digressions than were needed for an adventure story and weren't quite enough for a scholarly work.
All in all - if you are interested in pirates and about what life might have been like for a sailor who was captured by pirates and impressed into service - then this is a good book for you.… (plus d'informations)

I signed up to receive this book because it's a book about pirates, real pirates. The book was about pirates - but so much more. The author doesn't just relay Ashton's story, but includes the story of those Ashton interacted with - famous pirates, English Naval captains, preachers and other - each bound by the central thread of Ashton's life. Flemming also takes time to explain simple sailing words and techniques from the time period, cultural and political history, geography of islands and the types of ships. In all, this work is about not just pirates, but the world during the early 1700s, the world pirates live during. I highly recommend. This is a must have for anyone who enjoys the history of sailing, piracy and the sea.

I received this book free through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program in exchange for my far and honest opinion… (plus d'informations)