Mutiny's Curse

by Dan L. Thrapp

"History records that on April 28, 1789 Fletcher Christian led a mutiny of the crew of the HMS Bounty . Captain William Bligh and eighteen other men were put aboard a 23 foot launch south of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589199499
• ISBN13: 9781589199491
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Honor Books
• Length: 509 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Late 18th & Early 19th-Century South American History

You should read this book. It really is a great read. I gave it 4 Stars because I'm giving it +5 Stars for covering the history of the Wars of Independence of the southern half of South America with incredible depth and color, and a -1 Star for the plausibility of using the Fletcher Christian character to achieve this plot. Add them together to get 4 Stars. I found myself Googling the various characters names - and they almost all turn out to be real people, who really did the things claimed in this novel. In that sense, having never heard the story of the Independence from Spanish Rule from the southern realms of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay, this novel proved a useful vehicle. The fact that the author was the expert in North American Indian-Army wars, and a mule-skinner in South America, etc, is not lost on this reader - his meticulous detail also demonstrates his intimate knowledge of South American Indians and their history with the Spanish. I felt like I was there. But I didn't find the novel plausible when it came to using Fletcher Christian as the thread. To me, he becomes what we call a "tall tale" and that detracts from the author's story...at least in my mind. If he had made up a name of a character, it would seem to work better. But having a real person, Fletcher Christian, do all that in one lifetime, seems beyond belief. My suggestions to the publisher - You have a great novel here. It would make a great movie! But in my opinion, it's not finished. It appears the author died and then the novel was finished by someone else. I think it still needs a little more work. Specifically: 1. Add a Spanish glossary to the beginning, where a reader can go to try to understand all the words the author uses, but does not explain for us English speakers 2. Add a map inside each cover, or where appropriate, with place names, to show the relation of the characters to space and time (I copied a map of the southern half of South America and used it as a bookmark) 3. Perhaps some footnotes in an epilogue showing how the author came to these conclusions of having Fletcher be in so many places - that might make the reading that much more enjoyable. 4. Reconsider the ending.

A Bounty masterpiece

Dan Thrapp is best known as a Southwestern historian and authority on the Army's campaigns against the Indian people of New Mexico and Arizona. (His 'Conquest of Apacheria' remains the standard book on the Apache Wars). 'Mutiny's Curse' is a 180-degree turn from this classic historian's work: a novel, to begin with, and -- of all things --a novel about the aftermath of the 1789 mutiny aboard H.M.S. Bounty. This, as every reader and movie-goer knows, was the incident that gave us Captain William Bligh and his nemesis, Fletcher Christian. Thrapp, during his service in WW2, visited the Isle of Man, Christian's birthplace, and became fascinated by the legends that Christian survived his self-imposed exile on Pitcairn's Island in the remote South Seas, and actually made his way back to England. Such legends were (and presumably still are) active among Manxmen Christian's descendents. Thrapp has Christian escape from Pitcairn's to the west coast of South America where, in his harrowing travels down the coast he becomes involved in the wars and battles of liberation from Spain, and eventually finds his way to London where, in a magnificent, gripping, scene he encounters the man who ruined his life -- Captain Bligh! Thrapp was a magnificent stylist, even in his historical books, and 'Mutiny's Curse' is a showcase for his great gift as story-teller. This splendid novel takes a rightful place beside Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall's 'Bounty Trilogy' -- and that is very high praise.