Recent Reads {Isle of Swords}

 

Isle of Swords by Wayne Thomas Batson.  I should open with a disclaimer that I am a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and my interest in all things pirate-y has been rekindled since the first POTC movie.  So... I was wandering through a local Christian bookstore just before Christmas, looking for gifts and spotted a display of Batson's books.  The name was only vaguely familiar to me, but a newer book of his that I hadn't heard of was prominently displayed and caught my eye.  Isle of Swords has a very colorful, strongly pirate-themed cover and I had to take another look.  The dust jacket confirmed that this was indeed a pirate story - sold!  I read the book in a couple of evenings, and was really impressed by it - the characters held my interest right from the start, much of it was reminiscent of POTC except that there was a definite undercurrent of a Christian rather than mythic theme.  It wasn't until I'd finished reading and started recommending it to some like-minded pirate fans that I noticed that it was categorized as "youth fantasy fiction"  - well that explains the short chapters, I guess.  LOL But other than that, I didn't notice that it was particularly "young" and since I am a 40ish mom of four, I think that says something about the broader appeal of this particular book.  Oh, and it's beautiful - I mentioned the striking cover art, but each page of the book also adds to the visual appeal - printed in sepia-type tones, rather than black on white, each page looks a little like a page from an aged manuscript.  Easy on the eyes though. My understanding is that this is the first of a planned trilogy - I, for one, am anxiously awaiting the next instalment!