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A review by mafiabadgers
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
adventurous
fast-paced
2.0
First read 06-07/2024
Classic pirate adventure novel, written in 1922 and set in the late 1680s. There is therefore a good deal of racism and sexism. Otherwise good fun, though tending towards ship battles and town raids rather than swashbuckling duels. Was adapted into a film of the same name, with Errol Flynn taking the role of Mr Peter Blood, a man of apparently limitless talents. Like Scaramouche, the romance was distinctly underwhelming, but it had a focus on inter-empire conflict, which sadly seems to fall out of style in later pirate stories. Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides has it beat for piratical shenanigans, I think, and as old adventure books go the earlier The Prisoner of Zenda is much more enjoyable.
Classic pirate adventure novel, written in 1922 and set in the late 1680s. There is therefore a good deal of racism and sexism. Otherwise good fun, though tending towards ship battles and town raids rather than swashbuckling duels. Was adapted into a film of the same name, with Errol Flynn taking the role of Mr Peter Blood, a man of apparently limitless talents. Like Scaramouche, the romance was distinctly underwhelming, but it had a focus on inter-empire conflict, which sadly seems to fall out of style in later pirate stories. Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides has it beat for piratical shenanigans, I think, and as old adventure books go the earlier The Prisoner of Zenda is much more enjoyable.