Over the Edge of the World - Laurence Bergreen

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⭐ 8/10

This is the story of Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation around the globe. He was the first explorer to ever do it, except sike! He didn't complete the journey (spoiler!). He set out to try and complete Columbus's goal of finding a way to those sweet, sweet spices, thinking that the Spice Islands were just on the other side of the Americas. 

This story is absolutely wild. It seems like every explorer's story is crazy, but this one has everything. Several mutinies, discoveries, betrayals, and then the perils of normal sea travel in the 1500s like starvation, scurvy and disease. Like, what were these people thinking?! I guess they were thinking that the Pacific Ocean didn't exist... 

The problem with this book is that Magellan isn't exactly a good guy. In fact, he's super evil and was basically a naval dictator, torturing and killing his crew if they opposed him (though to be fair, they kept trying to mutiny mostly because he was Portuguese). He also kidnapped indigenous people that he met, and started a battle in the Phillipines for no reason. I will say, there is some level of justice in this story, and it all plays out in a crazy dramatic way. 

I guess a small issue as well is that this book is simply not as well-written as The Wager, which I think is just the gold standard for explorer novels now. This story definitely had more drama and plenty of intrigue, and yet I couldn't help but feel less absorbed by it. Maybe it's the result of listening to this one rather than reading, and maybe it's a matter of Spanish and Portuguese names all blending together in my brain, but yeah, it was hard to invest in characters in the same way. 

But none of these complaints kept me from really loving this book. No matter the quality of the characters, this is still a crazy story during a crazy era of history. I just find the idea of discovering new countries and new people groups so engrossing, just something that my brain can't comprehend. Sailing west, having no idea what you might find. Pretty cool! And yeah, the added drama and everything adds a ton. Seriously, there is this super dark red wedding episode that feels like it can't be real.

So if you're into travel stories or tales from the age of exploration, or at least want to learn more, this is a pretty good one. There is a moment where Megellan's slave arrives in the Phillipines, discovers that he can speak the local language, this discovering that it's his country of origin (making him the actual first person to go around the world) and it's only like, the 8th wildest thing to happen in this book. 

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