Wager

An incredible account from the author of Killers of a Flower Moon. I'm in awe of the work required to collate and then articulate this story almost as much as the events themselves.

The Wager is a harrowing tale of perseverance, discipline, brutality, hubris, and survival that illustrates and brings to life humanity at its extremes.

Very well written and, after a somewhat slow start, gets the reader very interested in the personalities and story. Cheap, Bulkeley, and Byron were all well drawn and distinct.

I enjoyed the novelistic history format and the tighter focus compared to Killers of the Flower Moon, and I was thinking four stars right up until the last fifth or so. The trial is a fizzling anticlimax. I get that it's a history book and Grann can't change what happened, but he chose the subject and the structure of the book. The trial felt like a let down after all the buildup of the shipwreck and the conflicting accounts.

The book delivers on its title. The author is the same guy who wrote Killers of the Flower Moon and he sure know how to write page-turners. Here, the basic story is about a squadron of British ships that, in 1740, were sent to chase after a Spanish galleon to steal its supposed load of silver. In order to do that, the squadron would have to round Cape Horn. A lot happens. Three different groups from the original crews make it back to England after about 6 years, some were shipwrecked, some carried out the mission, and two different groups of castaways ended back home through separate routes. It is a rich narrative, and a darn good story. Colonialism still sucks.