This is an excellent chronicle of a prison ship of women who traveled in the late 1700s (around the time of the Mutiny on the Bounty) from England to Botany Bay, Australia. It offers a fascinating glimpse into life during these times, including many personal/prosaic aspects of daily routines for this extraordinary group of individuals.

Having learned quite a bit about Australian history when I was young, I though the book was an interesting look at a previously ignored faction of convict life. However, I found the book to be quite dull. The characters even though we followed many of the same women thoughout didn't engage me at all and failed to elicit any emotion for themselves or as representatives of thousands of women in the same situation.
Overall, it was an interesting piece of this part of Australian/English history, however it could have been just as easily covered in 50 pages for the result.

So pleased to receive this. Thanks dreamer2 and kmilner. I see the reviews are quite varied so I am even more curious as to my own impressions.

Thanks kmilner and dreamer2 for sending this one on. I must admit I like the premise of the book, but I agree with kmilner...the characters just didn't engage me. The writer took what could be an amazing story and just sort of stated the facts, one by one. There were so many characters, and their lives sort of jumped around; so as soon as I started getting drawn into their story, it was dropped to briefly skim another character. I think the story was great...the writer just doesn't have a keen grasp of engaging people into the story, or writing with impact. It is too bad since I think the topic has a ton of potential.

PS: I loved dreamer2's little info page on English customs during the time.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending to Luintarien as an RABCK since it is on her wishlist.

Got this yesterday 3/5. Thank you.

RELEASE NOTES:

Available in the OBCZ area

caught at the KawreS OBCZ