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Summary
Summary
In the age of discovery, upon the island of Britannia, there was once a seaside port town called Map. International trade had transformed the world, with every European nation fighting for control of trade routes to the Orient, and there was a fortune to be made for the people lucky, ambitious, and ruthless enough to lay claim to them. Map was the home of the repository for all maps of the known world, a fortress lorded over by the great Rand McNally, a shrewd, cruel, and charismatic monster of a man. And in this town, there lived a boy named Bren.
Bren is the son of one of Rand McNally's cartographers, but he isn't interested in sitting in a dark room transcribing maps all day--he wants to get out on the ocean and discover things for himself. And when his continued attempts to stow away on port vessels lands him a stint cleaning up the town vomitorium, he gets his chance. Bren receives from a dying sailor a strange object, one with a hidden message written in Eastern symbols. Bren doesn't know what it means, but he knows it's valuable--particularly when other people who have come in contact with it start dying. Before long, Bren is on the high seas, apprentice navigator on the ship of a mysterious Dutch admiral, pursuing a famed treasure lost since the days of Marco Polo.
It's only then that he realizes he may have found more adventure than he bargained for.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-Twelve-year-old Bren longs with all his boyish heart to go to sea and have adventures like those he has read about. Despite his father's wishes that he become a mapmaker, Bren tries once again to run away to sea. But after a near disaster, Bren is consigned to helping clean the vomitorium at Rand McNally's Map Emporium. A run in with a dying sailor and a strange coin set Bren on a journey he could never have imagined, involving secret treasure, an island not found on any map, and a strange new friend named Mouse. And while Bren doesn't believe in the supernatural, flashes of it start to appear during the journey until Bren must admit that it's all too real. Bren starts to realize that adventure isn't as romantic as he always thought, but the only way to get home again is to continue the journey he started. This engaging historical narrative will draw readers in who love stories of adventure and exploration with a strong dose of fantasy. The alternate history angle includes both the grossly realistic details of sailing and living in the Age of Discovery (1599 AD) with the dark supernatural creepiness of ancient magic and folk tales. The cliff-hanger ending guarantees that Bren's journey doesn't end with this first book. VERDICT Worth purchasing for libraries where historical fantasies are popular.-Heidi Grange, Summit Elementary School, Smithfield, UT © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Twelve-year-old Bren Owen has always wanted to travel the world seeking adventure, but his father has kept him at home in Map, "the dirtiest, noisiest, smelliest city in all of Britannia." The year is 1599, and Holland is the great sea power in this first book in the Chronicles of the Black Tulip series, set in an alternate past. Holland has colonies throughout Southeast Asia, and when a ship of the Dutch Bicycle & Tulip Company stops in Map, Bren would do anything to get on board. A mysterious object Bren receives from a dying sailor gives him the chance he has been waiting for, but it also causes more adventure than he is entirely comfortable with. Wolverton's (Neversink) story speeds along suspensefully through a history intriguingly different from our own. The privations and hazards of sea travel are thoroughly depicted (as is the unpleasant reality of Bren's work in a vomitorium), and the occasional moment of magic is gracefully understated. The major beats of the plot are fairly standard and the characterizations basic, but Bren's story still entertains. Ages 8-12. Agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Twelve-year-old Bren lives in the small coastal town of Map in an alternate 1599. A mysterious gift from a dying sailor lands him on a sea voyage full of murder, conspiracy, corruption, madness, and--perhaps--lost treasure. This high-seas adventure is filled with action-packed fight scenes, gruesome details, and unexpected magic. The first in a series, the story ends with a cliffhanger. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In the first book of Wolverton's fantasy trilogy, the hero embarks on a gripping high-seas adventure packed with action, magic, and folklore spanning East and West. It's the Age of Discovery, and 12-year-old Bren Owen is yearning for adventure. Unfortunately, he's trapped in the city of his birth on the Britannia coast by the destiny his father has deemed for him: that Bren follow in his footsteps as a mapmaker. Bren's attempts to stow away on ships bound for exotic lands are continuously foiled until a dying man gifts him with a talisman called a paiza that becomes his bargaining chip. Encoded with a secret map to the site of Marco Polo's lost treasure, the paiza is just what Adm. Bowman, master of the Albatross, wants and hence becomes Bren's ticket aboard the flagship of the Dutch Bicycle and Tulip Co. Onboard, Bren meets a Chinese girl named Mouse with the power to talk with animals, and together they crack the code and overcome unrelenting obstacles. After surviving a pirate attack, a mutiny, and, finally, being cast overboard, they find their way to an island long vanished from any map only to realize that their journey doesn't end there. Wolverton deftly draws parallels between Western astrology and Chinese mythology and cleverly weaves fiction and legend into history. Fast-paced and entertaining, this fine trilogy opener will keep both fantasy and historical-fiction buffs turning the pages. (maps) (Historical fantasy. 9-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Bren Owen, child of a mapmaker, wants adventure. His tiny, dirty town of Map holds no interest, not like the maps of fantastical places his father makes. He wants to see sea monsters and meet pirates, like the ones on evil Rand McNally's parchments. After yet another failed attempt at stowing away on a ship in the harbor, Bren is given an official punishment cleaning the vomitorium and his hopes for excitement are well and truly dashed. Magic crashes into his boring and disgusting life when an admiral from the Dutch Bicycle & Tulip company hires him to find a missing and mystical object, believed to grant safe passage to anyone who wears it. It's here Bren finds what he wants most desperately, and then some, among friend and foe alike. This is a fun romp in the line of currently popular steampunk historical-adventure stories. Using the familiar name McNally as a villain gives middle readers a point of entry to this beginning of the series, which is chock-full of thrilling heroics.--Comfort, Stacey Copyright 2016 Booklist
