The Wide Wide Sea presents Cook’s moral collapse as an enigma ... The gaps in Cook’s interior journey stand out because of the incredible job Sides does in bringing to life Cook’s physical journey. New Zealand, Tahiti, Kamchatka, Hawaii and London come alive ... Parts of The Wide Wide Sea inevitably echo the storytelling of previous yarns, even if Sides self-consciously critiques them.
A gripping account of Captain James Cook’s final voyage ... Armed with extensive research and terrific writing, Sides re-creates the newness of the experience, the vast differences in and among Indigenous cultures, and natural phenomena that were as terrifying as they were wondrous.
Thrilling and superbly crafted ... Sides has perfected a brisk narrative style. Befitting his work as a writer and editor for Outside magazine, he has a special talent for rendering the natural world, and some readers will surely want to look up photographs or maps of the places.
Sides make a persuasive case in 387 pages of diligent, riveting reporting that Cook came as a navigator and mapmaker and in dramatically opening what was known about our world, made us all richer in knowledge.
Beautifully written and impeccably researched, The Wide Wide Sea will delight readers new to the topic as well as those versed in earlier looks at James Cook and his milieu.
A fascinating, immersive adventure story featuring just the right amount of historical context. Lusciously detailed and insightful history, masterfully told.
Propulsive ... With an admirably light touch, Sides teases out his convincing thesis amid a riveting day-by-day narrative of the voyage and fascinating asides on such matters as the fierce anthropological debate over whether the Hawaiians really considered Cook to be the god Lono.
