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Title: Mountains of the Sea

Author: Gunter O. Swoboda

Narrator: Simon Ainley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-07-10

Publisher: Hudson Audio Publishing

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

"Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Dont let him go to the devil, where he is known."

So commences this historic saga based on a quote from The Life of Johnson (Boswell), 1773. Master Walter Beaumont is the principal character; he must depart from his life of debauchery and unintentional murder in England and set sail to a distant country. In England he is indeed well known to the devil. As the second-born son of a noble family, he departs on board HMS Resolution with the famous explorer Captain James Cook and the master of the ship, William Bligh - for this is a tale set in the late 1770s and centered on the factual third voyage of Captain Cook to return Omai to Tahiti and attempt to discover the famed Northwest Passage. We follow Beaumonts journey across the ocean to the South Sea Islands. This emotional story explores his trials, tribulations, and triumphs as he moves from being a "whore seeker" to a hero.

Entertwined with his journey are the lives of his other family members (Lord Beaumont, Lady Beaumont, and his older brother, Jonathan), as well all people on board the ship and on the islands. This is an entertaining historical story from the days of Captain James Cook and Mr. William Bligh, and listeners will appreciate the great amount of research that Gunter Swoboda has undertaken. This book is indeed an education!

Members Reviews:

Good story, some formatting issues

Mountains of the Sea is a very interesting, well written period piece. The fact that it's happening "off to the side" during one of my favorite periods of history makes it all the more fun.

That said, the Kindle edition has several formatting errors - most of which are random paragraph breaks with the title and/or author's name inserted into the text, as if they were accidentally left in during the conversion process from the author's word processor file. It can get somewhat annoying and jarring.

mountains of the sea

Mountains of the Sea is a very interesting and well written book. The style was a little hard for me to get used to, but after awhile it flowed better than the beginning. I emjoyed it.

excellent yarn

I never wanted to put this story down. A great south sea tale with vibrant characters and well described locations.

Dual Cultural Perspective

Mountains of the Sea, by Gunter O. Swoboda

Gunter O. Swoboda's `Mountains of the Sea' begins in 1776 England, with Walter Beaumont wasting his privileged social position in a dissipated life of drinking, opium abuse, and whoring, making no use of his artistic talent. When the story ends, Walter is an accepted member of a Hawai'ian community on Oahu, a responsible and loving husband and father, honored for his skills as an artist, warrior, and surfer. How his life is transformed is the meat of Swoboda's lively and emotional tale.

The author stumbles slightly at the outset by describing June 14, 1776 as a "midsummer night" instead of late spring, but moves swiftly to paint the background of Walter's life and the motives for his being sent to sea with the famous English explorer Captain James Cook. It is interesting to encounter a young Lieutenant William Bligh among Cook's officers, untainted by the later infamy that is now associated with him.

Once Walter arrives with Cook and his crew in the Pacific, Swoboda is in his element.