Rating: 
Summary: Good Popular History
Review: Bergreen draws on diaries and contemporary accounts of the sailors aboard for Magellan's voyage. He examines the tensions brewing between the Spanish and Portugese factions of the crew to great effect, providing the reader with a relatable human context to some otherwise puzzling and inhuman events. From Magellan's frustrating pleadings with Portugese and Spanish sovereigns to approve his voyage, to the discovery of the strait, right through Magellan's self destructive deluisions of grandeur, Bergreen provides a readable and compelling account of a frightening and historic voyage of discovery.
Rating: 
Summary: Frustratingly Uneven
Review: Despite its obvious merits as cited by other reviewers, I found this to be a frustratingly uneven book. Yes, it has the compelling flow of a good novel, yet that flow was too often broken by unexpected failures to properly explain or illustrate key points.I was frequently distracted by the lack of good maps to supplement Bergreen's prose accounts of the Armada's route. Most saliently, the author or his editors have chosen to not include a map of the Strait of Maglellan itself. Instead there are some admittedly fascinating depictions of portions of the Strait and a NASA photograph from space that I found utterly indecipherable. While Bergreen's long asides on peripheral topics often hit the mark -- such as his discussion of scurvy and its eventual decoding -- others, including some crucial to his account, fall substantially short. Despite the issue's importance, none of Bergreen's numerous attempts to explain the Pope's demarcation of Spanish and Portugese spheres of control (the Treaty of Tordesiillas) adequately clarify how it applied to the Spice Islands on the other side of the world and already explored by Portugal. Of course, this could possibly be the result of my own denseness; others may find his explication perfectly comprehensible. I did not. Also in this category of incomplete clarification is the author's mention of the International Date Line and the fact of its non-existence in Magellan's day. He references this drawback twice and both times he is satisfied with saying that the Dateline now extends westward from Guam. Of all the facets he could emphasize, this seems an odd choice given that the Dateline does (and must) run for the most part North-South. The location of the Date Line is in fact a highly complex subject (see http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/idl/idl.htm), yet no map that I'm aware of shows it running near Guam. Yes, as a U.S. possession, Guam maintains an idiosyncratic relationship to GMT. And, yes, Guam was Magellan's first landing after crossing the Pacific. But Bergreen should have provided greater context for his remark. These and other examples of what I deem to be distracting lapses often brought me up short. But the book is obviously the product of prodigious research (in, for the most part, attractive places to do such research), and the faults I cite may not seem so for many readers. The power of the story and Bergreen's skill in telling it will carry most readers through to the end, just as it did for this reader. But ... it definitely needs more maps.
Rating: 
Summary: Page-turning history
Review: Does a history book have this much right to be a fun page-turner? Yes, and Laurence Bergreen exceeds to great story telling, marvelous adventure, creating a just plain enjoyable read. Taken either as history or read like a novel this is an amazingly detailed telling of three year voyage which ended in 1522 with only one ship and 18 survivors out of the original five ships and 260 who left Spain with this Portuguese Captain. Even the early chapters, which tell how a Portuguese ends up leading the Spanish fleet, is a marvelous story. But in the end, what stays with you is the shear terror, boredom, disease, and strange island customs all left for us to enjoy because of basically one man, Antonio Pigafetta who was taken on to chronicle the voyage and some how managed to survive mutiny, the voyage through the strait, the native peoples defense of their territories (which resulted in the death of Magellan himself), and in the end being cast aside for a more "official version". Bergreen could not have told his story without Pigafetta and Pigafetta could not have found a better writer to bring his story to a modern audience. I highly recommend this great read!
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: Extraordinary! A great read. It has found a special place in my 'special' books place on the bookshelf!
Rating:
Summary: Good account of an amazing voyage
Review: Ferdinand Magellan left Spain in 1519 with five ships and 260 men. Three years later a single ship, the "Victoria," limped back with only 21 aboard, Magellan not among them. This ship and its starving crew were the first to go around the world. The cloves carried in Victoria's hold were enough to ensure a profit for the whole voyage despite the loss of four ships and more than 200 men.
This is a competent book about Magellan's voyage of discovery. It lacks the enthusiastic brilliance and the love of ships and the sea of Samuel Eliot Morison ("The Southern Voyages") but makes up for that with its thoroughness about Magellan and the voyage. One does not shed any tears for the fate of Magellan and his men. The best parts of the book are about the people the Spanish and Portuguese explorers encountered in South America and the East Indies who seemed far more civilized than did the Europeans.
However, publishers issuing books without adequate maps should be tarred and feathered. There is not even a map of the Straits of Magellan, named in honor of the explorer who was the first European to traverse their treacherous waters. I would have liked to know more about how Magellan knew the Straits were down there. The author also takes some tiresome excursions into Shakespeare's "Tempest" and other topics when I would have preferred for him to stick to the subject of the voyage.
Quibbles aside this is a worthwhile book to read and probably is the best available on Ferdinand Magellan, his life and his extraordinary voyage of discovery.
Smallchief
Rating:
Summary: Intense and thrilling account
Review: Ferdinand Magellan was a disfavored member of the Portuguese nobility who accomplished the seemingly impossible: he defected to the foreign rival country of Spain, got backing from the Spanish ruler, assembled a fleet of five ships and 280 men which sailed around the world.
Along the way, the crew faced intense hardships and suffering, ranging from constant battles with the elements, near-starvation, deadly scurvy, mutinous elements, savage and hostile natives, and an opposing Portuguese navy that was hunting them down to imprison them all.
Bergreen does a terrific and comprehensive job of describing the complex interactions of personalities, politics, and terrain without halting the forward motion of the fascinating narrative. By drawing on historical documents, including a range of journals kept by the crew members, Bergreen is able to provide all the details one could ask for, and he frequently digresses from the adventure to give colorful background information, as when he describes the disease of scurvy, or the common misconceptions that sailors of the day held about the world beyond their borders.
Magellan himself is presented as a complex and conflicted character, whose cruelty towards his crew and some natives is not only described, but explained (if not forgiven).
This has all of the excitement and motion of a gripping novel; Bergreen has a gift for ferreting out the most interesting information to paint a graphic picture of the lives of the sailors at sea.
On the down side, I have to say that the final chapters in the book, which deal with the aftermath of the adventure, was a little too detailed for my tastes. I did want to know what happened, but I would have preferred broader strokes than the ones Bergreen chose. The most powerful, and long lasting images of the book deal with Magellan's final days; everything that follows is a denouement.
Even if you're not a history buff, I highly recommend this book. It is as thrilling as a novel, and will make you look at the lives of those who have come before us in a new way.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Human Epics
Review: Frankly, it would be hard not to write a good biography of famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The life of the daring captain is so full of absolutely stunning achievement and gripping narrative that an author would have to try very hard to make it boring. Over the Edge of the World is not an example of this purposeful detrimental effort. In his book, author Laurence Bergreen gives the reader an exciting but ultimately measured view of the legendary sea captain, who has forever earned his place in world history with his fantastic around the world voyage. The bravery and outright courage that Magellan displays is recounted with entertaining elan, while his many faults and horrific actions are also recorded in the book. Put together, Bergreen produces a rip roaring read that is also grounded enough in its history to give the reader a very good all around picture of the man and his era. The Age of Discovery was a time of epic voyages and travels, none so more stunning than that taken by Magellan in 1519. Bergreen spends a lot of time, but an appropriate amount on the numerous political machinations and impediments faced by Magellan. He was Portuguese, a marked enemy of the crown in Lisbon, and viewed with suspicion by the Spanish. This was an age when sea charts and maps were of the utmost secrecy, and many in the Spanish colonial system were loathe to allow Magellan any access to them or Spanish ships. The explorer managed to move past these blockages and took command of his "armada", as it were. The path to disastrous failure was pre set by the placement of various other Spanish imperial puppets on the ships of the Armada, as well as the fact that most of the crewman were willing to follow the Spanish ship captains. Complicating matters even more was the power of the Spanish colonial system, which refused to give Magellan a fair shot at his own success. The trip was worth it however, as Magellan sought a passage to the fabled Spice Islands, a land of untold riches. He set off, a man obsessed with finding the massive wealth these lands represented. Bergreen, in one of the best parts of the books, tells us how little Europeans knew of the outside world. It was almost comical the limited amount of knowledge that even well traveled Europeans possessed; what they did know was farcical and the stuff of legends. It was into this world of dangerous fable that Magellan sailed, with rudimentary maps and instruments. Magellan planned to take his crews to a world never really seen by Europeans, on a route never attempted. The fleet crept on, barely avoiding starvation and other sea maladies. Scurvy, rotting food, and rampant vermin all faced the tiny armada. Once Magellan reached the shores of South America, he faced a new problem, mutiny. The Spanish captains had unleashed a conspiracy, planning to take over the leadership of the command. All seemed lost for the Portugese sea captain, but with a skill and determination to be seen all throughout the journey, Magellan ruthlessly took back his command. Those responsible were punished in particularly brutal ways. Using the navigation knowledge that he had obtained, along with that of his pilots, Magellan made it through the Cape of Good Hope into the vast Pacific Ocean. Where they would end up know was anyones guess. Having no realistic idea of how large the Pacific was, the armada barely made it to the various Pacific islands, such as Guam and the Phillippines. Once supplied, Magellan began to change the purpose of the trip. What had begun as a journey of profit soon became one of politics and colonization. With a strange Christian furor, Magellan began mass conversions, seeing himself as a great envoy of the Catholic faith. This kind of involvement with the locals brought Magellan and his ships into inner political squabbles, a dangerous position. The crew chafed at the length of their journey and the battles they were forced to fight. Magellan, in an instance of classic arrogance and fury, led a massively outnumbered force into an almost suicidal battle. He and his force were absolutely slaughtered. It was the death of the captain, but the ships still have to make it back. This journey of hardship was almost worse than the others, and only 18 men made the return trip to Spain. Bergreen's retelling of the amazing journey around the world is both measured and fair. We learn of the destruction that Magellan wrought on the native Islanders of the Pacific, but at the same time, we can have nothing but admiration of the courageous nature of the man. We recoil at the methods he used in order to ensure his control over the fleet, but we are forced to admire his dogged determination in the face of unbelievable odds. At the end, he made the mistake of letting his own emotions take over his purpose, making him reckless and vulnerable. Bergreen falters at a few points, his book is woefully short of maps and his narrative sometimes seems directionless. All in all, however, this is a superb recounting of one of the truly great human stories.
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling, harrowing story
Review: From the first page of the prologue, we know we are in good hands. Bergreen writes powerful, lively prose, and he has one of the world's great stories to tell.
Rating:
Summary: True to life sea adventure
Review: Historical achievement is, of course, about people. So no matter when it occurs, achievement is driven by technology, greed, politics, ambition, mistakes, courage, religion, culture, sexuality, and even diet. Good History is as much as about explaining the context of achievement, as it is about detailing facts. This is good History -- and it's a great read. For most of us, the facts about Magellan have been boiled down to Spanish galleons, funny helmets, and the first circumnavigation of the globe. Bergreen recovers the context to tell a story of a religious man, driven by vision, ambition, and personal slight. Along the way he explains the strategic urgency of Magellan's quest and details the logistics of undertaking the voyage. He helps us understand why cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg were matters of national security to sixteenth century Europeans. Bergreen leaves us with no doubt that Magellan was courageous. His Magellan is not evil, though the evils of the Age of Exploration are already evident in him and his men. As in other tellings, Magellan's death on the beach at Cebu is an obvious metaphor for the collision of East and West, but Bergreen leaves it to others to belabor the notion. He's much more interested in describing the local politics that set the scene for the tragedy. With such rich detail and engaging writing, the story of Magellan comes to life as a vivid adventure and an enlightening history.
Rating:
Summary: Great facts but overly glossy and speculative
Review: I did enjoy this book and was glad to learn the facts of Magellan's voyage. Perhaps the author suffers from a lack of historical information but I found that there was a lot of speculation on his part as to what was going on day to day. Many times he imparts what the crew was feeling where I don't imagine he had the foggiest as to their true motivations. This is in juxtapostion to the Nicholas Thomas book on Cook
"Cook: The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook", which is much more professionally written. Thomas will talk about the motivation of the crew when he in fact has a source for it. If he does speculate, he says so. There were also some factual inconsistencies. For instance, whether Magellan's allies cut the anchor line of the mutineers ship in the Port of St. Julian. Initially he says they did, but later he refers to them dragging their anchor. As another reviewer said, it's hard not to make this story compelling however. It's worth the read.
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