Sea People
In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific
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Sea People
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Narrated by:
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Susan Lyons
About this listen
‘Wonderfully researched and beautifully written’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan
‘Succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of Longitude
For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Until the arrival of European explorers they were the only people to have ever lived there. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history.
How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonise these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the eighteenth century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind.
For Christina Thompson, this mystery is personal: her Maori husband and their sons descend directly from these ancient navigators. In Sea People, Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years. A masterful mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People is a vivid tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.
©2019 Christina Thompson (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedCritic Reviews
‘I loved this book. I found Sea People the most intelligent, empathic, engaging, wide-ranging, informative, and authoritative treatment of Polynesian mysteries that I have ever read. Christina Thompson’s gorgeous writing arises from a deep well of research and succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and The Glass Universe
‘To those of the western hemisphere, the Pacific represents a vast unknown, almost beyond our imagining; for its Polynesian island peoples, this fluid, shifting place is home. Christina Thompson’s wonderfully researched and beautifully written narrative brings these two stories together, gloriously and excitingly. Filled with teeming grace and terrible power, her book is a vibrant and revealing new account of the watery part of our world’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan
‘A compelling story, beautifully told, the best exploration narrative I’ve read in years’ Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
‘Fascinating and satisfying’ Simon Winchester, author of The Map that Changed the World
‘Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Polynesia, the Pacific, or the spread of humanity around the globe’ Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
‘Christina Thompson…is perhaps ideally placed to try to answer the question [of Polynesian origins] – and in Sea People, her fascinating and satisfying addition to an already considerable body of Polynesian literature, she succeeds admirably’ New York Times Book Review
‘Compelling… These pages will unleash the imagination [and] spark insight’ National Geographic
‘Superb. . . . An illuminating read for amateur sleuths and professional scholars alike’ Spectator
What listeners say about Sea People
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Naomi Brewster
- 11-06-2022
Well done
So much I learned growing in 1980’s Waikato has been superseded or updated. It was nice to hear an account in the evolution of understanding of Polynesia as it helped me place where some of my teachers got their knowledge. An excellent account and my admiration for the achievements and culture of the wayfarers of the pacific just grows and expands.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Denis
- 29-12-2019
MUST READ FOR POLYNESIAN HISTORY
I loved this book.
It has been very well researched, citing eye witness accounts, excerpts from journals and stories from the Polynesians themselves.
There is a wealth of information on the islands and the history of Polynesia.
Thompson has written history in a way that keeps you hooked and not bored when reciting what happened in history.
I will definitely read it again, as it has taught me so much about my history as a Polynesian and reignited my desires to learn more about my ancestors.
Thank you Christina for writing this book!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-01-2023
Great book but…..
Please next time can you please give the narrator lessons in pronunciation of Polynesian vowels. It was fingernails on blackboard inducing.
Aside from the terrible pronunciation, fantastic book and would highly recommend.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Renee Hawkins
- 21-06-2024
Well researched
Sea People is a well researched exploration of Ploynesian peoples history and culture. Very informative, engaging and well read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- DJ Shearer
- 29-05-2022
A must
An outstanding review of the wonders of Polynesian discovery. The reading is beautiful, the story wonderful and the writing engaging. Thoroughly recommended read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Malakai T
- 05-09-2021
Pronunciation of Māori and Pasifikan names matter.
Loved the breadth and depth of investigation in this book.
Pronunciation was a struggle for the narrator. Each time te pō was pronounced as tay poh, much like Pai Mei said, it caused my ears discomfort. Other Māori words and names were butchered.
With organisations such as the Australian National Rugby League commentators making an effort to pronounce player names properly, this was a let down to what was otherwise a great audio book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mark Henwood
- 24-07-2021
Wonderful
Thoroughly enjoyed this collection of the different pieces of the puzzle of Polynesia. Looking forward to see my family in Tonga now, and just maybe go exploring... Also loved hearing a New Zealand voice reading after 10 years away from home...
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 28-03-2023
Thank you
This book helps me understand my thoughts and feelings about who we are and where we came from before arriving in Aotearoa
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 28-03-2021
Polynesian origins
Well done & thank you, Christina. For an extensive & wide research with supporting references on the topic of Polynesia. Anyone interested in reference to, Abraham Fornander mentioned in this book. Google Play Books has free pdf download.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris Jennings
- 22-04-2019
Great content, poor choice in narrator
From a scholarly perspective this book is an interesting account of Europeans discovering and researching Polynesia. It’s a great overview and interesting account of the history of first contact and attempts to understand Polynesia and the origins of its people, but it is by no means a synthesis of that knowledge. It’s almost more of a European history in that way. Make of that what you will. I think this book would have been much better served by someone who is fluent in a Polynesian language narrating the book. No offence to Susan Lyons, but I don’t think her posh British affectation was a good fit for this book at all. This became especially annoying when the author’s tendency to include long run-on sentences listing several items or concepts were narrated in this way. Also, her inconsistent mispronunciations of Polynesian words really made it a struggle. I think it was s real testament to the interesting concept of the book that I made it through to the end. In conclusion I think this would be a better option for hard copy or kindle.
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7 people found this helpful