Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Romance without the Frills May 22, 2008
I read this book for the first time about 5 years ago after reading The Far Pavilions, to me this is better. In fact I love this book so much that after I lent it to someone who never returned it I went out and bought another copy!
I really enjoyed the true stories about the battles and difficulties of the royal family at the time, and the love story of Salme.
At the beginning of the book I found Hero a very difficult character to like. But I think that was intentional. If Hero was a character that you automatically warmed to then you would find it very hard to construct a positive first impression of Rory.
On the subject of Rory I suppose it's essential to deal with the rape aspect, Kaye doesn't romanticize rape at all and Rory almost dies as a result of it. The fact is that Trade Winds represents a different time, a different place and in an extreme way (the whole novel is extreme really) all she is saying is that the lines between good and evil are more blurred than someone like Hero would be willing to accept Rory does some horrible things and he does some wonderful things. He and Hero balance each other out and as a pair they extinguish the more extreme aspects of one another's characters.
Anyway, this novel has everything; politics, adventure, comedy, tears, romance and unimaginable wealth!
Read it!
Brilliant January 12, 2008
I first read this book when I was about 16 - I loved it then and I still love it now. Although its basically just a romance, it stands out for me because of the characters and the setting. What's great about the lead characters is that they're very flawed, but you see them recognising and dealing with these flaws over the course of the book, and despite their faults they are both very likeable.
The heroine, Hero Frost, is a beautiful but quite cold and priggish do-gooder who goes out from Boston to Zanzibar to try to bring an end to slavery. As the book goes on, she starts to realise that things aren't as black and white as she's always thought and you really see her character to mature and to become more open and warm. Her relationship with the hero, a charismatic but cynical Emory Frost I really liked - I completely understood their attraction for each other despite their obvious differences and I loved the development of their relationship.
Another thing I loved about the book is the setting. You learn so much about Zanzibar, its people, politics and history that it almost another character - I've been desparate to go there ever since I read the book! Definitely, I'd recommend this book as a great read if you can get hold of it.
SPOILER BELOW
I've read reviews criticising the rape scene in the book. However, this scene (which by the way is implied not described - there aren't any "sex scenes" in the book) made complete sense to me in the context of the book, and I certainly don't agree that it condones rape in any way - in fact, you actually see one character commit suicide because of her rape. When you read the book you can understand (although not agree) why Emory acts does what he does. For me, what the author does is to take subjcts like slavery and rape that we all find repugnant and look at them more closely.
Another wonderful tale of the Far East from M.M. Kaye September 23, 2007
This is the story of Hero Athena Hollis, an extremely independent woman of the 19th century, vehemently opposed to slavery and all of society's injustices and determined to use her wealth to stamp them out. After Hero's father dies, she is invited to join her family in Zanzibar where her uncle is serving as the American Counsel. Hero's family always expected that she would marry her aunt's son by a first marriage, even though she is not sure she's in love with him.
While on voyage to Zanzibar during a huge storm, Hero is washed off the boat deck and presumed dead. However, another ship captained by the infamous slave trader Rory Frost pulls up their rigging out of the sea and finds a half drowned, bruised and battered Hero. Since Hero is such a bruised mess from her ordeal, Rory has no idea what a beauty she is until sometime after she has been returned to her family. To say more of the story than this would be revealing the entire plot, which I don't like to do.
M.M. Kaye's knowledge of the Far East shines through, as it does in all her books. She stays as historically accurate as she can, and pulls no punches when describing the customs of the Island, the slave trade, the cholera epidemic and more. And once again, Kaye is able through her books to remind us that the west and east are two different and completely disparate cultures and will never see eye to eye. One other lesson brought to home in this story is when Hero's eyes are opened to the fact that for all her good intentions, going barging in to another culture you know nothing about and trying to change them "for the better" to the more "civilized culture" is inherently wrong, and one should look to correct what is one own's back yard first before trying to change the world.
This was a wonderful tale and I had a hard time putting it down. Out of print, but readily available at my county library.
 a pro-rape novel May 27, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One thing I can say about this novel is that I'm glad I borrowed it from the library and not bought. I would be ashamed of spending money on a book that presents rape as something that could be justified and lead to a great love! Use your imagination, female readers - would you really be so eager to fall in love with your rapist and want his child? In my eyes, this critical flaw reduces all the qualities of this novel to zero.
 Excellent book but with a flaw December 18, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
M M Kaye’s book “The Far Pavilions” is of course the book that made her famous and it is indeed an excellent book – although very long. Trade Wind is a shorter read and probably an easier read too. Her characters are all drawn warts and all – even the heroine, Hero Athena Hollis, has a very unfortunate tendency to look before she leaps, to believe she knows it all – and it’s a refreshing change to have a heroine who isn’t perfect. From reading the back of the book I presumed Dan Larrimore, the British Naval Officer, would be the hero, and the evil slave-trader Emory Frost was the baddie. But no, we ended up with two goodies, although one of them (Dan Larrimore) is rather dull.The gradual slide into the love story between Rory (Emory Frost) and Hero is portrayed well. She doesn’t immediately fall in love at his feet when she meets him – in fact, she hates him for quite a significant portion of the book. When he first meets her she has been battered by the sea and looks dreadful – it isn’t until she is restored to her family and cleaned up that he discovers that she is (surprise surprise!) beautiful. Their hate/love relationship moves nicely along in the book, as does the gradual unveiling of Hero’s Fiancé-to-be-Clayton as a baddie, until a rather strange section of the book which, for me, spoilt it. Clayton kidnaps and rapes Rory’s slave mistress (the mother of Rory’s daughter) which leads to her death. As a direct punishment, Rory kidnaps Hero. I presumed as this episode played out that Hero would discover at this point that she loves Rory and they would have a nice romantic seduction scene. But no – her rapes her. The next morning he says he won’t do it again – and does it again that evening. Of course, by the end of the book she realises she loves him and they get together, he goes on the straight-and-narrow (although we discover at the end that he hadn’t been such a baddie after all, and had saved many times more slaves than he’d traded) but, to me, there is always this problem that this man is a rapist. Never mind that we discover Hero quite enjoyed it the second time he did it – it just doesn’t sit right with a 21st century mind. Overall I did very much enjoy this book, the evocative writing that helps transport you to the Zanzibar of the mid1800s, helping to instruct me, certainly, on the African slave trade, how it worked, how it was so difficult to stop etc. But that little niggling detail of our handsome hero being a rapist still causes me problems. If only Hero had seduced him, or something, I could have awarded the book five stars. As it is, I can only give it four. But do read it! It’s worth it.
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