I was excited to read a book about Blackbeard, but this is not what I was expecting. While we do not know a lot about Blackbeard himself, aside from legend and the few references that we have - most is based on conjecture and theory.

I was a bit disappointed with this read. There is some great information there, but some of it is rather boring and it was slogging through, but there are areas of the book that just grab you and keep you engaged.

Toss up on this one - interesting many areas, but still dull in others.

The title is misleading if you don't sit and think about it for a minute. Given the fact that there is so little actual information known about the most notorious pirate who ever lived, it makes sense that the authors had to scour documents of the period for any information about him, seeing as how there's been nothing discovered in his own hand.

Even then, I was expecting more.

We learn far more about the "Golden Age of Piracy" and the other major and minor players than we do about Blackbeard. Anything that is verifiable is stuff we already know, there's no great cache of new information. The book, then, isn't really about him. It does nothing to penetrate the 300 years worth of legend and myth that has grown since his death. I wanted know to more about how his legend grew, how were the stories about him spread, and by whom, until he became this larger-than-life character that some people don't even know was a real person?

Pass.

Edward Teach aka 'Blackbeard' is probably one of the first pirates that people can name and his legend seems as strong as ever. Who was the real man? Was he a ruthless buccaneer or a master of propaganda? This book examines the evidence for the man behind the legend, & what led to his downfall & death.

Like most people I would imagine, I only knew of Blackbeard's name & next to nothing about the man himself. This book has been extensively researched, however, there is such a paucity of confirmed evidence about the man, that much of the book was taken up writing about other characters such as his fellow pirate captains, & the man who eventually orchestrated his capture & death. After reading this, I don't feel that I know much more about Blackbeard than before. I think this was heightened by writing the chapters in subjects rather than chronologically, which become confusing at times. It was an interesting read but Blackbeard only takes up half of the subject matter.

Thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Pen & Sword, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

“Criminals have come and gone over the centuries but Blackbeard’s legend and fame have managed to live on…”

BLACKBEARD
Thank you, NetGalley, Craig Cabell, Graham A. Thomas, Allan Richards and Pen & Sword Naval for the opportunity to read this book!

Blackbeard is about the hunt for the world’s most notorious pirate and is written by Craig Cabell, Graham A. Thomas, Allan Richards. If you have followed me for long, then you know I can’t pass up anything about pirates. Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard is one of the most legendary pirates of all. We know he existed but the concrete details about his life still remain a mystery. We know he was cunning and that he may have gone by several names such as Edward Teach, Blackbeard, Edward Thatch, Edward Tack, etc… It is said that Blackbeard began his career as a privateer before embarking on his journey as a pirate. One of his most famous moments includes the Blockade of Charles Town (which is speculated to happen because Blackbeard needed medicine for his crew). But the most famous part about him is probably his death.

Unfortunately, despite all the books written about Blackbeard–it is still mostly speculation. The most common resource these authors use is Captain Charles Johnson and he has his own mystery as well. Many have speculated that he could also be Daniel Defoe. The first part of this book is quite slow and I can’t tell you how many times “we will look at this in more detail later” is written in the beginning. I did like how they address the myths surrounding him. Most of the events of his life have been embellished and a lot of the resources we have are not reliable and have bias. But it is always a pleasure to see other characters like Calico Jack and Charles Vane make an appearance.

I did appreciate how the author’s discussed the governor’s bias of trying to stop the pirates when they themselves killed off Indigenous peoples and enslaved people. It begs the question, who is the real villain?

It is difficult to write a book on such a mysterious character in history without the proper resources. My favorite nonfiction about pirates has to be Colin Woodard’s The Republic of Pirates, but this book definitely has its positives as well. I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

We've all heard of Blackbeard, right? But how much do we actually know about him? This book aims to give us the clearest picture possible, and does a great job of solidifying Blackbeard, pirating in general, and the era. I did find it heavy going at times, but that's only to be expected when so much research has gone into a book. Fascinating stuff.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

This book started off in an exciting way! I thought this would be an indicator of an exciting tale of the notorious pirate. However...it fell flat. This book reads very much like a text book in that it offers information, but not much for a story. It is also confusing to read because the authors in the beginning tries to tell the story under various themes, such as "The Players", "Contemporaries", "The Flagship" and "The Victims". The idea is nice, but it ends up being a confusing read. It breaks up the chronology and leads to numerous repetitions. It had been much easier to read if the story had just been told as it happened. This may have also lent to more of a storyline better than breaking up the categories. The authors also try to add to the story by including a lot more about the governor of Virginia, who hunted Blackbeard. But in doing so they include information completely irrelevant for the story. So this was disappointing!!

It was fun to think again about Blackbeard, having grown up learning about him in North Carolina. I liked how this book covers Blackbeard in his world with descriptions of people and places of his time. The book also includes some history of other contemporary pirates. And I enjoyed the artistic depictions at the end of the ebook.
The book didn't contain as much newer information on Blackbeard as I had hoped though. For example, the mentions of underwater archeology from The Queen Anne's Revenge were fascinating and more information would have been awesome.
Lack of new information was kind of a disappointment as I was looking forward to learning more about the history and legend and how it spread in recent years.
Thank you for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Informative and the thing I liked the most is that the research covered not only the infamous Blackbeard, but pirating in general.
Still, it's baffling, despite all the texts, clues, researches we have only guesses and nothing certain about the most feared pirate of all times.
Especially, his pre pirate days remain a mystery to us.
From the start of his pirate days to the events leading to his death, all this information is here and in it's most detailed form.
Loved this book and all that I learned from it.

4.5 rounded to 5

This is a meticulously researched history of "Blackbeard" aka Edward Teach, who became the most infamous pirate ever known. The book takes a close look not only of Blackbeard but pirating in general, the man (Spotwood) who eventually brought Blackbeard down, the sociological and historical forces that not only allowed pirating to proliferate but that encouraged it. My only gripe is that the authors work their way backwards to Blackbeard, starting with Spotwood and those around Blackbeard who lay the foundation not only for what allowed him to succeed but what eventually spelled his doom. As someone not familiar with Blackbeard, I kind of wanted to get to the action a bit quicker! That said, anyone interested in the history of pirating should find this book entertaining and informative.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the authors Craig Cabell, Allan Richards, Graham A Thomas for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Blackbeard #NetGalley

(I'm getting a message that the ISBN is not on Goodreads)

An outstanding look at one of the most feared and successful pirates of his time. The story is packed with action and explains in great detail the effort to capture this notorious pirate. This makes a great read for the historian and pirate fans.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

NB: free copy received for honest review

This account of the life, career and death of the notorious pirate Blackbeard is somewhat complicated by the fact that we don't actually know who he was or what his real name might be. The authors are at pains to make clear that any account of the pre-pirate days of Edward Teach (as his name is most commonly given) is working on supposition and rumour.

So instead, they focus on his career, to the extend it is known, and the circumstances of his final defeat and death. They also spend a lot of time on the man who ordered the mission to destroy him, and the validity of said mission. It was, technically, wholly illegal and even an act of war between colonies. But given that Blackbeard was a notorious pirate and the mission was a success, what could have ended the man's career turned out to be a smart move.

This was an interesting read but it is somewhat undermined by how little we actually know of Blackbeard.

It still surprises me, after all these years, how little we actually know about arguably the most famous pirate of them all. Three authors come together here to tackle all the facts and possibilities that we can extract from the remaining texts, letters, and news articles. What we have here is an interesting tale about not only Blackbeard but of the men who would take him down. After having read a variety of books on Pirates, I would recommend this to people who want a quick read that is also intelligent and thoughtful. The authors are scholars at their best examples.

Sadly, this book ended up being kinda disappointing; mostly because I wanted to see more of how exactly the legacy around Blackbeard and his name was created, how he became the "most notorious pirate", but the authors barely touched upon that, in a few pages at the end of the book. Despite one of the objectives being "confront the myths and legends surrounding Blackbeard and the 'media' image that has build up around him", it felt like a long narrative Around Blackbeard, and not exactly about him or the legends.

There's a lot of information, and it made the book feel a lot longer than it actually is. Since the authors admit it's hard to get actual confirmed information about Blackbeard, especially about his origins and his true name, they got to the man himself through others. They based the narrative on history books from the past centuries, letters from when Blackbeard was active, the notes his hunter wrote, and information about a bunch of different people connected to Blackbeard.

The book talks about the possible origins of this famous man, speculating about his real name and birth place, going through the event that made him famous and feared, the blockade of Charles Town, his decision to destroy his ship (the Queen's Anne Revenge) to avoid authorities, the final battle that took his life, against Spotswood (nov/1718), and the end that came for the surviving members of his crew.

I feel like I learned more about other people connected to Blackbeard's life than the man himself. Despite that, it's not a bad book, you just have to be prepared to read a lot about things that seem to have no connection at all to Blackbeard. At least I got to understand more about the time of pirates, I guess?

First off like always a big thank you to the publisher:Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword Maritime , the authors :Craig Cabell, Allan Richards, Graham A Thomas, and to NetGalley for saying yes to my wish and for letting me read and review, because this is the first book I've read about Blackbeard, I knew he was a pirate but that's all that I knew. as for my thoughts on the book itself :If you like history or knew of someone who does then this might be right up their alley , but I done have to says its not the type of book that you can read in a day, and the story shows that the authors really put in the time and effort to check and double check their research on him. And at times feel bit to much but over all that helps you get a better idea and picture of who the characters was, the time period as well as make you ask yourself who was the real bad guy .

Interesting but quite hard to sit and read all in one sitting like I usually do. I don't read many books on pirates so I thought I would try this one, I just wish it could have held my attention longer.