A review by ellahart
On a Barbarous Coast by Craig Cormick, Harold Ludwick

1.0

I was incredibly excited to read a fictional retelling of Captain Cook’s arrival that would explore a marriage of European and Aboriginal culture and that didn’t involve the genocide of Australia’s First Nation People. What I read instead was utterly boring and disappointing. Majority of the book was in the perspective of a white and racist European/American dude, who is primarily concerned about his next meal and the in-house politics of his shipmates. While historically accurate, it was such a huge led down to what could have been a really interesting fictional piece. Not only that, but Bama man Garrgiil’s chapters, which were some sort of insight to dreamtime and connection to land, were super short. It only got kind of interesting in the last 50 pages where the white marines and the Bama people met and shared culture. Thank you, next.