To paraphrase Bart Simpson: Although I would not have thought it possible, this book both sucks and blows.

The book is a sketch of Capt. James Cook's first voyage around the world. The voyage itself is fascinating. Cook's primary mission was to find the mythic southern continent, Terra Australis Incognita. The British Admiralty assumed that this would prove threatening to the French, so they provided Cook with a cover: he was to observe the transit of Venus across the sun. The details of navigation and exploration are interesting.

Unfortunately, there are significant problems with the book. The first is the author's evident hero-worship. Cook never makes a mistake in this book, never has sex with the island women, never miscalculates a longitude, and is never a snob to lower-class seamen. The author takes this too far, and attributes feelings, reflections and reactions to Cook without providing evidence that Cook actual felt, reflected or reacted in that way. The author's obvious admiration for Cook and his unsupported assertions make me suspicious about how much is true, and how much is wishful thinking. In one case, the author asserts that Cook feels bad about ordering a flogging for one of his men, but then quotes a passage from Cook's journal that contradicts the assertion!

A further (but related) problem is the author's easy usage of common terms. For instance, he says at one point that the Maoris come to Cook's ship to trade potatoes for metal. I can only assume that he is referring to some sort of sweet potato or yam, since the root we normally call "potato" originated in South America. The author does in fact call these roots yams later in the book. This seems a minor point, but once I noticed it, I wondered what other details were incorrect or misleading. The author also extensively quotes from the journals of several people on the ship, but in places he does not make it clear which journal is being quoted.

This sloppiness grew extremely tiresome.

There are many other books about Cook and his voyages. I wish I had read one of the others.