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Caribbee (1985)

by Thomas Hoover(Favorite Author)

3.43 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0011087676 (ISBN13: 2940011087677)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Smashwords, Inc.

review 1: I read another book by Thomas Hoover several months ago, set in India, and quite enjoyed it. This one...a bit less. I was bored several times, and actually had to force myself to finish it. The majority of the story takes place on Barbados, and tracks the settlement of the island by the English up to the point the first slave ship arrives. Throughout the first 3/4 of the book, the main character talks about and thinks about taking over Jamaica. The last few pages of the story are set on Jamaica. So there is a constant build up to not a lot of story. It felt unbalanced somehow. With the genre "historical fiction" there is almost always some romance element, which is fine, and the same is true here. There are actually two romantic stories, and they are both just okay. The fi... morerst, between the two main characters is expected and predictable, and the second is less explored, therefore less interesting. Overall, this is a good story for people who are interested in historical fiction, particularly the period of English empire-building. It doesn't require much thought and probably won't stick with you for too long.
review 2: A true swashbuckling story derived from the true history of Hispaniola, Jamaica, Tortuga, basically all the Caribbean Islands of legend and the men & women of the 1600's to the 1700's in Charles II & Cromwell's rule of England. Before slavery had taken hold in the Americas, instigated by the Puritans & Roundheads of the time, while chastising the Roman Catholics for their Church policies, were in a lot of instances worse than the people they were at war with, which is so often the case.This is a wonderful book giving a true colorful description of the times, morals, habits and accurate picture of life in their non air conditioned, sweaty, often filthy, disease ridden society, where the people the upper levels scorned were often a step a head of the 'superior' ones who had enslaved them. The corruption, greed, desperation go beyond belief in this fascinating look into the reality of the famous Spanish Main. Some spelling errors are the only errors that I found marring this piece, so I give it a 4.9 on the 5.0 scale of excellence. Don't miss this one as I couldn't put it down once I started it. less

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