Book Beginnings on Friday (5)

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

This is from the prologue of The Secret River by Kate Grenville.

"The Alexander, with its cargo of convicts, had bucked over the face of the ocean for the better part of a year."

There's actually a lot of information to be found in this sentence, especially if you consider that the author is Australian. The convicts must be on their way from England to Australia, so we know at least some of the places in which the story takes place, and we know the approximate time period (late 18th to 19th century). Thus I now have the setting, and I can start getting to know the characters.