Rating: 
Summary: Truth is as entertaining as fiction
Review: The story of the Bounty and it's many varied characters is a great tale which is, in fact, as entertaining as many stories fabricated out of thin air. I enjoyed the unfolding of this story as presented by the author. However, I did feel that this was super-saturated with data. My overall feeling was that she did a tremendous amount of research and wanted to make sure that all of her work was included. This story could have been much more concise in many places.
Rating: 
Summary: Well researched but lacking in enjoyment.
Review: This book was clearly well researched..It includes a plethora of information on the bounty and its sailors. However, the book can be extremely monotonous. The story also bounces around a lot making it hard to follow at times. If your looking for a narrative on the bounty this is not it, however if your a fan of the bounty story and its research interests you than this is the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: You could, I guess, call me a "Bounty Buff". I first read the Bounty story back in the 1950s when I was stationed in the West Indies with the US Navy. It might have been the Gable movie that was shown one evening at our base and at some point I found a copy of the Bounty Triliogy and read that.Since then I venture I've read most of the published books and
many magazine articles and have a half dozen books on the Bounty on my bookshelves. Before reading Caroline Alexander's recent work I thought I was pretty well informed on the subject.
Far from it... Ms. Alexander has dug up much I never knew about the subject and I'm in awe at the amount of research she put into this subject. In particular I found the thumbnail sketches of each person involved in almost any way with the Bounty; crew, admirals, captains of other vessels, the court martial lawyers, everyone who had some impact on the events has been researched. Reading through Ms. Alexander's Notes on Sources and Selected Bibliography leaves no question (in my mind at least) that there is nothing left to possibly learn about this historic Naval event. I highly recommend this to anyone with a real interest in the subject but a word of caution to those who have no more than a passing interest or curiousity... this is NOT an "easy" book to read. The author has chosen (correctly in my opinion) to quotue exactly as she found material and since the English in use back in the late 18th and early 19 century is somewhat "forign" to present day ears I found I had to read some parts over two and three times to make sense of what was being said. And, I'll admit, a quotue now and then never did make sense to me. I plan to read it all again in a few months and expect I might do better the second time. It isn't the words themselves that are strange but the way they were used in those times that can make it slow going in parts. Be warned that if you are not willing to put a little effort into it you might not enjoy this book. As for me... I loved it! In the modern Navy we have an expression "Bravo Zulu" meaning "well done" and to Ms. Alexander I raise the BZ flags.
Rating:
Summary: Well Researched, Not Quite as Well Written
Review: This is a history book. It's certainly not a novel, nor what I would consider a good read. Naval History is my passion and there were parts of this book I found fascinating. However, I found the narrative to be disjointed, and the book was monotonous to read at times. I would still recommend it, but it's definitely not in the "book you can't put down" class.
Rating:
Summary: Plodding and Boring
Review: I was so excited to buy this book and couldn't wait to read it.
Then, I was so disappointed.
Lots of research went into it, obviously, but it's not an interesting read somehow. Not because it's truthful without the myth and adventure, but because it's truthful and plodding. Not what it could've been. I was especially disappointed in the lack of a thorough update on the island and its people.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Historical Sea Story
Review: I have been facinated by the story of the mutiny on the Bounty since first encountering it as a teenager 30 years ago. It is a complex story with a great historical backdrop taking place during the age of discovery at a time when British sailing power was at its peak. This great book pulls together diverse historical threads and punctures myths through meticulous research and detailed reference to historical documents. But the author was also able to go further and analyze the context and pressure that the individual historical writers must have been under to shed light on their perspective as they were writing. Finally the author is able to lay it all into the historical context of the time. The interweaving of these three levels with clear and concise writing makes this a book for lovers of history, adventure, drama and the great age of British naval power. We fans of the Bounty story knew that Bligh could not have been the over-bearing tyrant history has made him out to be and this book puts that version to rest. The story of his seamanship surviving a 3,600 mile trip in an overloaded open launch after being set adrift by the mutineers, mapping the coastline as he went, creating charts that were used for centuries, could only have been achieved by a master seaman and a brilliant captain. The concept of Bligh the tyrant only becoming competent out of necessity as he stepped off Bounty into the launch never rang true. In fact, we are shown in detail that Bligh went on to a distiguished career as a naval officer retiring as a rear admiral and governor. But the families of Fletcher Christain and Midshipman Peter Heywood were well connected and campaigned vigorously and publicly over many years including after Bligh's death to discredit him, eventually twisting the story in their favor. In addition, the story unfolded during the dawn of the age of the individual with violent revolutions taking place across the channel in France and questioning of unqualified allegience to a central authority. Thus the romanticised story of Fletcher Christian seizing a ship from a tyrannical captain carried more popular sway than it would have in an earlier era when duty and honor were the highest ideals. Finally, the story of the encounter of conservative, pockmarked English sailors with the tall, clear skinned, charismatic and civilized Tahitians, with sexual favors traded for beads and nails, scandalzed and titilated 18th century England. That trained British officers and seaman would throw it all away for Tahitian wives and the island lifestyle captured the imagination of the popular reader at the time. The story of the transformation of Tahiti after the early contacts with the Bounty is a melancholy backdrop to the book. The fascinating account of the court martial, including the backgrounds of the personalities involved, is a great courtroom drama. The battle hardened Royal Navy captains who sat in judgement exonerated Bligh as his actions were fully consistent, and even lenient, when compared with the British naval practices of the time, and condemned most of the accused mutineers to death. Peter Haywood was found guilty but, due to the efforts of his highly placed defense attorney and strong family connections, was pardoned and went on to a distiguished naval career. He therefore survived to fan the sentiment against Bligh in defending his own reputation, though it seems clear that he had thrown his lot in with the mutineers in the passion of the moment, and lived tatooed and happy for over a year with his Tahitian wife before being repatriated. Read this book for its crystal clear window into history or read it for its fast paced drama. Either way it is hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: In search of an editor
Review: The amazing tale of this incredible piece of history still manges to survive...but just barely...some of the mangled writing of the author. One feels that one is often reading in some random order the scribbled file cards from her massive, but not coordinated research. Whoever was the editor for this muddle ought to be keel hauled!
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Tale
Review: Caroline Alexander does a marvelous job of making what could be a rather dull history of a long-ago mutiny into a fascinating tale that reads more like a Shakespearean tragedy. The characters come alive in that they are allowed to tell the story in their own words; through the journal entries, court records and witness statements, the tale of the HMS Bounty opens up to the reader in all its suspense and sorrow. Ms. Alexander's history reveals enough detail to educate the reader, but never falls into the realm of excruciating boredom that many such non-fictional accounts often do. Skillfully and artfully written, the book allows us to get to know and understand the officers and seamen on the ship as the story moves forward along its tragic course. From the original mission to gather breadfruit (another very interesting aspect of the story) to the perilous voyage of Lieutenant Bligh and his supporters after the mutiny, every aspect of the story is entertaining and informative. Ms. Alexander chooses to focus primarily, though, on the court-martial of those mutineers who were ultimately found, and this is where the full story is illuminated. Captain Bligh is revealed to be a duty-bound officer who cared about his mission and his men and Fletcher Christian is no longer the high-minded hero of legend, fiction and film. He is a fatally flawed man who is doomed by his own actions to be forever alienated from his fellow men, country, home and family. His is a fascinating character study, and I feel as though we will never be able to fully grasp either his motives or the source of his anger. But his actions had consequences far beyond what he probably ever imagined and he would never have dreamed that his story would still be told today, over 200 years later. An incredibly story, well-told. Difficult to put down or to stop thinking about.
Rating:
Summary: recapturing the past
Review: This is a book of first-rate scholarly credentials - reaching into the far corners of primary sources - that also reads beautifully. Alexander captures the complexity of the main players - Bligh, Christian and Heywood, et. al. - and the intrigue and patronage that shaped, indeed distorted, the course of the Bounty mutiny trial and the mythologising of the Bounty story which has continued for two centuries since. She effectively operates on multiple levels - sharply evoking personalities and Admiralty politics at one level, and also cleverly placing the Mutiny story in the context of the emerging Romanticism of late 18th/ early 19th century England. Alexander is certainly intent on correcting the anti-Bligh propaganda that, she believes, has distorted his place in history - but in an area of study often marred by resort to polemic, it's to her great credit that she always proceeds by close argument and scrutiny of the evidence.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, a must read!!!
Review: This is a wonderful book, and the writing is as beautiful as the cover. In some ways the book seeks to redress the actions of the Bounty's crew in casting Captian Bligh and his men into the ocean, thus the book castigates the mutineers far more then most other works on the Bounty. This wonderful book also tells the story of the ensuing trials and tribulations that beset all the key characters including Mr. Bligh and Mr. Christian. Included you will find excellent maps detailing Bligh's extraordinary journey home, a journey that proved him one of the worlds great navigators. Maps also show the subsequent search for the bounty and the mutineers journey to Pitcairn island, where they quickly created a new society with the natives. This is a must read for anyone interested in the South Seas, exploration or good drama, and would make a wonderful gift. For another riveting tale of the sea read 'Barrows Boys' by Fleming.
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