The latest addition to Gideon Defoe’s masterful works continues the exciting and exhilarating romps through Europe with the witlessly brave Pirate Captain and his crew. The trouble starts when the Pirate Captain is mistaken for Karl Marx, but the adventure escalates as the Pirate Captain and his crew scour Paris to try and figure out why everyone hates communists. A brilliant comedic adventure that is a wonderful addition to Defoe’s other pirate adventures. Highly recommended.

It’s hard to review this book without a) giving away too much of the plot and b) finding enough different words to describe just how enjoyable the book is. It is a rollicking good time that presents an amusing take on the lives of pirates as they follow their devoted Captain around America searching for money to get out of debt with. I enjoyed this book very, VERY much and would highly recommend it to anyone, pirate fan or otherwise.

If you’re looking for a book about Charles Darwin, piratical absurd-ism and radioactive elephants, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’ve come looking for a serious adventure starring pirates (does such a thing even exist?) then go pick up something else. A tantalizing romp around the Atlantic Ocean and merry old London, nothing is sacred in this nautical adventure. Pirates disguised as scientists fit right in at a meteorological ball…The Holy Ghost will be wrestled by a manpanzee….a pirate will attack Big Ben….and much more in this delightful tale of villainy and ham.

Even though I read The Ezekiel Option (Book 3) before reading The Last Jihad (Book 1) and now The Last Days (Book 2), I really wish I hadn’t because now I have to read book 3 all over again….sigh. The Wikipedia spoiler highlights just aren’t good enough! Rosenberg has the talent as a writer to suck a reader in with characters and political/military excitement like you wouldn’t believe. I read this book in a week and usually I take at least a month to read a book. I don’t really have much else to say except how incredibly enjoyable and engaging Rosenberg is as an author. Oh and he continues his prophetic streak. The book begins with a terrorist attack in Gaza (don’t worry it’s not a one-trick pony) that kills Yasser Arafat and attacks a U.S. diplomatic convoy. “Two weeks before The Last Days was published, a U.S. diplomatic … Continue reading →

That’s right I’m still awake. Why? Because Joel Rosenberg write a book you can’t put down when you get to a certain point. Sure he abuses the classic foreshadowing techniques of great fiction (if a character swears to let nothing interfere with his family’s upcoming vacation, you know that character will die), but the way Rosenberg writes…..I mean I read The Ezekiel Option about a year ago and I can vividly remember having to just stop what I was doing, take the book and go lie on the couch and read for several hours. Joel Rosenberg’s claim to fame (aside from being a phenomenal fiction writer) is that he’s somewhat of a prophet through his books. The Last Jihad is his first novel and was nearly completed before 9/11 happened. And in the book a hijacked plane attacks the President, who discovers it’s an Iraqi plot and charges into a … Continue reading →

As I said in my reviews for The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, I’m still missing the thing that’s so uproariously anti-Christian in these books!  The trilogy is a fantastical vision of multiple worlds so close together yet so far apart, of two children coming of age and falling in love, of men striving to set right the wrongs of the universe, of women realizing the debts they owe their children.  Here’s where the story concept deviates so differently from our world view and why (I think) Christians are so afraid of it.  In the worlds of the trilogy, there is no explicit Christ figure.  Mediation between God the divine Authority and man was left up to God’s agents on earth, the Church.  So all of the really evil things you hear about the Church doing so that human kind is redeemed (think Inquisition) are apparently God’s will for … Continue reading →

So last night I inadvertently finished Book 2 of His Dark Materials. I say inadvertently because it’s a 3-in-1 book, so I have no decent idea when one book is going to end, making the flow of the story not at all like intended I think….making it too easy to just “keep reading” instead of just experiencing each book as a singular entity. But anyways, the story is getting more and more exciting. The Subtle Knife introduces Will Parry, a boy from an England much more like ours than Lyra’s, who has to watch over his mother. Her ailing mental health makes it very easy to be noticed, something Will tries to avoid. Will discovers a curtain in the air leading to another world where he meets Lyra and sets out to find his father, who disappeared on an Arctic expedition when Will was a baby. Featuring angels, witches and … Continue reading →

The first in Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy, The Golden Compass is a fascinating fantasy novel. Yes I can see hints of atheistic beliefs (science over religion, etc.), but I can’t see any clear demand/request in the writing. I suppose children shouldn’t absorb it with open minds and be allowed to believe whatever they want afterwards, but I can’t see anything overly bad in it. And it’s a really fun story! A fantastical world (rooted in London*) where humans are forever joined by a small animal daemon that is there constant companion. Where bears are intelligent (and have opposable thumbs) and can manipulate metal and rule their ice kingdoms with honor and tradition. Where witches fly and shoot bows and arrows (cuz you know, they’re not magical or anything…). I recommend checking out the book and I’ll let you know how much the movie adaptation sucks as soon as … Continue reading →