Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144014 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Patrick O’Brian
"[Nelson is] a master of both his period and the English language."

Booklist
"Nelson vividly re-creates the eighteenth-century outlaw world of Nassau and the high seas . . ."

Chicago Tribune
"[Nelson’s] descriptions have the ring of truth and are conveyed with a sharpness and clarity . . ."

Customer Reviews

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
One of the more romanticized villains in history is the noble pirate, the seafaring reaver with gleam in his eye and a heart of gold. Nowhere is this more evident than in tales of the sea queens, the rare but all too real women in pirate's clothing. The most famous of these are Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who sailed with Calico Jack Rackam in the Caribbean in the early 1700s.

Based on what historical records exist detailing their lives, James L. Nelson's "The Only Life That Mattered" weaves a credible tale of their adventures. The story is exciting and necessarily quick-paced -- their days of piracy together lasted less than three years -- but it's leisurely enough to sit back and enjoy the progression of events. You'll get to know the three main characters quite well, both their strengths and failings, and you'll get a good feel for life at sea at the dawn of the 18th century. You'll certainly learn enough to realize that life at sea wasn't easy, and pirates certainly weren't romantic or noble.

Nelson has a fine voice for narration, and a keen sense of story. This one unfolds with a few surprises along the way, and leaves you with a conviction that the author knew his subjects in and out before starting to write. He might show occasional aspirations to be a romance writer -- he did initially publish this book under the pen name Elizabeth Garrett -- but those out-of-place scenes are thankfully few and far between. Similarly, the main characters are all a bit too good looking, and the sex is always just a bit too good; I suspect in real life these people stank most of the time and had little time to learn the gentler arts of wooing.

I picked up "The Only Life" because it's a pirate book, and because it features two piratesses who've intrigued me for years. While there are some weaknesses, I read the book eagerly and walked away pleased, quite sated by the experience.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(NET) editor

Do not waste your money
I have only read 34 pages of "The Only Life That Mattered", but my life matters too much to me to read any more. How this author has ten books in print is beyond my comprehension; both he and his editor(s) should be strung up by their thumbs. It's not just bad writing, it's lazy writing. There are numerous sentence fragments. There are factual inaccuracies. Sentences, even paragraphs, are started with "And" and "But". I could go on and on, but it is not worth my time. I have made corrections and will send the book to the publisher; I do not wish to have it in my home.

Mary and Anne would be proud
I think that James L. Nelson did a really well job. I realize how hard it is to write about people that so little is known about.
It is a fairly long book, but once you get into it, you'll fall in love with the words and characters. It gave such an insight into the female women's minds, as well as calico jack rackman.
Read it, just read it