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Summary: An amazing, exciting and meticulously researched book.
Review: This book is a combination of exciting, fast-paced narrative and meticulous research that is hard to put down. Bergreen places the reader alongside Magellan as he seeks backing for his trip, and then on Magellan's flagship, the Trinidad, with the Captain General on his historic voyage. In the end, Magellan succeeded in changing mankind's fundamental understanding of the world, overcoming obstacles, adversaries and long-held views to do so.Particularly absorbing are the book's insights into the strengths and flaws of the players involved. Magellan was clearly a masterful navigator, a man with a vision and the single-minded ambition to pursue it. When the Portuguese refused to back his venture and made a point of disdaining him, Magellan turned to their rivals, the Spanish, who agreed to support him -- but also somewhat unsubtly undermined his authority on the voyage. (The mystery of Portugal's refusal is made clear late in the book; it is an incredible piece of irony that resonates with current events.) As the voyage proceeds, facing hostile natural conditions, resentment among a crew with divided loyalties, and the unknown, Magellan emerges as a complex personality, a man with a sure hand in some matters but blind spots that prove increasingly costly. The objective of the mission was ostensibly to bring home (to Spain) spices and, more specifically, cloves. Men died, nations clashed, ships were lost, and mankind's knowledge of the world was expanded to this end. And, ultimately, when the survivors of Magellan's fleet returned to port, their reception was a mix of skepticism, hostility, and amazement, filtered through a political lens of faltering monarchies and changing times. This is a well-told story that is fraught with current relevance.
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Summary: Average account.
Review: 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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Summary: One Word...Great!
Review: This book was one of the best books that I've read. Enough said!
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Summary: Absolutely gripping
Review: This book, without a doubt, hooks the reader and will not let go until the last page is read, and even then there is a timeless afterglow.
After reading many books on the early American West, I decided to veer 300 plus years from this time period and set sail with Ferdinand Magellan in the first navigational journey around the world. A spellbinding read of adventure and exploration! Lawrence Bergreen's writing caliber and the manner in which he incorporates that with the vast amount of research he carried out, is of a magnitude that few authors approach.
After several setbacks in Portugal for funding, Magellan convinces Spain into financing and supporting a westward ocean expedition in 1519 to locate the mythical Strait (now named after him) to the Spice Islands. Spices played a monumental role in 16th century Europe which resulted in animosities amongst neighboring countries.
Starting with five ships and 260 men, the journey is a three-year, 60,000 mile nonstop undertaking of mishaps, miscalculations, misjudgements and poor luck from Spain to South America, through the Strait of Magellan at Cape Horn, across the Pacific to the Philippines, around the Cape of Good Hope and back to Spain. This book has something for everyone: hellish storms at sea, mutinies, scurvy, torture, lack of food and drinking water, cultures and customs of indigenous peoples met along the way (some of which may be considered x-rated), shipworms decimating vessels, living conditions aboard ship, etc. are just a few of the many misfortunes these men confronted. During the entire course of this book the reader develops a close identity with the individual characters.
Although Magellan does die en route to the Spice Islands and only one ship and eighteen men make it back to Spain, Bergreen brings to light the political injustices incurred upon the wrong members who did support Magellan, while at the same time the perpetrators of a major mutiny were granted valor.
An outstanding and captivating book.
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Summary: For a few cloves more - Gripping real life thriller
Review: This is a fascinating and gripping book which will please everybody from historians to those who love to read about how new and fascinating our world once was. The mutinies, the ruthlessness, the encounters with different cultures from sophisticated to barbarian, the horror, the courage, the tragedy and the harsh realities of how hard and unfair life can be are all in this book which depicts what undoubtly was one of the greatest feats of mankind. It now looks so simple but it wasn't. Excellent book! Just one gripe: It should have one or two more good maps so that we can follow the trip in more detail, particularly in the island maze that are the Spie Islands. Go and get it! makes fiction look tame...
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Summary: One Darned Thing after Another
Review: This is a peach of a book. You get everything from tropical orgies to death by scurvy, a long series of adventures and misadventures, and above all a vivid sense of the mysteries and the terrors that confronted the rugged souls who ventured into the unknown in the Age of Discovery. Magellan was quite a force of nature. His courage and navigational skills were second to none, and his religious faith was immense. He is not a pleasing fellow, however, and we get him warts and all. He seems to lack any diplomatic aptitude. At first we may just figure he's been dealt a bad hand in terms of jealousies and plotting by his men. He barely forestalls a mutiny, and subsequently some of his dissenters take one boat back to Spain. But he undeniably lets his arrogance get the best of him in the Philippines, where his needless involvement in a native dispute leads to a pathetic death, clad in armor stumbling around in waters too shallow for his gun-toting fleet to provide any help. Two things strike me about this book. One is simply the stunning variety of events, the newness of so many things that Magellan and his men encounter, from the unexpected stark blank enormity of the Pacific to the native cultures of the Asian islands. The other is that this book succeeds despite the utter ambiguity of everything in it. Magellan is half hero, half lunatic. His crew is a motley one for sure. There is a perpetual uncertainty as to whether to approach the indigenous Pacific people with Mars or Venus, cannon-fire or love. Your impulse is to think that they're being stupid much of the time, but then you feel some sympathy for these medieval men struggling with life-and-death decisions so far from home. Their leader dead, their cargo loaded, the two remaining boats finally set out from the Spice Islands for home-but one needs immediate, major repair. It stays back. It eventually heads northeast toward Central America. It returns to the islands, never to set sail again. So much failure in a book about one of mankind's epic achievements! Even the finale is contrary: the ship of frustrated mutineers that returned to Spain ahead of time wins the PR battle for a generation or more until the British rediscover Magellan's honor. To top it all off, the cloves which were the whole point for Magellan's efforts were popular in Europe for a variety of mostly rather silly purposes. This last ambivalence requires a modern viewpoint, of course, but trust me, this saga is a very mixed bag! And yet the story is fascinating nonetheless. I second another reviewer's disappointment that there aren't more maps. This book is deeply about geography, after all! I followed Magellan down the Argentine coast with my own atlas and discovered him reaching one pair of landmarks in reverse order: on my map Bahia Blanca (p. 128) is north of San Matias Gulf (p. 124). Oh well. Still a wonderful book.
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Summary: Not an Advertisement for a Cruise Line!!
Review: When I was in Junior High School, my History teacher told us that Magellan took some ships from Spain, found the straits that now bear his name and then was eaten by cannibals in the Philippines. That pretty much summed up my entire exposure to Magellan's journey until I read this fanatastic book. Begreen tells the tale in such a way that would put my Junior High School teacher to shame and I would say that this should be required reading in high schools throughout America. Not only does Bergreen write very well, but he puts the story of Magellan and his crew into the proper historical perspective by relaying what is going on in the world at the same time as this voyage. The disputes and distrust between the Spanish and the Portuguese, the influence of the Chinese and Arabs on Southeast Asia, the effects of the Inquisition on the crew, are all brought out to the forefront of this story and this allows the reader to fully understand who Magellan was, why he and the crew did the things they did and why the entire mission almost failed. At the same time, Bergreen totally immerses the reader into every detail of life at sea in the 16th Century. I doubt anyone alive today could stand what those sailors had to survive, trapped aboard those leaking, rotting wooden ship, without proper food, healthcare, or even fresh water. Anyone taking a Caribbean Cruise should read this book first to fully appreciate that life at sea is not one All-You-Can-Eat Buffet and shuffleboard. Make sure your kids eat their fruits and vegetables, as scurvy is not a problem you want to have in your family!!! I totally recommend this book. It's a quick, enjoyable read that puts the reader right onto the deck of a 16th Century caravel for one of the most courageous and daring voyages ever undertaken by man.
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Summary: Around The World In 3 Years And 60,000 Miles
Review: Why couldn't they have used books like this as history textbooks back when I was in high school? All I was taught back then was that Magellan's expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe (even though he himself died along the way); that the voyage took 3 years; and that although Magellan was from Portugal, he sailed for Spain. Here's some of the good stuff they left out (but which Mr. Bergreen includes): Magellan tried to get King Manuel of Portugal to finance the expedition. Magellan didn't have any luck. (Not surprising, since the explorer already had "a history" with the king, and the king didn't like him.) What could have been the last straw for Magellan was when, after an audience with the king, Magellan tried to kiss the king's hand (as was customary). The king withdrew his hand and wouldn't allow Magellan to kiss it. Magellan finally decided to give Manuel the kiss-off, went to Charles I of Spain, and had better luck. Charles was quite interested in the potential profits from the spice trade. (He was broke after borrowing a wad of money from the Fugger family. The reason he borrowed the money? He had to pay a lot of bribes to the electors who were going to decide who the next Holy Roman Emperor was going to be. Charles wanted the position even though, as Voltaire later said, the Holy Roman Empire wasn't holy, wasn't Roman, and wasn't an empire.) Manuel of Portugal was quite upset with Magellan for offering his services to Spain, especially because he brought secret Portuguese navigational charts with him (which Mr. Bergreen explains would be equivalent to the theft of nuclear secrets during the Cold War). Manuel sent an envoy to Spain to try and talk Magellan out of the trip. When that didn't work, the envoy bad-mouthed Magellan to Charles I. That didn't work either. After Magellan sailed, Manuel really got mad: he sent some thugs to harass Magellan's family and to vandalize the family home. For good measure, excrement was smeared on the Magellan escutcheon. Manuel also sent out his own expedition to try to catch up with, and stop, Magellan. I guess you could say the king was a sore loser. Anyway, this all takes place in the beginning of the story. Things get better after that. (For example, we learn that Charles I's mother was called Juana the Mad. One reason for this just could have been that for several years Juana kept the remains of her late husband, Philip the Handsome, next to her bed. She expected him to come back to life and wanted him in a convenient spot. After Philip's death Juana also insisted on only dressing in black and she refused to bathe.) The book is chock full of 16th century realpolitik, mutinies, torture, natural history, as well as information on spices and the erotic practices of various Pacific Islanders. We also get to read some interesting material about the 15th century Chinese Treasure Fleets. Mr. Bergreen is obviously a big Magellan fan, but he doesn't put the great navigator's faults below deck - Magellan could be overly strict, arrogant, and close-minded. As the voyage went on and he finally made it to the Pacific he seemed to forget that his primary mission was to find the Spice Islands and he got sidetracked into converting islanders to Christianity. If any groups resisted, Magellan would resort to hardball - in one case, burning down a village. His "bull in a china shop" tactics resulted in his death. Still, the author leaves you with no doubt that, on balance, Magellan was admirable. The book is incredibly far-ranging in scope and I've only skimmed the surface concerning what is between the covers - and we're supposed to keep these reviews relatively brief. In conclusion though, let me say if I were doing the advertising for the book I'd write, "If you read only one book about an explorer this year...make it this one!"
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Summary: When the World was a Much BIgger Place
Review: With all the adrenaline packed adventure stories out there, its refreshing to read one that combines, history, science (crude science!), and politics with a great adventure story. SO while Magellan's epic voyage around the world and the dangers he encounters and brings upon himself will keep you on the edge of your seat, you'll also learn plenty about history, the tone of the times, and what those who lived during the 1500's knew of the world they lived in.
THe author is a fantastic biographer, writer, and historian. THis ensures an accurate, fair and non-hero worshipping portrait of Magellan and those who accompanied him on his historic voyage, one which had epic repurcussions on the commerce and politics of the times. I put this book near the top of all of the 100's of adventure/travel/history books that I have read. Its also worth noting that the author was kind enough to respond to my e-mail praising his book.
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Summary: It is terrific
Review: You might not have thought about Magellan much (...) but this is a great adventure story.
Some of the grand subjects for biographers weren't always the nicest human beings. This fact is part of the tension in "Over the Edge." Bergreen can't decide whether Magellan should be more scorned for his ill treatment of the crew or admired for the greatness of his navigation and ballsy achievement.
The book reads more like a contemporary magazine story than your standard turgid historical work, as if Bergreen was writing about something 30 years ago instead of hundreds of years ago. It feels fresh. And it's got enough plot elements to keep anyone happy, even if you have no interest in navigation or exploration -- political intrigue,(...), travelogue.
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