Freely imitating (as is his wont) classic tales—particularly, in this case, the nautical fiction of C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian—Malloy fashions a quick-paced historical doorstopper that sends a British spy, a brilliant young midshipman and a beautiful American heiress crisscrossing the Atlantic. To refill his treasury and take firmer hold of his American possessions, Napoleon has struck a deal with Count Vallon, a fabulously wealthy and utterly psychotic pirate king. It’s up to secret agent Paul Beaumont and his quick-study new protégé Peter not only to foil the plot, but also to spring Lucy Cosgrove, a socialite more comfortable with a long rifle in her hands than a fan, from the clutches of Vallon, who has whisked her away to his hidden Caribbean fortress. Backed by a supporting cast of familiar types, many many of whom die in often-brutal ways, the three meet, part and meet again on the way to a properly melodramatic climax. Replete with colorful characters, the good ones clearly separated from the evil, plus full measures of danger, intrigue and romance, this seagoing epic is tailor-made for beach reading. Billed as first of a series. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-439-72454-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Low in physical violence, while being rich in moral and ethical issues, as well as in appealingly complex characters and...
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-316-05777-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This weave of perceptive, well-told tales wears its agenda with unusual grace.
Two young people of different generations get profound lessons in the tragic, enduring legacy of war.
Raised on the thrilling yarns of his great-grandpa Jacob and obsessed with both World War II and first-person–shooter video games, Trevor is eager to join the 93-year-old vet when he is invited to revisit the French town his unit had helped to liberate. In alternating chapters, the overseas trip retraces the parallel journeys of two young people—Trevor, 12, and Jacob, in 1944, just five years older—with similarly idealized visions of what war is like as they travel both then and now from Fort Benning to Omaha Beach and then through Normandy. Jacob’s wartime experiences are an absorbing whirl of hard fighting, sudden death, and courageous acts spurred by necessity…but the modern trip turns suspenseful too, as mysterious stalkers leave unsettling tokens and a series of hostile online posts that hint that Jacob doesn’t have just German blood on his hands. Korman acknowledges the widely held view of World War II as a just war but makes his own sympathies plain by repeatedly pointing to the unavoidable price of conflict: “Wars may have winning sides, but everybody loses.” Readers anticipating a heavy-handed moral will appreciate that Trevor arrives at a refreshingly realistic appreciation of video games’ pleasures and limitations. As his dad puts it: “War makes a better video game….But if you’re looking for a way to live, I’ll take peace every time.”
This weave of perceptive, well-told tales wears its agenda with unusual grace. (Fiction/historical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-29020-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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