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Summary
Summary
The world knows Jack London as awriter who lived his own thrilling,real-life adventures. But there areparts of his life that have remainedhidden for many years, things even he couldn'tset down in writing. Terrifying, mysterious,bizarre, and magical --these are the SecretJourneys of Jack London.
We meet Jack at age seventeen, followingthousands of men and women into the YukonTerritory in search of gold. For Jack, the journeyholds the promise of another kind of fortune:challenge and adventure. But what he finds inthe wild north is something far more sinisterthan he could have ever imagined: kidnappingand slavery, the murderous nature of desperatemen, and, amidst it all, supernatural beasts ofthe wilderness that prey upon the weakness inmen's hearts. Jack's survival will depend on hisability to quell the demons within himself asmuch as those without.
Acclaimed authors Christopher Goldenand Tim Lebbon, along with illustrator GregRuth, have crafted a masterful tale bothclassic and contemporary, a gripping originalstory of the paranormal in the tradition ofthe great Jack London.
Author Notes
Christopher Golden is the co-author of The Watcher's Guide and several Buffy the Vampire Slayer books, and the author of many other adult and teen thrillers. He is also a comic-book writer and pop-culture critic.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Arriving in Alaska to seek his fortune in 1893, 17-year-old Jack London sets out for Dawson with two men, but their small craft is unable to navigate the treacherous ice flows and they must camp in the wilderness during the harshest part of winter. When Jack becomes lost in the snow, he discovers that supernatural forces are observing and influencing him; a wolf covers his freezing body with rabbits and a mysterious woman gives him exotic food and shelter in the middle of the tundra. In a final battle against a wendigo, Jack faces questions about who he is and who he will become. Golden and Lebbon jump on the revisionist bandwagon and bring London to life as a teen adventurer. His story seems solid and historical, despite the brief interludes with the supernatural, but there's not much in the way of character development. The authors have taken a generic teen archetype and pasted London's name on it without developing his personality any further. Unfortunately, the supernatural element seems shoehorned in and allows for too many unflattering comparisons to Rick Yancey's much more successful The Curse of the Wendigo (S & S, 2010). Action is continuous but unexciting. Ruth's black-and-white sketches suit the general tone of the novel, but would seem more at home in Waldman Publishing's "Great Illustrated Classics" novels. This is a secret journey that could have remained a lost journal.-Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Launching the Secret Journeys of Jack London series, Lebbon and Golden offer a gripping, gory alternate history of author London, adding supernatural threats to the earthly ones he's known to have faced in real life. Searching for gold in the Yukon Territory, ambitious 17-year-old Jack seeks to define himself on his own terms, liberated from his mother's embarrassing involvement with spiritualism ("Who is Jack London?" he repeatedly asks himself, hoping to find the answer in the wilds). When Jack and his companions, Jim and Merritt, hit the mining town of Dawson, Jim is killed and the others conscripted into a slave gang to pan for gold. That's when Lebbon and Golden exchange their adventure-survival story for one of psychological horror. In the ruthless but majestic wilderness, Jack encounters the legendary, cannibalistic Wendigo and the Russian forest lord Leshii, as well as his sirenlike daughter who sequesters Jack in her eerie, idyllic world. Ruth's handsome illustrations add a further haunting element to this adventure, which questions what it means to maintain one's humanity in the face of awesome forces both natural and uncanny. Ages 10-up. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Seventeen-year-old Jack London heads to the Yukon Territory in search of riches and adventure. He encounters friends, foes, and supernatural forces that complicate his journey, all the while battling nature, humankind, and self to return home a new man. It's not deep, but adventure seekers will enjoy the tale's frozen North action. Occasional full-page black-and-white illustrations help set the scenes. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Seventeen-year-old Jack London heads to the Yukon Territory in search of gold, adventure and his place in the world. His much older brother-in-law turns back early, but Jack hooks up with Merritt and Jim, two younger men, on the trail to Dawson City. After a rough winter spent trapped in a fur trader's cabin, they arrive to find less a "city" than a mining camp peopled with demoralized, often crazy failed prospectors. On their first night in town, they're pressed into slavery and forced to pan for gold for a gang of thugs. Jack barely has time to dream of escape before something wholly unnatural attacks and destroys the camp. Saved by a mysterious, beautiful young woman, Jack recovers from his wounds, only to find that his dealings with the supernatural are far from over. Veteran horror-fantasist and comic-book author Golden teams with Lebbon, with whom he's written a series for adults, to reimagine the early years of adventurer and novelist London. What might have been the boy's adventure equivalent to the plethora of classic/chick-lit/monster mash-ups is instead merely a periodically interesting tale of an action "hero" who's repeatedly rescued by outside forces from the consequences of poor decisions made in the pursuit of masculine identity. Sloppy plotting and a slow setup make this whitewash of randy, alcoholic, socialist London unsatisfying; let's hope future volumes show improvement.(Historical fantasy. YA)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Imagining author Jack London as a 17-year-old adventurer is the easy part after all, it's not far from the truth. Golden and Lebbon's gamble is peppering their story with the fantastic and supernatural, and it pays off. In this gung-ho series starter, Jack enters into the Yukon gold rush. However, an early winter puts him and his new friends through the gauntlet: a raging river, a frigid season spent starving in an isolated cabin, capture into the gold-panning slave trade. And those are the good months! Golden and Lebbon write with a gritty assurance that brings the fantasy elements most notably, Jack's multiple face-offs with the mythic Wendigo down to earth. The book's second half stretches into dark folktale territory, as Jack finds himself being rescued by a mysterious woman whose love forms a kind of prison. Connections to London's real life are everywhere: a wolf acts as Jack's spirit guide, and he literally learns the call of the wild. Occasional sketches add a bit of cinematic drama. Best of all, this first chapter kicks the door wide open for almost anything in book two.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist
