Conhecimento Comum

Nome de batismo: Ball, David Wadsworth
Outros nomes: Ball, David W.
Data de nascimento: 1949-09-12
Sexo: male
Nacionalidade: USA
Local de nascimento: Denver, Colorado, USA
Locais de residência: Boulder, Colorado, USA
Ocupação: pilot
sarcophagus maker
businessman
taxi driver
Pequena biografia: David Ball has been to 50 countries on five continents. He has lived and worked in various parts of Africa. In the course of researching his novel Empires of Sand, he crossed the Sahara desert four times, and got lost there only once. Research trips for other novels have taken him to China, Istanbul, Algeria, and Malta -- a little island where so far he hasn't gotten lost at all.

A former pilot, sarcophagus maker, and businessman, David has driven a taxi in New York City and built a road in West Africa. He installed telecommunications equipment in Cameroun and explored the Andes in a Volkswagen bus. He has renovated old Victorian houses in Denver and pumped gasoline in the Grand Tetons.

He has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and enjoys skiing, fishing, running (some have described it as more like hobbling), baseball, and opera.

His novels include Empires of Sand, China Run, and Ironfire. He is currently at work on a fourth book, which may be the best book ever written.

David lives with his wife, Melinda, and their children, Ben and Li, in a house they built in the Rocky Mountains.

Membros

Resenhas

The Sword and the Scimitar de David Ball

As with most books I’ve reviewed, I read this book when I was way too young and didn’t fully appreciate it for all its worth. I read it again in 2019, at the age of 25, and I think I finally properly understand the value of this incredible book.
One of the most important chapters of Maltese history is the Great Siege of 1565. It was a pivotal moment in European history, and a large part of the history of the Ottoman Empire as well. Against all odds, a country that had very little resources and manpower managed to wait out and win against one of the largest empires in history. This book uses this historical event as a backdrop, while it tells the story of three people embroiled in the conflict.
Maria is a young Maltese girl who’s brother, Nico, is captured by Ottoman pirates as a young boy and sold as a slave. He soon earns his freedom, and becomes an important member of the Ottoman Empire’s army, rising through the ranks until he inevitably ends up having to fight against his own people on the soil he once called home. Maria, through the years that Nico has been missing, has gone through her own conflict of sexual assault by the hands of a very powerful member of the community, as well as becoming semi-ostracized for it and for also being very good friends with the Jewish community of her area (as being Jewish was very illegal at the time). The third player in this story is Christian, a man who just wants to be a doctor but who ends up becoming a Knight of St John and, against his Order’s rules, falls in love.
The story is beautifully told through many different points of view, alternating between keeping up with Nico, Maria and Christian and showing us not only how they grow, but also how they think and feel in one of the best ways that I’ve ever seen ‘show, don’t tell’ exemplified in writing. The book also takes on a host of real historical figures from Malta’s history – the names of nobles, bishops, Knights and Grandmasters are all as accurate as can be, with the dates matching up almost exactly to who these people would have been in real life. It is clear that Ball did a lot of research going into this book and actually put a lot of effort into making this book not only historical accurate, but feel as real as it ever could. The characters he invented for the sake of the story feel as real as the characters that actually lived, and that is a feat that isn’t easily accomplished when writing historical fiction that so heavily relies on the truth.
I think my main criticism of this story lies in the fact that the armour and weaponry, as well as the distances he talks about in the novel from one city to another, aren’t the most accurate. However, that is a minor thing when considering everything else. The novel touches on so many different themes – religion, sexuality, slavery, identity, bonds, death, and war. It does so eloquently and without feeling like it’s trying to make a point about any of them because, at the end of the day, what it’s talking about are realities for the characters in the story.
All in all, this book deserves a 4/5, simply missing a star because if it had been a little bit more accurate with the distances between towns, I (as a native of the country) would have been much happier with it.
… (mais)

Marcado

viiemzee | outras 11 resenhas | Feb 20, 2023 |

Ironfire: An Epic Novel of Love and War de David Ball

A truly historical saga of immense proportions, this novel tells of the adventures of a young surgeon-knight who is caught up in the battle between Christendom and the Islamic world led by the Ottomans. Certainly timely for the gulf between the Christian world and radical Islam is as great today as it was then.

Marcado

jwhenderson | outras 11 resenhas | Aug 18, 2022 |

Empires of Sand de David Ball

In part this is en example of the classic journey of the hero, but it is much more. In it there is a clash of civilizations and the story is directed in part by this and in part by very human emotions. It is an epic tale that takes the reader into a world of adventure.

Marcado

jwhenderson | outras 8 resenhas | Aug 17, 2022 |

El infiel de David W. Ball

La acción comienza en París, en pleno fragor de la guerra franco-prusiana, y muy pronto se traslada al desierto del Sáhara. Dos primos, que en su infancia eran inseparables, se convierten por las circunstancias políticas en amargos rivales. Moussa es hijo del conde Henri deVries, un noble aventurero francés, y de Serena, descendiente de una dinastía tuareg a quien Henri conoció en un viaje en globo por el desierto. El matrimonio, considerado un escándalo por la nobleza francesa, ha infundido en Moussa un sentimiento de marginación que le acompañará el resto de su vida. Paul, en cambio, es hijo de Jules, hermano de Henri, y de la fría y ambiciosa aristócrata Elizabeth, y no sufre los prejuicios que afectan a Moussa. Cuando Francia decide emprender la construcción de un ferrocarril que atraviese el Sáhara hacia el interior de África, el enfrentamiento de los primos se hace realidad.… (mais)

Marcado

Natt90 | outras 8 resenhas | Jul 18, 2022 |

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