Couldn't put it down!
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Extraordinary! A great read. It has found a special place in my 'special' books place on the bookshelf!
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very entertaining
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At one point in Laurence Bergreen's narrative he points out that the maps Magellan's armada relied on had long since become useless. This pretty much sums up the courage, adventure, and excitement encountered in this beautifully written book. Magellan pitched his idea to seek a water route to the spice islands by sailing west until he reached the east to two kings. After his own sovereign, the king of Portugal, refused him, Magellan boldy defected and secured the support of the king of Spain. Bergreen does a great job of putting the voyage into historical context, without overindulging in tangential details. This is the rare history book which educates and entertains.
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An Incredible Journey and an Excellent Book!
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I rarely give books a 5 star rating, but this one certainly deserves it. The book gives full account of Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe, in all its horrifying and glorious details. While it is clear that the writer is a staunch Magellan admirer, he does not hesitate to criticize Magellan's style of leadership, the Captain's over-inflated ego or the needless risks he took (one of which ultimately resulted in his death). Reading this book, I found myself transported into 16th century Europe, an era full of intrigue, magic and of casual disregard for human life. The book was absolutely captivating and I was not able to put it down. From my perspective, the most interesting thing about the story is that while today Magellan is recognized as a hero and as one of the most important explorers of all time, in his day Magellan received no recognition and was the target of suspicion and hatred. For the most part, Bergreen's writing style is fluid and easy to read, however at times it is a bit too flowery for my taste. The book also suffers from a shortage of illustrations and maps which could have been instructive. For example, an illustration of Magellan's ships, the weapons and armor of the era and current pictures of some of the main locations involved, would all have been nice. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book for any fan of popular history books.
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Average account.
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This book is not as good as Tim Joyner's "Magellan". The latter contains detailed maps (that Bergreen's book lacks of) and more pictures. In addition, there is a whole section in "Magellan", devoted to history of early seafarers dated from 4000 BC and great description of historical events that led to Magellan's dramatic voyage (especially Portuguese fighting on Arabian Sea and in Malaysia).
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Plodding and conventional
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The fascinating story of Magellan is not told with much style, intuition, or technical knowledge here. The author is quick to invoke a 21st century tut-tut whenever Magellan is not sufficiently sensitive to the natives, which must make him feel good, but adds nothing to our understanding of the time. Lots of digressions into fairly uninteresting matters fill out the book, apparently to conceal a lack of specific information on many of the events of the voyage. No original thoughts, research, or insights. No feel for the seaman's life, such as we might get from Patrick O'Brian or someone else with a solid understanding of the subject matter.
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