Silver
My Own Tale as Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
I am Silver, and there is no other pirate like me on these waters.
This being the last testament of the infamous pirate Long John Silver, you would do well not to trust a word in its pages. Held captive aboard his own ship, the Linda Maria, he is to be taken to England, where he will hang at the king's pleasure. But he has another plan: to tell a tale of treason, murder, a lost treasure that would rival King George's own riches, and what really happened on Treasure Island . . . if Long John Silver is to be believed.
But is he?
His beginnings as a pickpocket on the streets of Bristol are as dark as the rest of his deliciously devious life. Taken to sea by the pirate captain Black John, Silver soon learns the arts of his trade: the sword, saber, and pistol. He makes his trade in plundering, cheating, ransacking, and murder---more murders than he can bother to count. British, Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Portuguese all fall before him. He takes exceptional pleasure in murder, but never such pleasure as he finds in his search for a most uncommon treasure. To find that treasure he must heed the words of a dead man, solve the ciphers in a well-worn Bible, forgo the love of an extraordinary woman, and climb over the corpses of friend and foe alike to arrive at Treasure Island and find his fortune.
But Silver's tricks are never done. Before he greets the hangman at Newgate Square, he will have one last secret to reveal. Hidden in these pages are clues that lead to his remarkable discovery. And although King George's bounty for this notorious scourge may be handsome indeed, the captain who has captured Silver would not mind adding Silver's riches to his own purse. He will let Silver tell his tale in the hope of learning clues to the treasure's location. And if you were to mark his words as well, you might discover the whereabouts of that treasure yourself.
So we shall, for now, allow Long John Silver to spin his stories, tales of adventure and betrayal, gold and jewels, love and murder.
And he will never leave out the murder. Not Long John Silver.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Chupack's swashbuckling debut, Long John Silver, yes, that Long John Silver, faces hanging back in England after a life of piracy on the seven seas. But before he swings, the aging, fever-ridden pirate is determined to tell his fabulous story, so settle back, me hearties, it's one hell of a tale. Silver has a dual motive: not only does he wish to torment his captor, who has taken him prisoner aboard his own ship, but he also hopes to secure his release by promising to reveal the whereabouts of his fabled treasure. Some of the old Treasure Island gang Ben Gunn, Pew, Jim Hawkins return, but this is no retelling of the original. Chupack is particularly good at pirate dialogue (Silver says of the killing of his mate, Smollet: "he made an excellent corpse on account that you puddened him to the plansheers, so when the wind blowed aft to lee, he bade a farewell to the world"). Murder, a map, ciphers and codes, and even a bit of romance figure in Silver's riveting narrative as well.
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