Rate this book

A Kingdon Strange: The Breif And Trajic History Of The Lost Colony Of Roanoke (2000)

by James Horn(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

review 1: On my recent trip to North Carolina, I took a very short time to see Roanoke Island & the National Park there. It piqued my interest in the lost colony. I chose this book from the library because it had good reviews and was a small book. It is very well documented. Two things I fault the book on is that it spends a great deal of time on English events and that the reproductions of drawings and maps of the era are useless because of the size of the book. As to the former, is does give a concise history of England of that period. I just got tired of all the wars and political wrangling. That being said, I did enjoy reading the book. Though some reviewers say it doesn't give any additional light on what happened to the settlers of Roanoke, I knew almost nothing about the col... moreony; so it was informative to me. It is amazing that people were willing to undergo such a harrowing trip to an unknown spot and risk their life (and in the case of the settlers, that of their children). Another surprising thing to me was how the English and Spanish adventurers thought nothing of attacking each others ships and settlements and take bounty. Why worry about pirates when the nations' sea captains did the same thing. Though no one really knows what happened to the original settlers left to fend for themselves for over two years, I was glad to learn that there is some evidence that some of them survived and perhaps were integrated into the friendly native tribes. For a quick overview of the Roanoke colony, I recommend the book. Think now maybe I'll look for a novel concerning this early start of settlement of the continent.
review 2: This book was exceedingly thorough, to the point of sometimes feeling tangential. It was a bit annoying that the lost colony didn't really come into the story until almost 150 pages in - I almost lost interest. However, I feel that Horn absolutely did his research; all of the seemingly inconsequential information that he supplies us with eventually does come into play as support for his theories as to what happened to the colonists.For as thorough as this book was, it never got too dry. There were times when it started to head in that direction, but at the last minute, some really interesting information was revealed. I'd say that if you're struggling with this book early on, skip ahead to chapter 4, "A City on the Bay". That's really where the story of the lost colony starts, even though you won't meet the colonists for another 20 pages. less

Download links for: a kingdon strange: the breif and trajic history of the lost colony of roanoke

Advertising