Deadweather and Sunrise: The Chronicles of Egg, Book 1

This book starts out promisingly. It's engaging and fast moving, and the main character, Egg, is entertaining and likeable.However, the book's treatment of the region's indigenous inhabitants is startling, to say the least. They are superstitious, old school Natives (and that, complete with capital 'N', is the author's term, not mine), just like the 'savages' of nineteenth century boys' adventure stories. Currently enslaved in the region's silver mines, a brief (very brief) discussion of the inequity of this situation suggests that their situation might improve in later volumes, but you can bet that if it does, it will be because they are 'rescued', not because of any action they take on their own behalf. In a combination of racism, sexism and lack of imagination, they apparently used to sacrifice a young woman to the Sun God each year, to be his bride. This is only important because it involved treasure, the location of which is a main theme of the book.The sexism of this work is more insidious than the racism. To start with, 13 year old Millicent seems like a strong female character, and that may well be what the author set out to create. She's beautiful (but of course, women are only worth noticing if they're good looking) and doesn't get on with her beautiful mother for reasons that are not explained at all (women are bitches and can't get on with each other). She takes charge and rescues Egg and his friend Guts, but makes a serious mistake that delivers them all into the hands of pirates (women are no good with directions and they talk all the time rather than paying attention to what they're doing). She is the only character who makes such a mistake, so it stands out.Once on board with the pirates, Millicent is bound and gagged by a few of them with the clear intention of sexual assault (rather a lot of attention has been drawn to the fact that she's only wearing a nightdress, and Egg has been fretting over her likely fate). The pirate chief intervenes, stops the assault and punishes the offenders. What is most disturbing (other than attempted rape in a children's book - "Daddy, why have the pirates only tied up Millicent and not the boys?") is that the offenders' main infraction would appear to be not the attempted rape itself, but that the victim was a child rather than an adult woman. The pirate chief is angry at the violation of his 'Code' requiring children to be well treated, and the offenders attempt to argue that Millicent is not a child, with the clear implication that if she was a woman, then their conduct would be acceptable.After this, Millicent becomes meek and submissive, and hangs onto Egg at all times (women's self confidence is fake and thus fragile, when things get bad they fall apart and need a man to lean on). In the end, she saves the day through emotional manipulation of a man (because that's what women do).In short, a superficially appealing book with an extremely disturbing and annoying subtext. I can't believe this got past modern children's book editors.

I read this with my second grader because she loves action and adventure and this book is definitely filled with action and adventure. I think I should have heeded the age range on this book though since some of the themes are a bit mature. For example, there is a scene in which pirates nearly rape Millicent. They do not get so close that they are lifting up her clothes but they are holding her down and as an adult you understand what is about to happen. My second grader clearly did not understand. This book is filled with so much blood and guts and fighting that fortunately she really did not seem to differentiate this scene from the others. I am now left in a bit of a spot because this book is part one of three so while it does not exactly end in a cliffhanger it is clearly not finished either. My daughter wanted me to buy the next book right away and I did reluctantly although I rather wish we had not started this adventure just yet. That said, it is probably a great story for a high schooler. The mystery is good and the plot compelling. So, if you have a young child who is an advanced reader, I would pass on this book until they older.

I read this with my 10-year-old daughter. At bedtime we read a chapter each night, which is why it took us longer than usual to finish the book. Egg is a wonderful character: sensible, intelligent, resourceful and plucky; but what I particularly liked about him was that he was also unsure of himself and very human. All of the characters were well-drawn, and although many of them were pretty abhorrent personalities, they were complex - not all good, and not all bad, and sometimes appearing to be one when they were in fact the opposite. The pacing was great, and many nights my daughter was sad that the chapter had come to an end as we wanted to know what came next. Guts and Quint were also favorites. As a very small criticism, I do wish that there were some better/more female characters, as Millicent, despite being the heroine, is fairly repellent as a person to start with (spoiled, bossy, arrogant) but she does redeem herself quite cleverly at the end, so I can see how she is evolving for the better and I look forward to the positive evolution of this in the next two books. I am also curious to learn more about Mrs Pembroke who I don't think is as bad as Millicent thinks she is! However my daughter did not point this out, this is just me imposing my adult/parent view on things. Interestingly, my daughter did not like the idea of Egg being smitten with Millicent at first sight...she thought this was just a bit silly...overall, though, we really enjoyed the book, which is beautifully written and conceived and we look forward to the rest of the series.

Found this book really engaging and a fun, easy read. Nice storyline and characterisation, but a little rushed towards the end. I would recommend this book to 9+ readers, but that isn't to say if you are older then you won't enjoy it - I certainly did!

This is a great book for both boys and girls very good for very keen readers will no doubt be purchasing more.

I read this with my 10-year-old daughter. At bedtime we read a chapter each night, which is why it took us longer than usual to finish the book. Egg is a wonderful character: sensible, intelligent, resourceful and plucky; but what I particularly liked about him was that he was also unsure of himself and very human. All of the characters were well-drawn, and although many of them were pretty abhorrent personalities, they were complex - not all good, and not all bad, and sometimes appearing to be one when they were in fact the opposite. The pacing was great, and many nights my daughter was sad that the chapter had come to an end as we wanted to know what came next. Guts and Quint were also favorites. As a very small criticism, I do wish that there were some better/more female characters, as Millicent, despite being the heroine, is fairly repellent as a person to start with (spoiled, bossy, arrogant) but she does redeem herself quite cleverly at the end, so I can see how she is evolving for the better and I look forward to the positive evolution of this in the next two books. I am also curious to learn more about Mrs Pembroke who I don't think is as bad as Millicent thinks she is! However my daughter did not point this out, this is just me imposing my adult/parent view on things. Interestingly, my daughter did not like the idea of Egg being smitten with Millicent at first sight...she thought this was just a bit silly...overall, though, we really enjoyed the book, which is beautifully written and conceived and we look forward to the rest of the series.

Este primer libro y la trilogía completa me encantaron. Esperaba un libro infantil para pasar el rato y lo que descubrí fue una obra muy divertida e imaginativa para "aventureros" de todas las edades. Está muy bien escrito (cosa de agradecer en la literatura juvenil de hoy), tiene un corte más bien clásico, aunque con el dinamismo típico de novelas más modernas, y brinda una combinación deliciosa entre La Isla del Tesoro y Peter Pan que lo hace muy fácil de leer. Es un libro para disfrutar y que estimula la imaginación. Estoy impaciente por recomendárselo a mi hijo, cuando llegue a la edad (adecuado, desde mi punto de vista, para niños a partir de los 10 años).

Let's begin a new adventure.......a must read for Pirates of Carabian fan.