As the story goes Mr. Defoe wrote this book in an effort to get a girl to leave her boyfriend; sadly for him, she did not. The sad ending to the author’s personal tale is not to be considered a negative reflection of his prose. This is a quick read which actually has more than a handful of laugh-out-loud moments. Being a fan of the humor genre, I can attest to this being a rare event in most books; even if, or most likely especially if the front and back covers are plastered with reviews like "an outrageously humorous ride", "side-splittingly funny", or "I laughed so hard I fractured my funny bone."

The story follows the pursuit of the Pirate Captain and his crew as they embark upon a madcap adventure (I realize the irony, in my descriptor words) whence they meet up with the one and only Charles Darwin and his newly discovered Man-panzee, Mister Bobo. Mister Bobo ia a human-like chimpanzee that dresses in people clothes and speaks through the use of flashcards.

This is a funny adventure and is well worth the short amount of time it will take you to read. ( )

http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/20... ( )

Just finished The Pirates! In an adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe, which is basically a very light-hearted read about a group of not-too-bright pirates and their run in with Charles Darwin. In this book, however, Darwin is not the genius scientist we all learn about in class, but a clumsy, shy kid who's trying to spread the word about his newest scientific discovery: The Manpanzee.

This book probably wouldn't be for people who don't like really cheesy, goofy humor. I wouldn't go so far as to call it "stupid" humor, but it does come awfully close. I really didn't mind, because sometimes I could do with a laugh that I don't have to think about. I thought that there were a lot of really funny lines, such as:
"Everybody froze. For a moment the only sound was the gentle roar of the ocean, and some wheezing from the pirate with asthma." (p 23)

"If the pirate with a scarf had been more poetically minded he'd have thought that her eyes were like a thousand emeralds, glittering in a far-off pirate treasure chest. But he wasn't, so he just thought that she had really really green eyes, a bit like seaweed." (p 56)

All in all, I found it to be a very entertaining read. A bit of a guilty pleasure between books that I'm having a hard time getting through. At 97 pages, it really didn't take all that long to breeze through, and the plot wasn't one that I had to give a lot of attention and energy too. Just a fun tale about pirates and Darwin.

I think I would give this book 3 out of 5 stars. I don't know if I'd reread it, but for the one time through, it served it's purpose, and I appreciated it. ( )

The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists (2004) by Gideon Defoe is a natural book for me to read. I like pirates! I like Charles Darwin! I like humor! This slim book brings them all together.

The gist of the story is that a ragtag bunch of pirates known only by their attributes (the Pirate Captain, the pirate with the scarf, the pirate with the accordion) join Charles Darwin in adventure to take on the Bishop of Oxford with his trained ape, the Man-Panzee. And from their it gets rather absurd. I enjoy the silly adventures and the even more ridiculous footnotes. I suspect it very easily can be seen by someone with different tastes as stupid, but to each their own.

A lot of reviews compare The Pirates! with Monty Python and Douglas Adams. That's because Gideon Defoe is British and writes funny things. I would say instead that this book is reminiscent of Tom Holt, who is yes, British and yes, writes funny things like The Portable Door. ( )

Monty Python meets VegeTales? Go ahead, buy it (it's cheap) and read it (it can't hurt you).

Os.

PS - go ahead. Flag this as "not a review". It'll just show that you don't get Python (or, perhaps, VegeTales)! ( )