Dow Amber is the son of timber getter. When he is of age he follows his father and the men of the village up to the plateau to fell trees. While there his heart is stolen... not by a girl, but by an unexpected glimpse of the wild, surging ocean at the base of a headland. His safe world is unmade, and his fate is now to walk in strange and difficult paths.
Andrew McGahan is an Australian author with several adult novels to his credit, including the Miles Franklin winner The White Earth. This book is the start of a fantasy series aimed at teens. When I say fantasy, I need to clarify that there are no elves, dragons or magic rings in this book, and no magic or monsters (though he may have some in store for later books). It is however set in a world that is almost but not quite Earth... a world with a much reduced level of technology.
In that world the Ship Kings have come to dominate and rule over other island people, and Dow’s fascination with the sea is going to bring him into rapid conflict with these inflexible rulers who allow no one else to even sail out at sea.
The writing is for the most part confident and effective. The various characters are interesting, the situations mostly believable, and there is a sense of several sub plots emerging. The language is more formal than I may have expected, but this is McGahan’s ploy to create a distinct “story telling” tone. It is clear from the cover (Ship Kings Book 1) that this is going to be a series, but he completes the story for this book in satisfactory way. My only real reservation is that in the most dramatic adventure or action section (the actual whirlpool of the title) I think both the physical phenomenon and the human action are a bit over the top. Still, he warns at the start that this is a different world with different rules.
I will be interested to see how the story continues. It is a bold move to write a book that is in so many ways a fantasy adventure, yet to avoid the supernatural, fantasy world creatures and magic. There are likely to be larger forces at work, but so far they are described as fate, blood inheritance and a curse... and these are ideas expressed by characters, not directly by the author.
A good read for Year Five and above, and an interesting opening salvo from a good Australian author.
Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre
No comments:
Post a Comment