![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
”The Devil is coming to your house.”
Crazy words begin a gripping story of madness, demons and death. Home from the sea, a boy’s uncle entrances him with tales of life aboard ship and of foreign lands. Soon the boy decides to join his uncle on his next voyage.
A violent storm blows the ship off course and the crew find themselves marooned in a sea of ice. As their despair grows, an albatross seems to befriend them and restore their hope. But seized by an evil madness, the uncle kills the great bird with his crossbow, and so condemns all on board to unimaginable horrors, of which life in death is the greatest …
An unnamed boy lives with his widowed mother in a seaside village. One day his uncle – a sailor – arrives at their house. His tales of adventure and foreign lands entice the boy to join him on a ship heading for Japan. But things soon go wrong and when the ship’s captain decides to head home, the ship’s thrown drastically off course by an awful storm and finds itself marooned in a becalmed sea of ice.
As the crew struggles to survive hope comes in the form of an albatross whose visits are welcomed by the crew as a good omen. So when the boy’s uncle - in a fit of madness - kills the albatross with his crossbow the crew’s fury is such that not even the boy is willing to stand up for him. Unfortunately low morale is the least of their problems because the bird’s death has condemned them all to a fate so awful that death would be a welcome release …
Chris Priestley’s YA dark and gothic novel is a retelling of THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. However while Priestley does well in depicting the awful circumstances in which the sailors find themselves, the characters are too thinly drawn for the reader to empathise with. In particular the decision not to name the boy makes it difficult to relate to him and he is largely confined to being a witness who at best reacts to events rather than drives them. The biggest problem though is that the uncle remains an enigma whose motives are never fully explained or even explored. Although the book is faithful to the original text it offers nothing new to it and as such, while it’s an okay read it isn’t a great one.
The biggest disappointment in the book is the depiction of the uncle. He starts promisingly with the boy being warned that he’s evil and surrounded by demons and it soon becomes clear that he’s a braggart and a coward with a disturbing love for his crossbow. However his relationship with the boy remains shallow because there’s little confrontation between them and while I did enjoy the neat way Priestley interlinks their fates it was too little, too late for me.
All in all it’s a handy primer to THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER but it doesn’t stand as a good book in its own right.
The Verdict:
Chris Priestley’s YA dark and gothic novel is a retelling of THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. However while Priestley does well in depicting the awful circumstances in which the sailors find themselves, the characters are too thinly drawn for the reader to empathise with. In particular the decision not to name the boy makes it difficult to relate to him and he is largely confined to being a witness who at best reacts to events rather than drives them. The biggest problem though is that the uncle remains an enigma whose motives are never fully explained or even explored. Although the book is faithful to the original text it offers nothing new to it and as such, while it’s an okay read it isn’t a great one.
THE DEAD MEN STOOD TOGETHER was released in the United Kingdom on 12th September 2013. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
Crazy words begin a gripping story of madness, demons and death. Home from the sea, a boy’s uncle entrances him with tales of life aboard ship and of foreign lands. Soon the boy decides to join his uncle on his next voyage.
A violent storm blows the ship off course and the crew find themselves marooned in a sea of ice. As their despair grows, an albatross seems to befriend them and restore their hope. But seized by an evil madness, the uncle kills the great bird with his crossbow, and so condemns all on board to unimaginable horrors, of which life in death is the greatest …
An unnamed boy lives with his widowed mother in a seaside village. One day his uncle – a sailor – arrives at their house. His tales of adventure and foreign lands entice the boy to join him on a ship heading for Japan. But things soon go wrong and when the ship’s captain decides to head home, the ship’s thrown drastically off course by an awful storm and finds itself marooned in a becalmed sea of ice.
As the crew struggles to survive hope comes in the form of an albatross whose visits are welcomed by the crew as a good omen. So when the boy’s uncle - in a fit of madness - kills the albatross with his crossbow the crew’s fury is such that not even the boy is willing to stand up for him. Unfortunately low morale is the least of their problems because the bird’s death has condemned them all to a fate so awful that death would be a welcome release …
Chris Priestley’s YA dark and gothic novel is a retelling of THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. However while Priestley does well in depicting the awful circumstances in which the sailors find themselves, the characters are too thinly drawn for the reader to empathise with. In particular the decision not to name the boy makes it difficult to relate to him and he is largely confined to being a witness who at best reacts to events rather than drives them. The biggest problem though is that the uncle remains an enigma whose motives are never fully explained or even explored. Although the book is faithful to the original text it offers nothing new to it and as such, while it’s an okay read it isn’t a great one.
The biggest disappointment in the book is the depiction of the uncle. He starts promisingly with the boy being warned that he’s evil and surrounded by demons and it soon becomes clear that he’s a braggart and a coward with a disturbing love for his crossbow. However his relationship with the boy remains shallow because there’s little confrontation between them and while I did enjoy the neat way Priestley interlinks their fates it was too little, too late for me.
All in all it’s a handy primer to THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER but it doesn’t stand as a good book in its own right.
The Verdict:
Chris Priestley’s YA dark and gothic novel is a retelling of THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. However while Priestley does well in depicting the awful circumstances in which the sailors find themselves, the characters are too thinly drawn for the reader to empathise with. In particular the decision not to name the boy makes it difficult to relate to him and he is largely confined to being a witness who at best reacts to events rather than drives them. The biggest problem though is that the uncle remains an enigma whose motives are never fully explained or even explored. Although the book is faithful to the original text it offers nothing new to it and as such, while it’s an okay read it isn’t a great one.
THE DEAD MEN STOOD TOGETHER was released in the United Kingdom on 12th September 2013. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
