The Ultimate Pirate Collection

Blackbeard, Francis Drake, Captain Kidd, Captain Morgan, Grace O'Malley, Black Bart, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Henry Every and Howell Davis

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

• Examines the lives, legends and legacies of 11 of history's most famous pirates, including Blackbeard, Francis Drake, Captain Kidd, Captain Morgan, Grace O'Malley, Black Bart, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Henry Every and Howell Davis.
• Explains how the myths and legends of pirates, like Blackbeard, created the instantly recognizable pirate stereotypes of today.
• Includes contemporary accounts of the pirates written by Captain Charles Johnson.

The people who have lived outside the boundaries of normal societies and refused to play by the rules have long fascinated the world, and nowhere is this more evident than the continuing interest in the pirates of centuries past. As the subjects of books, movies, and even theme park rides, people continue to let their imaginations go when it comes to pirates, with buried treasure, parrots, and walking the plank all ingrained in pop culture's perception of them.

While there is no question that the myths and legends surrounding history's most famous pirates are colorful, in some instances their actual lives made for even better stories. Before the golden age of piracy, men and women like Sir Francis Drake and Grace O'Malley straddled the line between pirate and privateer, with Drake being knighted for fighting the Spanish and O'Malley representing many things to the Irish, including queen, legend, pirate, and folk hero.

While Captain Morgan's ruthless piracy has actually been forgotten due to his association with the spiced rum company using his name, Captain William Kidd insisted he wasn't a pirate at all, and his entire reputation is based on the most notorious trial in the history of piracy.

"The golden age of piracy" generally refers to the era when history's most famous pirates roamed the seas of the West Indies from 1670-1720.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Great

There was so much information in this book that it was almost hard to keep track I’ve had to listen to a few chapters a couple times just to keep everything straight. I have never learned so much about payment before this highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fancy Paris and want to learn about the real thing everything that you ever want to know is in this volume and I will recommend it to my friend
I do feel however that the inclusion of the records and how they were actually really slows the story down and that will be my only critique

difficult to engage.

narrators goofy accents and off-putting pronunciation was incredibly distracting. content was not revealing and very base level.

the accents sometimes become very confusing

it was a good recounting, but sometimes when the reader would read historical documents he would adopt the accent and sex of the presumed authors, sometimes I could not understand what the hell he was saying. other than that it was great.

Overacted

The content of this book was really interesting. I listened to it on a road trip to North Carolina where part of the story took place. The narrator was irritating as heck. It got to the point where as soon as he started in with one of his accents, I would tune him out. It was really distracting.

my thirst for knowledge

I love the book my thirst for knowledge was sated could have used more voices though it's my only complaint

Adventure and tyranny

So often these days television, not books, are what stirs the imagination and paints pictures of history. Seldom, in my experience, has literature brought television to life the way this authors work and narrators performance did for me. I had already watched Black Sails, but Mr. Prices performance was just as entertaining if not more so.

Average non specific

Like most pirate books the information is very general non specific, the same old often repeted stuff. However there was some new information I haven't heard before on Calico Jack and Ann Bonnie, and Mary Read.

Great story but narrator strayed a bit

The info of this book is perfect for any pirate lover but the reader occasionally put on annoying, bad accents and mispronounced words.

very uninteresting

couldn't even start to like it, was not educational, books jumped all over the place. couldn't follow

Kind of a ripoff

What would have made The Ultimate Pirate Collection better?

A little more effort by the writers, less silliness from the narrator.

What could Charles River Editors have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Worked at it, instead of including ridiculously long block quotes to fill pages, and even reusing the EXACT SAME PASSAGES to described similar concepts, in different chapters.

Would you be willing to try another one of Rhett Samuel Price’s performances?

No. The cheesy accents whenever he quoted a British speaker were too much. It's not a children's story; you don't have to use different voices for all the characters.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Good stories, if the writers hadn't ruined them through sheer laziness.

Any additional comments?

The Charles River Editors threw this book together in a hurry to make a quick buck. It's riddled with the kind of lazy tricks I would use in high school to up the word count on my papers. I've gotten past that kind of behavior, and they should too.