Been very curious about your final assessment of Captain Blood.
Was very pleased you liked Captain Blood. It's my favorite fiction book which and one of the few I read again every few years or so. The othertwo novels are events that take place during Blood's pirate career and fill in the gaps so to speak but NOT essential to the main novel. Sabatini-to me- his main talent is how he just makingreading the characters talk to each other a joy to follow with the little put downs and sarcasms and ingenious way of putting things. Erroll Flynn's breakout movie--back and white well worth watching AFTER you finish the book. Sabatini CAN be up and down in quality. My favorites of his is St Martin's summer, Bellarion, Chivary, and The Banner of the Bull--the only author that I know of to ever write Cesare Borgia as a HERO.
mtpspur, Just wanted to thank you for your historical fiction recommendation, Captain Blood. I'm reading it now and LOVE it. The prose is outstanding; it has a fun British bent reminiscent of Tom Jones. When I'm done I'm going to try to find a decent film adaptation. I know Errol Flynn did one, but so far I just can't see him fitting with this character. Thanks! Hawthorns
