Review of Rafael Sabatini's "Captain Blood" books

[warrenpeace]

Stumbled on a set of about 7 or 8 books by Rafael Sabatini at my local library.  I promptly checked out and read "Captain Blood," "Captain Blood's Return," and "The Fortunes of Captain Blood," largely because these books have been recommended here several times.  These were much better than I expected.  For some reason I thought the writing might be on a par with the lower quality works of the 1920's and 1930's.  Much to my surprise, the writing quality was excellent, the plots exciting, and the psychological suspense and drama very compelling. 

"Captain Blood" was published first, copyrighted 1922, and included the skeleton and main events of the career of Captain Blood.  The second and third books, copyrighted in 1933 and 1936, are collections of short stories set within the time frame of the first book (1685 to 1690).  I wonder if some of the short stories were written before the "Captain Blood" novel.  It probably wouldn't hurt to interrupt the flow of the "Captain Blood" novel to read the books of short stories somewhere in between the beginning and end of the novel.  There are several episodes that would make good miniatures games, particularly on the scale of Gloire/Under the Black Flag or Savage Worlds.

One of the interesting things about these books is that the author doesn't dwell on the action.  He does not devote many pages to the firing of the cannons or to the clash of rapiers and cutlasses, although there is plenty of that.  Sabatini focuses on the psychological dramas and the cunning schemes of Captain Blood.  Many of the stories have really interesting twists and turns.  Two thumbs up!  Highly recommended! 

I think that the whole collection could be made into an excellent TV series.  It is, after all, contemporaneous with the recent Crusoe TV series, and may be slightly more plausible.  Because Captain Blood is supposed to have spent about a decade soldiering in Europe prior to the events of the novel, it might be great to begin a series with Blood as a young man in medical school just prior to when he went out soldiering.  A whole collection of episodes could be done on the European wars that Capatain Blood fought in, including his time in Spain, all that before he ever becomes a pirate.

[Captain Blood]

I'd better read those

[Bugsda]

Me too, I think I remember G.M Fraser putting Sabatini down as his favourite author in an interview I read.
Can't get a better gee up than that.

[Aaron]

I know one or two are available as audio books on archive.org. I listened to them a few years back and liked them very much, but still haven't managed to actually read them.