Silver

October 8, 2012
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island inspires former UK poet laureate Motion's latest foray into fiction. Jim Hawkins, Stevenson's narrator, having spent his share of the treasure now owns a quiet inn on the Thames. His son, also named Jim, who narrates the tale, has grown up hearing his father's incessant yarns about the Hispaniola's voyage. One evening a tomboyish girl appears, traveling in her own boat and seeking out young Jim. She is Natty Silver, daughter of wily old Long John, come with a proposition from her father: with the help of Jim the elder's map, which his son must "borrow," the two children will set sail with a crew handpicked by Silver and recover the treasure left behind by their fathers. Jim consents, slips the map from its usual hiding place, and Jim and Natty's ship, the Silver Nightingale, departs, unknowingly bound for far more than bars of silver and a few marooned pirates. Motion's writing is smooth and sure, evoking a period atmosphere without undue effort. But aside from descriptions of the island's flora and fauna, some psychological depth, and an injection of moral gravity greater than treasure seeking, the narrative arc of his tale feels too much like its predecessor. Fans of the original will doubtless enjoy this story of high adventure, but might come away wishing Motion had been more ambitious in his sequel.

September 24, 2012
Narrator David Tennant displays a flare for creating accents and unique voices in this sequel to the Stevenson classic from poet laureate Motion. This time out, it’s the son of Jim Hawkins who tells a swashbuckling tale of pirates and treasure that starts when a woman claiming to be Long John Silver’s daughter visits his father’s inn. Motion’s prose is replete with flowing descriptive passages, and this gives Tennant ample opportunity to bring to life the book’s lovely imagery, as in the following portrait of Silver’s home: “For rather than being made of bricks and mortar, the walls were comprised of planks, spars, branches, roots, pieces of barrel and every other sort of wooden material the river happened to have carried within reach.” A Crown hardcover.

August 1, 2012
The British critic/biographer and former Poet Laureate, in his spirited sequel to Stevenson's classic, Treasure Island, keeps the core of the original (the quest), while adding his own distinctive imprint. It's 1802, and 35 years since the Hispaniola set sail for Treasure Island. Former cabin boy Jim Hawkins owns a Thames-side inn outside London; his only child, also called Jim, is a well-educated amateur botanist. This 17-year-old Jim is our new hero and narrator, but don't expect Stevenson's pell-mell pace; Motion's rhythm is much more leisurely. A blanketed figure in a small boat beckons to Jim. This is Natty, the tomboy daughter of the treacherous Long John Silver, who has his own inn upriver. It's love at first sight for Jim, despite his unexplained fear of women. Natty takes Jim to meet Silver, blind and feeble. The old reprobate's dying wish is for the youngsters to retrieve the remaining silver from the island. A ship and crew await them. Silver needs Jim to get the map, which his father keeps locked away; Jim's theft of the map weighs heavily on his conscience, but he's not about to pass up an adventure with Natty, disguised as a man for the voyage. Their position on board is privileged; Natty is her father's representative, and Jim's history is well-known. The situation on the island is horrifying. Stevenson's three maroons, or castaways, have been joined by passengers from a shipwreck: 50 slaves and their guards. The maroons have imposed a reign of terror, resulting in a Conrad-ian "impenetrable darkness." Natty will be captured. There will be exciting reversals of fortune before her stouthearted Captain's party confronts the former pirates, who are almost too freaky in their "disgustingness." Good people die; Jim must spill blood. In these scenes, Motion matches the raw vitality of Stevenson, though his conclusion is far more grim. Motion's plot wobbles as he casts his net wide to include slavery, but his ambition is admirable, as is his stylistic elegance.

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March 15, 2012

The former British Poet Laureate, once editor of the Poetry Review and editorial director of Chatto & Windus, as well as a cofounder of the Poetry Archive and biographer of John Keats and Philip Larkin, Motion brings a lot of literary firepower to this sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's beloved Treasure Island. It's now 1802, and with the help of his son, a grown-up Jim Hawkins is tending his inn when the waiflike Natty arrives with a request from her father, Long John Silver. And they're all off again to Treasure Island.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Following the release of strikingly imaginative variations on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island by first-time novelists Nick Dybek and Sara Levine, British biographer and poet laureate Motion, knighted for his literary service, presents a next-generation sequel. Jim Hawkins Jr., motherless since birth, is now 18 and weary of working for his taciturn innkeeper father (formerly Stevenson's boy adventurer). Enter one-legged Long John Silver's pretty, tough, mixed-race daughter, Natty, and a risky yet alluring invitation to sail to Treasure Island to complete the violently interrupted quest of their fathers. Jim falls hard for the carefully aloof Natty (who tries to disguise herself as a boy) and is equally ardent in his passion for nature, which inspires Motion's finest passages. The young seekers inevitably find themselves in dire straits, but Motion complicates the formula by turning the island into a barbaric microcosm of nineteenth-century slavery. An attempt to adapt Stevenson's effervescent yet wry, lessons-learned style to an older narrator nearly capsizes the ship, but Motion remains in full command of this clever and satisfying high-seas tale of madness and brutality, treachery and courage, resourcefulness and romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

Starred review from May 15, 2012

From the moment that Natty Silver, daughter of Long John Silver, pulls up dockside at Jim Hawkins's waterfront inn and enlists Jim's son to search out his father's old treasure map and accompany her on a return trip to Treasure Island, a rollicking adventure is under way. Now blind and frail, Long John Silver has a dying wish: he wants his daughter to recover the silver treasure he was forced to leave behind years ago. To that end, he has provisioned a Baltimore clipper and hired a competent crew to sail across the Caribbean. What they discover when they finally make landfall is an island of depravity. The pirates left behind have commandeered the survivors of a marooned slave ship and have abused their victims egregiously. The battle to uncover the treasure and rescue the slaves will require resourcefulness and courage. VERDICT As modern sequels to well-loved classics go, this worthy follow-up by former British poet laureate Motion has everything: a seagoing adventure with endearing heroes, barbarous pirates, venomous snakes, a loquacious parrot, and romance. Can't miss. [See Prepub Alert, 2/27/12.]--Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.