The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon DeFoe


Amazon Synopsis: 1837: the Victorian Era approaches and the golden age of piracy draws to a close. Worried that his pirates are getting bored with a life of winking at pretty native ladies, sitting about on tropical beaches, and trying to stick enough jellyfish together to make a bouncy castle, the Pirate Captain decides it's time they had an adventure. A chance encounter with the young Charles Darwin - embarked upon the voyage of discovery that will one day make him famous - leads the Captain and his rag-tag crew from the exotic Galapagos Islands to the fog filled streets of Victorian London, where they encounter grisly murder, vanishing ladies, a diabolical Bishop, the Elephant Man, and have an exciting trip to the zoo. 

So I love the movie for this. I really love the movie. My friend and I went to see it at the cinemas and we were in stitches the entire time so when I found out it was based on a series of books I had to check out these ridiculous pirates on the page. In my local cheap book shop they had the two books in one version on sale so I went for it. 

Each book is only about 100 or less pages so these are really easy to get through. They had pictures and things that make it seem like a kids book but it is aimed at adults. It follows a crew of dysfunctional pirates that are only known by their nicknames (ie the Albino Pirate and the Pirate with the Scarf). On these short adventures there is so much packed in. It is action after action. Whilst on these adventures they meet some famous faces from the past, in this case it was Charles Darwin. The incorporation of history into these stories and facts is brilliantly done. It is like you are just stumbling on the information instead of being told it by the author. The characterisation of the historical figures is also funny. You are never meant to take it seriously as you read about disease, science and history. 

The characters at time were a little draining. I did laugh out loud multiple times but sometimes I found the Pirate Captain to be too stupid or silly and just was not in the mood for his decisions. Maybe when I read it I just was not in the right mood all together. I didn't find it as funny as people had made it out to be. 

This was a really quick swashbuckling adventure that made me laugh at the outrageously impossible situations they found themselves in. Had I been more relaxed when I read this instead of in the middle of school coursework I am sure it would have scored higher. 


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