The Official Blurb
The Sea Hawk is a novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1915. The story is set in the late 16th century, and concerns a Cornish sea-faring gentleman, Sir Oliver Tressilian, who is villainously betrayed by a jealous brother. After being forced to serve as a slave on a Spanish galley, Sir Oliver is liberated by Barbary pirates. He joins the pirates under the name “Sakr-el-Bahr”, the hawk of the sea, and swears vengeance against his brother.
My Review
Simply put, I enjoyed this. I downloaded it without reading the official blurb, expecting it to be a history of the British sailor known as "the Sea Hawk". Nope, I got that wrong.
What we have here is a story of the sea, betrayal and love. In the tradition of these older books we have the set up, the recovery, the chance for revenge, and the endgame. The story is not your hyper paced modern adventure but rather a steady series of events that explore the characters and their motivations.
I was enthralled by the story slipping an episode of this story between every other podcast I've been listening to, and was happily satisfied by the ending.
Well worth listening to. A little word of warning, there is a bit of noise on this recording, not hiss, more of a hum. It's not on all of the episodes and is easily ignored.
Reading 2/3
Production 1/3
Story 2/3
Total Score 5/9
This book is available from Librivox.
There is an Audio Promo for this book.
