I am simply in awe of this book. It's a first rate adventure story and as terrifying a tale as you'll ever encounter. The empathy you feel for Magellan, Pigafetta, Espinosa, Elcano, Cartagena and countless other wretched Portugese and Spanish figures is a testament to how evocatively their humanity and sense of adventure is conveyed through the words of Laurence Bergreen.

I've always felt that living in the age of information, we're trapped in a life that requires us to master complex matrices of knowledge, emotions and a pressure to perform. I always imagined that if I had lived in simpler times, things would have been easier. This book has kind of made me see that while the challenges were different, their scale was the same; while we're trapped by knowledge, they're trapped by ignorance.

Things are never easy in this life. And humanity is as fragile as a snowflake.

End of gay monologue.