Cambridge University Press The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama Paperback – Illustrated, 29 October 1998

Muy buena información y fuentes, fundamental para algunos os aspectos iniciales de la presencia lusa en Asia.

Not really necessary

Vasco da Gama is one of the great heros of the Portuguese Age of Exploration. This book is a well written and very thorough look at his career and exploits, particularily the impact of political maneuvering within the Portuguese nobility at the time. The author has translated and cited many historic Portuguese writings.As with many modern histories, the myth and legend are taken down a notch, and da Gama the man - warts and all - is revealed. Nonetheless da Gama is all the more interesting as a flawed human character.My only disappointment with the book is that the author seemed to have missed an opportunity to delve more deeply into the storytelling aspect of da Gama's voyages, especially his first journey to India. The account of the voyages at times seem rather dry, lacking a narrative voice to pull the reader in and recreate what it must have been like as the Portuguese encountered various civilizations for the first time. But it was only because the author does such a thorough job of detailing the events of the voyages that I was left wanting to hear a bit more ...All in all a very well researched and documented study of da Gama, which has served as a good starting point for learning more about this fascinating character.

I had to read it for a graduate history class... The information is... Very Good... But desert dry. It's a slow read, IMHO.