Plot: At first glance it looks like an epic plot with much change, risk and personal development. But it soon stretches out into pages and pages of nothing happening, and the plot quickly turns too thin to support all the description and introspection. There are very few side plots that stretch on for more than twenty or thirty pages, and as a result it all feels very, very slow. The final descent into romance doesn't help either, especially since it's predictable and stereotyped.

Characters: The main character is the main problem of the story. He's a good man, wrongfully convicted. Which doesn't mean that he'll protest - he simply goes along with his fate and makes the best of it, but he never fights. There is no conflict in him and not even a lot of unkind thoughts about his fate, which makes him monumentally boring. He just endures, and seems quite content with his situation at all times. The side characters never really get to shine because none of them have a lot of fight in them either. All everybody seems to want is to reach the end of the book, when they can finally go home. Until then, they're content to wait and plant vegetables. It's the big difference to the Masters of Rome series - there, everybody was fighting to reach goals or keep others from achieving theirs, which made the characters a lot more interesting. Here we just get a collection of good, nice people who wait a lot and watch their salad grow.

Style: McCullough's writing is epic, and beautifully so when it comes to historical descriptions. It's a pleasure to read, and masks many of the plot and character issues.

Plus: It's extremely well-researched, especially in the first half of the book.

Minus: Can we have some action please? Some conflict? Anything to make these characters interesting? Sharpening saws and pondering the availability of sour kraut is not entertaining for more than a hundred pages at most.

Summary: Good idea, good background, terrible cast of characters. ( )

The first two parts of this Australian epic, and those ironically set in Bristol and then aboard a transportation ship, are well researched and the characters convincingly portrayed - but when Richard Morgan actually reaches New South Wales, the rot sets in. Australia is Paradise regained for poor, hard-done-by convicts, and Richard's story descends into cliched romance territory. By then, however, you're 500 pages in, and feel compelled to plough on!

Nothing really happens - the only dramatic events occur in Bristol, with Morgan's original family. This is more a 'journey of discovery' for Morgan (a real-life historical figure and ancestor-in-law of the author), wrapped around copious research (which also weighs the story down in places, with footnotes, appendices and improbable dialogue). My hope was for an extended version of Thomas Keneally's 'The Playmaker', from the very capable author of 'The Thorn Birds', but the end result was disappointing. Whereas Keneally writes honestly, of men and women, English and Australian to be, McCullough romantises both; I preferred Keneally's Lt. Ralph Clark, mocked in this novel, to the sainted Richard Morgan.

Morgan is hero-worship taken too far - everybody is in love with him, from gay sailors (accepted by Richard and his fellow New Age Men) to his accumulation of 'wives' (the one he dumps unceremoniously, and the Catherine Cookson waif he can't decide whether to adopt or marry). He's handsome, strong, fair and generous; he can do almost everything; he's sensitive and liberal. Gag. I much preferred the 'old' Richard in Bristol, who was quiet but moody, amiable but hapless, capable but average. When he transforms into a bronzed god, McCullough over-eggs the pudding and ruins the effect of the book.

If 'Morgan's Run' referred to his being shipped to the other end of the world with the first batch of convicts sent to Australia, this would be a better story - and over 400 pages shorter! ( )

Loved this book. It’s the story of a man Richard Morgan who is falsely accused of a crime in and found himself transported to Botany Bay (Australia’s first penal colony) in 1788 on the First Fleet. It is a great tale which spans the years from 1775 until 1793 and depicts life for a convict in Botany Bay and later when he is transported to Norfolk Island. I loved learning about this period of time. Richard Morgan’s name is in fact listed on the historical records as being a convict on the first fleet, and did live on Norfolk Island.(I was fascinated by this because there was also a convict on the First Fleet whose surname is my maiden name. I’m not descended from him because it seems he died a couple of years after arriving and before becoming a free man. There are no records of offspring.)
The story was fast paced for the most part, and I became fully engaged with the characters particularly Richard Morgan. His character was completely believable. Great Australian history lesson too. I will definitely read more of this author. ( )

I am a huge fan of Colleen McCollough and have read a great deal of her work (especially her novels dealing with Ancient Rome). This book is absolutely one of my favorite novels.

The novel can be divided into roughly four segments. The first, admittedly the slowest of the four, deals with Morgan's early years. Granted, it could have been abbreviated without loss to the story, however it was by no means difficult to get through.

The second segment involves Morgan's unfortunate unjustified conviction and subsequent incarceration in England. It is at this point that the story really picks up speed and becomes difficult to put down.

The third section details his transport aboard a prison ship to the penal colony of Australia while the final segment follows his life in the harsh landscape of the penal colony.

Once Morgan is arrested, the details surrounding his incarceration and transport are absolutely mesmorizing. McCollough paints such a vivid picture of Morgan's trials and tribulations (and you can only imagine) that you feel like you can see, hear, feel and smell what Morgan is going through.

Just a fantastic novel, by a writer who has written more than a few outstanding works. ( )

Fabulous account of the early history of Australia and its neighbor, Norfolk Island. McCullough is a master! I found myself weeping when the book ended because I had so thoroughly bonded with Richard Morgan and found myself completely wrapped up in his life; I was not willing to let him go quite so soon! ( )