Title: Slow going
Product review: I have to admit that I abandoned the book halfway through. Although I was expecting a story about the hardships of settling in the penal colony of Australia, I reached the novel's midpoint and Morgan was still on the convict ship, sailing past the coast of Europe. I grew tired of reading about fouled bilge pumps, shipboard diseases, and the quarrels among the ship's officers.Richard Morgan was a cardboard cutout of a protagonist. His personality radically changed, according the situation at hand, from a quiet tavernkeeper's son to a rum-sotted grieving father to a wise leader of men. Morgan seemed to be no more than a vehicle for the author's detailed treatises on 18th century England and Australia and their history, public health issues, criminal justice system, and shipboard life.If you are a historical novel buff with a preference for the factual over the fictional, then perhaps this novel is for you. It did not appeal to me.
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