Recently finished Dame Anne Salmond's Trial of the Cannibal Dog, which offers an excellent insight into the complex cross-cultural relations between Cook's crews and Polynesians that probably fewer other books offer. There is a lot of detail concerning his friendships with chiefs in the Society Islands and Tonga, as well as the Polynesians that traveled aboard his ships around Polynesia and onto New Zealand, Australia, Batavia and England. To a certain extent, it subverts the whole 'Great Man' archetype of Cook and the rather problematic and simplistic idea that he was a 'Columbus of the Pacific'. Although its undeniable his voyages did open the floodgates for trade and colonization - there were historical forces greater than one man, there is a lot of detail showing Cook's positive impressions of indigenous peoples that were less racist compared to other European explorers. I think its rather refreshing to read a take on the so-called 'Age of Discovery' that decentralizes explorers and focuses on how both cultures perceived the other, giving more thought and consideration for the indigenous perspective. The most interesting take for the book is that concerning his death, in which Salmond explains how complex web of European and Polynesian cultural factors led his death and there was one singular cause for his death (i.e. he was an 'evil imperialist villain').

Joan Druett's biography on the Ra'iatean navigator, diplomat and high priest Tupaia is an excellent biography which also frames James Cook's first voyage from the perspective of Tupaia and highlights the complex relationship between the two expert navigators and his friendships with New Zealand's Maori and Australia's Guugu-Ymittir first nation.