Good story

Grim true story. All news to me, enjoyed it. Surprised by the ending. A Good read.

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Brilliant !!!! A must read.

Rarely have I experienced a fabulous story quite brilliantly narrated. The narrator brings this fascinating research to real life, living every moment throughout. For me, this is the best of the best.

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Good read (listen) but could be better

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was an enjoyable listen overall, and I don't regret having purchased this audiobook. It's a great story which is worth getting to know

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The best aspect is the historical nature of the story - it transports you back to a time of exploration when life was a lot harder and there were new lands to be discovered but it's also very gritty. The style of retelling a historical even as a novel is always (well maybe not always, but mostly) enjoyable. The least interesting is that it doesn't go quite far enough in the novel-isation of the story - it's a bit of a half-way house, not quite history, not quite story.

What three words best describe Richard Aspel’s performance?

OK,

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Yes

Any additional comments?

The insistence of throwing in Dutch words when not necessary is a little annoying - it doesn't really add anything.

Overall a great story but the retelling (both by the author and reader) are good but not great.

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2 people found this helpful

Fantastic listen

One of the best creative non-fiction stories I've listened to on Audible. The writing could be a little better, but the story becomes so utterly compelling, that any criticism I have would ultimately feel unfair as I am very grateful and thankful to the author for bringing to life these incredible and haunting historical events. I found it a little slow until the shipwreck, but it turned out all the context given in those early chapters was absolutely necessary to understand the context of what happened next. Imagine 350 people marooned in the early 1600's on a reef off an unexplored Western Australia, with no water, natural shelter or expectation that anyone would ever know that they were there. With very limited supplies recovered from the wreck and only a small yawl not designed for ocean going conditions that was able only to hold a seventh of their number, they were some 2000 km from the nearest friendly port which lay due north across treacherous seas. If things weren't bad enough, one of their leaders turned out to be a hedonistic and heretical psychopath. What happened in the ensuing months will shock you to your core, the story is absolutely gripping and takes many unexpected turns. I was completely enthralled. I finished the book last week and still feel deeply moved and affected by what happened all those years ago, I've just learned they are still turning up secrets that have lay hidden in the coral sands of that remote archipelago for some four hundred years. If this story was fiction, you probably wouldn't believe it.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (If you are beguiled by shipwreck stories as I am, check out the audio book Endurance by Alfred Lansing, narrated by the incredible Simon Prebble).

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Great concept not a great delivery

The history of this wreck is so very interesting. I would live to see it in a tv series. The narrator does a good job of this book, but it is a slow start.

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History with a bit of fictional flavour

A dramatised retelling of the harrowing story of the Batavia. I felt his additional parts to help flesh out the story were mostly welcome additions, and helped add some depth to people we knew very little about like Cornelis the Fat Trumpeter.

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Painful

Having listened to the 'Bounty' I came into book with not only high hopes, but also I was excited!
What a stupid mistake....
For some stupid, ridiculous reason there is translation plagued throughout this narration. Yes, when physically reading a book this would fine, as you can quickly disregard this when it appears over, and over and over again. Yet, with audiobooks, the listener is no so lucky. Get ready for translation after translation that quickly sails you further and further away from the story being narrated. You will get to point where you get basically upset every time you hear the irrelevant translation being shoved down your speaker/headphones. I listened to this in May and it's now November, yet I will not allow myself to go through that disgusting voyage of listening to this again in the current form.
This is such a shame as the story is okay, but it is painful to listen to. Whoever gave the narrator the order to include every single translation into this audiobook should be fired and never be allowed to work in such an industry again.
Redo this book, without the translations every 2 minutes that decimate the dialogue and this book could have potential. I could have narrated this and done a far better job.
If you want to waste your money and want your ears to bleed, then this is the book for you.

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2 people found this helpful

Pronunciation is below poor

I am dutch and was really looking forward listening to this book. The person who reads it pronounces dutch names places and other things below poor. I had to look up in the actual book what he was saying. Very annoying and ruins listening to it. There is this new phenomenon called Google, you can type in a word with pronounce behind it. Maybe use that and put in a bit of effort next time.

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3 people found this helpful

Ruined

Fantastic historical story, ruined by the author. The author tries to add drama through the characters dialogue, but ends up sounding fake and unbelievable. .

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1 person found this helpful

Great content ruined by the Narrator

I've been craving a historical narrative about the 17th century VOC. This book is perfect. However, the narrator absolutely butchers the Dutch pronunciations. The book is full of Dutch terms and even more Dutch names. You can tell the narrator did zero work to learn the Dutch pronunciations. At times he is clearly just making up sounds. He also screams directly into the mic whenever the captain speaks on the deck of the ship. I found myself constantly lurching towards the volume button when he started screaming, until i gave up listening all together. A real shame because it is an interesting story.

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