Captain Blood, originally published in 1922, is, like Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, a classic pirate tale. However, while most are at least passingly familiar with Treasure Island these days, few have heard of Captain Blood, and that's a shame. As much as I love Treasure Island, I would have to say that I enjoyed Captain Blood even more.The novel begins with Doctor Peter Blood, an Irishman living in England in 1685 after ten years adventuring as a soldier on the Continent, observing, but electing not to join, a rebellion against King James II. However, he provides medical aid to the rebels after the battle, and is arrested, tried, and sentenced to be hanged as a rebel himself. His sentence is instead commuted to ten years of slavery in the Caribbean. Finding himself on Barbados, he puts his skills as a doctor to use to better his lot, though his condition still chaffs at him. Whilst in bondage, he develops an affection for the niece of his owner. Blood engineers an escape for himself and his fellow rebels convict and, for lack of any other options, takes to the sea as a pirate, despite his still-present sense of honor.Once at sea, Captain Blood undertakes a variety of daring, exciting adventures, becoming deeply involved in the fortunes of the Caribbean as the English, French, and Spanish all vie for supremacy in area. The reader is treated to battles at sea, raids of cities, and politics and intrigue, not to mention matters of honor, justice, vengeance, and romance.Blood is developed as a very interesting, very deep character, whose intelligence, bravery, charisma, and honor are all believable and understandable. His varied adversaries are all well written, too, and the varied ways he overcomes each of them flow from the foe and Blood's interactions with them.Adding to the depth and intrigue of the novel is that many of the events and personages referred to are historically factual, and these events have a significant impact on Blood's tale. There was a lot of intrigue in the real history of the late 1680's, and Sabatini makes very good use of it.To compare Captain Blood a bit to the more well-known pirate tale Treasure Island, Treasure Island focuses on searching for pirate treasure, and has a superior antagonist to any of Captain Blood's adversaries in Long John Silver. Captain Blood gives the reader the sea-faring, ship-to-ship combat, city-plundering side of the pirate genre, and Peter Blood is a much more interesting protagonist than Treasure Island's Jim Hawkins. Finally, Captain Blood includes a romantic plot line that is completely lacking in Treasure Island's coming of age story, and I know for many readers a good story needs its romance. For more of my thoughts on Treasure Island itself, see my review here on Amazon.I listened to Captain Blood as read by Robert Whitfield. Whitfield does an amazing job with the presentation. He crafts excellent voices and accents for Blood and each of the large cast of international characters. The Irish, English, French, Spanish, and Dutch characters all have appropriate accents, but Whitfield keeps each distinct and memorable, so that the listener never has to guess who's speaking. Whitfield has earned a place amongst my favorite audio book readers with this performance, and I'll certainly seek out more of his work. I see he's narrated a great many James Bond novels, and given his fantastic performance with Captain Blood, I'm sure he'll be just as enjoyable to listen to with modern international intrigue as his is with the 1680's version.I'm very happy to have read Captain Blood, and I'll certainly seek out Sabatini's other work, including Scaramouche (also available narrated by Whitfield) and The Sea Hawk. I highly recommend Captain Blood to anyone who appreciates tales of pirates, daring adventure, intrigue, or historical novels. If you're familiar enough with modern pirate tales to recognize Port Royal and Tortuga, both of which appear in Captain Blood, you'll enjoy this novel.