Rating: 
Summary: adventure at it's best
Review: A wonderful book and story. A good book to read on a cold winter night in front of a fire. An adventure at it's best...I wish I was there...I think
Rating:
Summary: era of adventure...that is gone forever
Review: A wonderful book. An adventure story at it's best. Good reading for a cold winter day in front of a fire. I wish I was there...I think...
Rating:
Summary: The Real History Makers
Review: "Nutmeg" was truly a refreshing read. Civilisations have been shaped not by the statesman or the soldier, but by the trader; the former two rising to prominence as a consequence of the endeavour of the third. Yet, how often do we read of the Gujarati merchants who "opened" and transfomed Indonesia or the exploits of Arab traders who literally brought the East to the West with all the consequences that followed at least half a dozen civilisations? For me, Milton brought the 17th century market place to life not just with a gripping account of the seamen themselves, but with accounts of the remarkably shrewd and remarkably incompetent trading houses as well as a measure of the governments of the day - some who apreciated the size of the prize (the Dutch) and those who remained shockingly oblivious (the Crown). I recommend this book for anyone who deals daily with risk and uncertainty in business.
Rating: 
Summary: Well, 3.5 actually
Review: I am torn between awarding this book three or four stars. The degree of research behind this work is truly commendable. After a long time, I found a historical account to be highly readable. The genesis of European colonialism, was relatively unknown to me and Nathaniel's Nutmeg provided an abundance of facts from which the reader could make their own inferences. What tarnished the reading pleasure was a very visible effort by the author to award a moral high ground and justification to the English. The British East India Company and its officers were portrayed as responsible and highly ethical; victims of the treacherous Dutch and 'natives'. The future antics in India would suggest otherwise. I, for one, did not see Nathaniel Courthope as the hero he was to the author. On the whole I enjoyed reading Nathaniel's Nutmeg and learnt a lot from this book, though would have liked it even more, were I English.
Rating: 
Summary: A Monotonous Voyage
Review: This tale of intrigue about "the spiceries" should be utterly fascinating. Milton is, after all, relating the saga of sea captains and captains of early industry sailing into the perilous unknown waterways of the world in the 1600s and 1700s. Problem is, the saga becomes a repetition of one voyage following another, none of them distinguishable one from the other. Like so many writers today, Milton is DESPERATELY IN NEED OF AN EDITOR. We learn that the white peoples of England & Holland arrive (or do not) hither and yon at "the spiceries" (Milton constantly places "the spiceries" in quotation marks for no apparent reason) year after year. The reportage is terribly un-even... we'll learn that, for example, 2 vessels left England at the same time. Then, we get the lengthy narrative of the horrors one experienced in never arriving at its destination & get ONE SENTENCE telling us the other vessel succeeded just fine & returned to England without incident. NADA MAS on this success, you understand. We never EVER learn anything about how native populations responded to them, what the natives thought of them, etc. We are told that islanders preferred the Brits to the Hollanders ... but we' re don't really know why ... and we don't even get that the natives preferred one group to the other until VERY LATE in the book. All in all, this thing reads like a doctored-up doctoral dissertation ... The guy did tons & tons of research ... all on the folks who were to profit by pillaging the natives. I did learn that my Dutch ancestors were, without question, among the most sadistic humans on the face of the planet. I'd long known that my Brit ancestors were pretty ghoulish, but the Dutch ... their appetite for brutality, as reported in these pages, was truly phenomenal. Other than that, I am now aware of a mish-mash of information about early "spicery"-seeking sea voyages to the South Pacific and why economically they mattered so much. Oh, and the story about how the U.S. got Manhattan (which comes very late in the book) is way interesting ... but not worth the price of admission... discover it somewhere else. Milton just doesn't know how to create a story out of fascinating facts. Too bad really.
Rating: 
Summary: A historical and geographical delight
Review: This is one of those books I can't wait to go back home to so I can resume my reading. This fascinating account of the spice trade war between the European powers of the Renaissance is delightfully written and immensely engaging. And once again I am reminded of another layer of history into which the European way of life of today is seeped.
Rating:
Summary: history is disturbing!
Review: A very good book, however, Giles Milton has writen an even better one about Queen Elizabeth.
Rating:
Summary: For the non historian
Review: The conclusion, ment to shock and conclude a long coverage of late second mellenium trading, the reader almost feels satisfied. Interesting, somewhat compelling, the blend of stories and sagas seem to come and go with the books easy pace. A fine read on the road or commuting, this book is a pleasant diversion from fiction or dry non fiction. Also a good follow up to what must have been tireless research. His interpretation of horrible events are presented in a moving yet sensitive manner. Somewhat grim and negative at times it ends on a positive conclusion and somewhat thought provokig. Four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: What's this?
Review: What's this? Is it a four-century-late nationalist pamphlet? Is it a comforting XVII-century Rambo-story for British people? Is it an adventure novel? I found the subject very intriguing but the book was really disappointing: very superficially written, it fails both in giving a picture of Europe and Far East at that age and in creating an appropriate path towards the narrative climax of the story. Moreover, its one-sided attitude (pro-British and anti-Dutch) it's almost unbearable: Milton constantly depicts Dutchs as bloodthirsty brutes and British as good and brave fellows, something that sounds like war propaganda; every time he has to admit that the Dutch also suffered some violence he just says that "the Dutch charged the British of having incited natives to do that". Please take note: I'm Italian and neutral in this conflict ... So, as you proceed in the reading and it becomes clear that this is, after all, the story of a British defeat, Milton's work begins to resemble a Rambo story, something to consolate the losers with stories of individual heroism. And the Run-Manhattan connection is simply comic ... These faults would be negligible if, at least, the book were able to give you some accurate view about merchant navy or sailboat technology or society or ... Next to nothing: just a quick running shot of characters and events. I wonder what Barbara Tuchman could have done with such a fascinating subject! Someone said this book is a "good beach reading": I agree, it's nothing more than that ...
Rating:
Summary: Eh. Another Armchair Imperialist
Review: I was, sadly, less than entirely impressed by this work. It was too scholarly to make good historical fiction, and not scholarly enough to make good history (I was never a big fan of end-notes, though that's just a minor quibble). I was just unable to bring myself to care about the fates of the Imperial organizations involved in conquering this tiny patch of island, far away from anything. I was impressed by Milton's evaluations of how the island of Run became so important, but less so by his focus on the European side of the story. Given the legacy European colonizers have left in Indonesia, Milton's unapologetic pro-Britishness rings falsely. I was underwhelmed, and unabsorbed.
| 
