The Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson ** (of 4)

Most book reviewers loved Enemy, but I think it is terribly overrated. In the 17th century, Henry Every, a British pirate, stole a fast-sailing ship from the Spanish coast, sailed it to India, and attacked an exceptionally well-endowed vessel belonging to one of India's wealthiest Mughals. His crew, after a year at sea, upon discovering women on board, did some evil things to them.

Johnson does a decent job of laying context. The distinction between being a pirate and a British privateer was rather fuzzy so in Johnson's telling, acting as a pirate might not have been such a bad job, after all, especially at a time when the British government was capturing young men to "impress" them into their Navy. The British Navy, too, was in the business of protecting Great Britain's colonies, which, if you look at them with modern eyes, were nothing more than piratical extractions of resources from stationary targets. 

But Johnson expends way too many words inflating the dastardliness of Henry Every and the distinctive nature of his attack. Henry Every was a worse pirate than other pirates? His crew was nastier? Really? There were so many forewarnings in early chapters about the attack Every and his crew were headed for, that when the crew finally grappled their way aboard it was all rather less climactic than a Disney ride. A lot like the whole book.