Once I picked up this book I could not put it down. I started it one evening and I got half way through the book and I only put it down then because I could not keep my eyes open any longer. I went to bed scared! I finished it the next morning because I had to know what happens. I thought Syd's inner conversations were very real and reminded me of what it was like to be a teen again!
This is a thoroughly entertaining popular history of 16-17th century English Pirate/Privateer John Ward who deserted the English navy and defected to the Ottoman empire. There he was responsible for modernizing Ottoman privateering including the use of North Atlantic ships and mixed-ethnicity/religion crews and captains. He was such a menace to Venetian shipping that his massive attempts to buy his way back to England were thwarted by the Venetian ambassador's manipulation of James I's Christian unification agenda. At the end of his life John Ward converted to Islam and remained in Ottoman North Africa. Dr. Bak's book goes on to examine how the myth of John Ward was used in English… Read more
