Book Review - Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert Kurson

Pirates have always fascinated me, both the myths created by storytellers and movie makers and the reality that wasn't so violent or glamorous. So little of real pirates and what they did is known, that every new nugget of knowledge is an exciting find.

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert Kurson is a nonfiction account of an actual search and discovery of an obscure pirate and his ship that should be much more famous. It is available as an eBook, Audiobook, and those paper things your grandparents used to read.

The Good

John Banister. I had never heard of John Banister, but this book included so much of his story and character that I'm dying to see a movie about his life. He was a fascinating character, filled with brilliance and contradictions, and lived several exciting adventures that would be perfect for the silver screen.

Background on Treasure Hunting and Searches. The author did an excellent job spelling out the realities of treasure hunting, the lifestyle, the challenges, the sacrifices, and the rare payoffs. I've seen fictional portrayals of all this, but to find out what happens in real life to real people was very interesting.

The Bad

Not a Lot Happened. I enjoyed the story, but it would be hard to turn into a movie without a lot of creative license. While quite a bit happened, not at much as one would expect happened. And a lot of it wasn't unique to this particular incident, but sounded to so many other stories.

Weird "Learned from the Natives" Shoehorned in at the End. The author shoehorned in a single experience about natives using a rock and sticks to change his tire, then made it some major point of learning right at the end. It felt like pandering and trying to make the author sound enlightened and not like an experience he actually learned from. If he really was so impressed with the natives and their ingenuity, he needed to include a lot more examples thruout the book and not some quick, unnecessary side note near the end.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish there had been more to the story.

Overall

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert Kurson is a well written account of a handful of men and a pirate that should be a lot more famous than he is. The story of John Banister, the pirate, was fascinating and would make an incredible film. The story of the discovery of his ship not so much. I give this book 4 out of 5 eReaders.