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Summary: * A Compelling Ride Through Capt. Kidd's True Adventures *
Review: For centuries, pirates like Captain Kidd have been portrayed in 'fairytale' fashion on the big screen and in literature. Finally now someone has done enough extensive research to compile a more accurate portrayal of pirate history, life onboard ship, and the life of the great Captain William Kidd, who was not the man we knew from fiction. Disney movies and candy-coated stories are fine for kids, but "The Pirate Hunter" actually skips back in time to the gritty life that pirates lived in the late 1600s. Zacks doesn't hold back. America, and the rest of the world was a different place 300 years ago. Packed with enough facts and documented accounts to please any historian, blended seamlessly with segues, and flavored with dramatical asides, "The Pirate Hunter" is a truely entertaining read!
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Summary: Put wind in my sail...
Review: ...to learn more about pirates and the pirate lifestyle. Zacks' book is rich and real. You almost feel the salt water dripping from each page. It was a real keyhole into the 17th century world of the rugged life on the ocean. I never thought much about buccaneers or pirates before cracking open this yarn, but it was a real eye opener. What I especially liked was how Zacks turned the story on its (real life) head. Instead of a bad guy -- as history depicts him -- Kidd was a good guy chasing the bad guys. Can't wait to see the movie. (Hello Hollywood or A&E or The History Channel or TNT...are yuh listening?)
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Summary: Pirates, Certainly!
Review: Author Richard Zack's extensive research and vivid storytelling
unite to make "The Pirater Hunter" a must read for any history buff or pirate enthusiast. Each page is rife with intimate details of the famed, yet misunderstood life of Capt. William Kidd. Triumph, trial and dirty deeds done inexpensive abound in this thrilling book. Actual documents, quotes and letters provide authenticity, depth and purpose. This book was a super good time. Enjoy!
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Summary: Pretty interesting
Review: if you like to learn about how people lived in other times. But, this is a history book. If you are looking for a swashbuckling adventure story then keep looking. One thing this will do is remind you how lucky we are to be alive today. Not that many British or French flotillas raiding our coasts these days.
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Summary: Good, but strangely written
Review: I enjoyed the story, and the book as a whole, but my concentration and enjoyment were disrupted time after time by several strange habits of the author. Every so often he slips in a really anachronistic term or usage, and his frequent use of italics is often startling, and sometimes unexplainable.And my continuing complaint - doesn't anybody *proofread* a book before it goes to print? The typos are really bothersome. Jim Beckman
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Summary: Detailed, fact-filled narrative of an interesting life & tim
Review: I enjoyed this book. If you like reading history told as a novel, where you kind of know the story but not really, this will grab you. I especially liked how the author realted details like what life was like in Manhattan in the 17th century, how pirates lived, what trials and imprisonment was like in England, even how you went to the bathroom on board a ship.
Two minor complaints: first, the author has an annoying tendency to italicize words seemingly at random and sometimes 2 or 3 times in a single sentence! Second, there is a bit of repetition; for example, every time someone goes to jail, they "rot" there.
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Summary: Simply Fantastic!
Review: A dashingly narrated life of Captain William Kidd, freeing him of his unwarranted reputation as a notorious pirate. Kidd was no pirate, historian Zacks (History Laid Bare, not reviewed, etc.) argues in this solidly documented historical thriller, but a New York sea captain with a house, wife, and child on Wall Street, and with a special commission from King William III and other notables to hunt pirates and divvy up the booty with his backers. This was an exceptional charge, since it allowed Kidd to circumvent the Admiralty court. But it was also a secret commission, and his actions won him few friends in the Royal Navy, which frowned on privateers of any stripe, or with the East India Company, which suffered as a result of his work. Recreating in great detail Kidd's months searching for bounty, yet doing so with a verve that keeps the story light on its feet, Zacks also sets straight the life of the pirates-violent and short, certainly, but far more democratic than that experienced by those on land. It was Kidd's ill luck to take a glorious treasure from a Moslem vessel, throwing the East India Company's best-laid plans in India into a precarious position. The captain was left out on a limb, and his backers quickly disavowed any knowledge of his commission, for treason was the charge here. Zacks reveals the double-cross through a paper trail of logbooks, diaries, letters, and transcripts of the trial that sent Kidd to the gallows while his erstwhile pirate nemesis, Robert Culliford, walked free from Newgate Prison. In addition, Zacks paints a real-life picture of the pirates' port of choice in the 1690s-New York City-its customs, the fluid politics that pertained to maritime affairs, and even what it was like to attend a hanging. Exciting, well told, and befitting the wild life of a pirate-even if Kidd wasn't one.
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Summary: The "Hunter" Becomes the Hunted
Review: Richard Zacks's "The Pirate Hunter" is a lively adventure tale with the kind of twists and turns that prove the old adage that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. Along the way, he sets the record straight and rehabilitates the reputation of Captain William Kidd, the late 17th Century privateer and gentlemen who set out to hunt pirates with noble backing and ended up branded as one. Kidd is a tragic hero of the first order. Honorable (at least, by the standards of the time), resolute and with an unshakeable faith in his own abilities, he was laid low by an incredible run of double crosses and sheer bad luck. Particularly touching were his devotion to his wife and his strong sense of duty, neither of which were ultimately enough to save him. The book's other main character is the despicable Robert Culliford, an actual pirate who betrayed Kidd twice and whose fate was tied closely to the Captain. Culliford's villany stands in sharp contrast to Kidd, giving the story a strong counterpoint. Along the way Zacks, who demonstrates himself to be a meticulous researcher, paints a vivid portrait of the lives of sailors and pirates during the period. Zacks's authentic descriptions of what it was like to be a real life pirate bears little resemblence to the modern literary and cinematic stereotypes. His prose is vivid and highly readable, and the book feels more like a novel than a work of history as a result. My only quibble is the Zacks occasionally gets a little TOO bogged down in the details, as evidenced by the narrative's 400 plus pages.
Nevertheless, overall "The Pirate Hunter" is an excellent read for those who enjoy nautical history tales.
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Summary: Fantastic.
Review: Lots of incidental history of early New York. The most cleary documented pirate book I've ever read, Zack long exposure to primary source materials allows hime to bring a great deal of specific personal character to even incidental and anonymous persons who cross the track of Kidd or others in the book...
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Summary: Two sides to every story
Review: I truly enjoy any book that looks at the other side of the coin. This one was no exception. As bonus, there is an insightful look into early 18th century English "justice". No wonder our Constitution was written with a Bill of Rights.
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