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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 10 February 2026

Hits: 63

Or "A NARRATIVE of the DISCOVERY OF THE FATE of SIR JOHN FRANKLIN and HIS COMPANIONS".

This, read online at haste as I don't like reading books off of my computer. 

Surprisingly informative, it's the journals and records of an expedition that ... well, the title has it. When they're not finding clues (most of the book) there are some interesting anecdotes, descriptions of the customs of the Esquimaux, hardships survived and overcome, descriptions of the geology and paleontology of Greenland and Canada's northern environs. It seems never an expedition went looking for Franklin without burying a few of it's members. 

Anyways, I sped read it through; you can find it online here: https://archive.org/details/voyageoffoxinarc00mcli_0/mode/2up

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 09 February 2026

Hits: 79

Found this in a book box, was pretty sure I hadn't read it, I was right.

Rightfully declared a masterpiece, and while looking at online criticisms (most invalid and centred around the colonizers interpreting their culture and influence in currently unacceptable ways) it is only that inasmuch as these readers clearly didn't understand Marlow's point of view.

It's influence on literature - well; of course the movie "Apocalypse Now", but as well Blaise Cendrar's "Moravagine" and Celine's "Journey to the End of the Night"; In "Alien" wherein the crew is set out upon a corporate mission whose architects have concealed the peril; there are more I'm sure and it reads like more than a couple of my family vacations.

Anyways; it appears he as he was remarkably prescient; the same year he published it the Vounet-Chanoine expedition was under way; and if you've not heard of it maybe review the wiki of it here.

Every bit of it terrifying, and every bit as uncomfortable, only this was - relatively recent - history. 

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 07 February 2026

Hits: 71

This was, of course, up to every standard I've come to expect of him. The names of the Characters and Institutions - W.A.S.T.E., N.A.D.A, an existential crisis; Yoyodyne industries, Scurvham, Oedipus Maas, Wharfinger, Invarity; Gengis Cohen; Inigo Barfstable; Oedipus Maas; Dr. Hilarius (The Therapist), Watus, imaginary people in imaginary places trying to puzzle out the mystery of their lives...blurred lines between fantasy and reality. 

Masterpiece, no further reviews are possible.

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 22 January 2026

Hits: 129

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.

I loved this. A Penguin "Condensed" version of Richard Hakluyt's "Voyages and Discoveries" - first hand accounts from Seamen and explorers from 890 to 1595 - condensed, because the original was 1.5 Million words, this edition is a mere 150,000 or thereabouts. But - at the time it was published it was a big deal, and brought the wider world to English shores, informing the literate of the wonders that lay beyond the horizon. So popular was it in it's time that it was quoted and referred to by Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Tennyson amongst others. 

There are the descriptions of far away places - the mention of dragons that lay in wait to feed upon elephants (crocodiles, presumably), The travellers tales and exaggerations, the speculations - John Hawkins (Slaver & Privateer) speculating on the wildlife of Florida where they landed - (Lions and Unicorns mostly he thought); the merchant tales of those far off tribes that would trade gold for iron, diamonds for glass, furs for cloth, not having our understanding of what was rare and precious,  the descriptions of said peoples, the spice isles, the cannibals, the descriptions of possible resources and trade items, the custom of occasionally "abducting" locals to inform the King/Queen first hand of the customs and peoples of their land...

The accounts of Miles Philips, Mercator, Francis Drake, Magellan, Frobisher, all first hand in letters or summaries of their expedition, there's Sebastian Cabot's excellent "Ordinances for the Intended Voyage to Cathay"; which outline the rules of the expedition, the height of good sense; the customs of the expedition, that seaman are paid unto death or return, in the event of death the payment is to their widows or children, the non-proselytizing nature of the expedition, there would be no discussion of their own religion, they would treat all tribes and peoples with gentlemanly behaviour, etc, etc. Which contrasts greatly with the later expeditions, focused on Piracy and Privateering; the plunder and burning and ransoming and even complaining - for example; Frobisher's complaining of the ferocity of the invaded people who clearly had good reason to dislike Europeans, the account of James Lancaster - trapped on a river wherein the villagers had floated pitch and fireworks to ignite their ships...

Outbreaks of dysentery on board the ships, scurvy, the tropical diseases, mosquitos, or in the arctic the black flies, noseeums, mutiny, men set ashore and never recovered, there's John Candish's final voyage, vile misadventure upon misadventures, the letters from a failed expedition that read  like the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, a cargo of 20, 000 salted penguins turned to slithering worms that infested every deck, piece of furniture, bed, biting and feasting upon the dead, infecting the living who swole up with them in their veins;

I could go on, but this is history written by those who were there.

And the coming together towards the end of all the privateers and slave traders together - John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Frobisher, Sir Walter Raleigh, to with a few ships defeat the entire Spanish Armada making it’s way to conquer England; it reads like a Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff...

Anyways, it hardly needs my recommendation. These are the accounts of men who defeated unsurmountable odds in returning from every voyage, and many made more than one.