East India Colin Falconer 9781542814515 Books
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In any other circumstance but shipwreck, rape and murder, a man like Michiel van Texel would never have met a fine lady such as Cornelia Noorstrandt. He was just a soldier, a sergeant in the Dutch East India company’s army, on his way from Amsterdam to the Indies to fight the Mataram. Such a woman was far above the likes of him. But both their destinies intertwine far away from Holland, on some god-forsaken islands near the Great Southland. When their great ship, the Utrecht, founders far from home, surviving the Houtman Rocks is the least of their worries. As they battle to survive and the bravest and the best reveal themselves for what they are, Cornelia’s only hope is a mercenary in a torn coat who shows her that a man is more than just manners and money. He makes her one promise ‘Even if God forsakes you, I will find you.’ But can he keep it? Described by one critic as ‘Jack and Rose in the seventeenth century’, East India will keep you wondering until the final page.
East India Colin Falconer 9781542814515 Books
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Tags : East India [Colin Falconer] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In any other circumstance but shipwreck, rape and murder, a man like Michiel van Texel would never have met a fine lady such as Cornelia Noorstrandt. He was just a soldier,Colin Falconer,East India,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1542814510,FICTION Historical
East India Colin Falconer 9781542814515 Books Reviews
Being a longtime fan of Colin Falconer's novels, I ordered his latest EAST INDIA when it became recently available on , not knowing anything about it, and as always Colin delivered the goods with a marvelous book. Based on the true events of the Batavia, the pride of the East India Company when it sailed October 27, 1628 on its maiden voyage from the Netherlands to Java. In Colin's fictional version he calls the ship the Utrecht. The ship has in its hold a cargo of untold riches in gold and silver coin, and over 330 persons on board. As Colin writes, "Our ship is composed of many diverse elements, all crowded together." Officers, crewmen, soldiers and sailors, passengers and jonkers (naval ensigns and junior assistants.) People from every strata of Dutch society, and when crammed together on a small ship for a projected 8-month voyage, clashes among them inevitably ensue.
Colin has a penchant for writing about fascinating women---Cleopatra, Isabella, Anastasia---and his Cornelia Noorstrandt is another bewitching woman from his literary canon. She is beautiful and dark-haired---"with Spanish blood in her somewhere," a male admirer observes as she embarks on the ship. The captain, Ambroise Secor, is handsome and charming but rather ineffectual, and we can always count on Colin to give us some nasty villains like the skipper, Jacob Schellinger, and Christiaan van Sant, the second in command, an apothecary who flees Holland on fear of being arrested, who in the course of events becomes a murderous madman.
After 5 months at sea, the ill-fated ship due to the nautical miscalculations of the skipper, founders on the Houtman Rocks, a reef off present day Geraldton in Western Australia, some 260 miles north of Perth where the London-born Colin has made his home for many years. Forty of those on the ship are killed outright or drowned, the ship is lopsided and broken like a beached whale, and the survivors leave the ship by longboats and take refuge on two nearby islands. Living on seals and birds with water and rations limited, the charismatic but deranged and sadistic Christiaan takes charge and conducts a reign of terror of madness and barbarity. God-fearing Christians start acting like cutthroat crazed animals, who are stranded "at the end of the world without hope or haven."
More than a hundred are butchered to insure that the rations will last longer. Our heroine the highborn Cornelia, who survived a brutal rape on board the ship, now must fend off the advances of the ruthless and psychotic Christiaan. Her buoyancy and survival coping skills help her in the prevailing chaos, as she falls in love with a common soldier, the coarse-grained but tender-hearted Michiel van Texel, who tells her, "Even if God forsakes you, I will find you." The love that develops between this unlikely pair is poignant and touching. The castaways pray for rescue, but of the over 330 on board the ship, only 68 are finally rescued after a harrowing two months on the two small islands and finally make it to Batavia, modern-day North Jakarta.
It is hard to turn off your when Colin's EAST INDIA is flashing on the screen. He weaves his magic with this exciting novel about one of the most horrendous shipwrecks in maritime history, with his gifts at characterization, dialogue and riveting storytelling evident on every page. (The Batavia, or the Utrecht, like the ill-fated Titanic in 1912, was destroyed on its maiden voyage.) I most enthusiastically recommend EAST INDIA.
I enjoy sea tales, and I love catastrophe stories, so when I came across this novel dealing with the wreck of the Batavia, I was very excited. The Batavia is one of the most infamous shipwrecks in history, and I think particularly meaningful in our day - these people survived their shipwreck by landing on a desolate island only to find they were at the mercy of a psychopath and his henchmen. The actual historical story of the ship Batavia has an unbelievably evil villain, a hero, a beautiful woman, warped love stories, and endless slaughter. And a sketchy historical record! So I was up for this.
I don't think you're wasting your money buying this book. But, it struck me as a first draft written by a very good writer. This book needs an editor. It's not a romance or an adventure novel, but I do think it's a neat exploration of the culture of that time. If the past really is a foreign country where things are done differently, this book comes close to putting you there.
I had previously read Batavia's Graveyard by Mike Dash, which sets out what is known about the wreck and recommend that if you're interested.
I'm not big on writing book reviews, but I'm an avid reader and enjoy a variety of genres. Colin Falconer has really captured me. His stories are usually complex, extremely well researched and fun to read. East India is no exception. It transports the reader back to swashbuckling times of the East India company and Britain's trade with the Far East. I liked the characters -- the lead characters were etched well; the action is continuous and often surprising. The plot and sub-plots are nicely crafted. The various environments described in the story seemed accurate and as mentioned before, extremely well researched. You really felt you were on the ship navigating half the world's oceans. This story grabbed me from the beginning and just kept moving. Nice read.
The story of the Dutch ship Batavia, shipwrecked off the coast of Australia in 1629, has been told many times. It is a tale of unrelenting brutality and horror, a testimony to the worst possible of human behavior. In East India, Falconer relates the essential parts of the Batavia shipwreck, the plot following actual events quite closely, but enriches it with a love story that transcends class and wealth and shows the heroic potential of men and women. Readers are quickly drawn into the intrigues aboard a newly built Dutch ship on a 9 month voyage to Java. Relationships of mutual sympathy, animosity, jealousy, and revenge weave into a complex web in this small inescapable community facing the stresses of sea voyage. If I ever am able to actually time travel, please remind me NOT to return as a seaman on a 17th century vessel!
Descriptions of conditions on board are vivid and disgusting, and plots unfold as tensions mount. The mutiny plotted by the skipper and undermerchant (second in command) slowly plays out amid lust after the fine lady on board. The commander is revealed as conflicted and uncertain how to maintain his command, seeming to abandon the ship's survivors on barren rocks after the wreck. Their struggle for survival is hindered by the undermerchant, assuming leadership but acting as a king after his own interests. We might think the gruesome things he and his henchmen did are unrealistic, except that their behavior was documented during the original Batavia shipwreck. Falconer takes this grim story and makes it fascinating, compelling, and a testimony to the highest and lowest human potential.
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