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annek's review
1.0
Reader, I could not finish it.
I hadn't expected "Black Sam" to be terribly correct with the level of historic accuracy that we would find in, say a Davis Lyss novel, and was prepared to tolerably complacent when there were minor, infrequent faux pas. Unfortunately, this book was so riddled with implausible situations and erroneous historic ties that it only made my head ache with sadness and frustration. If only the story had been set in some fictional Lala land, I could understand that the daughter of the richest merchant in town would be allowed (socially and practically) to staff the shop, alone. In Lala, unlike early 18th century New England, a pair of gentleman courting a young lady could decide that they wanted to talk privately with each other, about her, and so send her to walk on anywhere, alone. I don't even want to get into the nautical errors. My brain begged me to stop.
Here's where I admit that the audio version of this book did it no favors. There are some wonderful and talented audio redaers out there and they can make even the most insensible plots enjoyable to hear. This book even had some of those readers. The production of this audio book undermined any talent brought to it. None of the readers kept the same pace; there were disparities in volume and even pronunciation, that my ears, too, begged me to stop.
I gave in and did not finish.
I hadn't expected "Black Sam" to be terribly correct with the level of historic accuracy that we would find in, say a Davis Lyss novel, and was prepared to tolerably complacent when there were minor, infrequent faux pas. Unfortunately, this book was so riddled with implausible situations and erroneous historic ties that it only made my head ache with sadness and frustration. If only the story had been set in some fictional Lala land, I could understand that the daughter of the richest merchant in town would be allowed (socially and practically) to staff the shop, alone. In Lala, unlike early 18th century New England, a pair of gentleman courting a young lady could decide that they wanted to talk privately with each other, about her, and so send her to walk on anywhere, alone. I don't even want to get into the nautical errors. My brain begged me to stop.
Here's where I admit that the audio version of this book did it no favors. There are some wonderful and talented audio redaers out there and they can make even the most insensible plots enjoyable to hear. This book even had some of those readers. The production of this audio book undermined any talent brought to it. None of the readers kept the same pace; there were disparities in volume and even pronunciation, that my ears, too, begged me to stop.
I gave in and did not finish.
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