I thought n  Castaways of the Flying Dutchmann was going to be a book about pirates and I've enjoyed Brian Jacques' n  Redwalln series, so I figured it would be a great book; however this was not a story about pirates, as such, it was more about a boy and his dog... but none less enjoyable!

Jacques weaves a fabulous tale about survival (to begin with), as a mute boy dubbed "Neb" finds himself running away from an abusive step-family and into an equally abusive crew of pirates aboard the feared Flying Dutchman. While at port one day, Neb spots an alarmingly thin dog and decides to smuggle him into the ship. Neb calls the dog "Denmark" or "Den" for short and both form an unbreakable relationship.

A phenomenal story line, characters, settings, everything about this book was great. It even has a dog! I loved it and cant' wait to read the sequels.

If your looking to start reading fiction, or are looking, for a fiction book to read. I would recommend this book, if you like, mysteries, and action; and are, looking for a book, with not a major overlap, with fiction and real life.

Phew, another book that I've had for ages, knocked off the old bookshelf and into the donate box. This was cute, very reminiscent of Redwall, with a plot centered on a series of riddles that need to be solved in order to save a town. I'm not really sure where the whole bit about the Flying Dutchman really ties in, other than as a hook, but I imagine later books get into that. Not sure I'll ever read them, but either way, I enjoyed this.

Cozy vibes with a smidgen of religion tossed in, but the good kind. I liked both the pirates and the village parts. The written accents were a little hard to read but I got an audio copy from the library that made it make more sense.

so nostalgic and exciting at the same time

An absolute triumph! My love of reading can be partially attributed to reading this book as a kid and upon reading it again, none of the joy and adventure have been lost over the years.

I love Brian Jacques! This book was so good, but the ending made me so sad. I feel so bad for Mix Winn. The love between Bed and Amy was cute, but I understand why Ben stayed away from it since it was the 1800s and he was around in 1620.

Well, at least the author has a coherent narrative voice. Why do I finish tedious books?

The boy's adventurous origins have nothing to do with the main story and I think that at least the -first- book in this series should have more water in the main plot to fit in with the beginning. It's like the beginning is just slapped on as an afterthought, because the editor wanted Jacques to come up with a reason why there is an immortal orphan running around England. Or maybe the beginning came first, but he couldn't figure out how to make a complete book out of the seafaring theme, so he wrote what should have been a separate book and sewed them together like Frankenstein.

The beginning is promising, if a bit conventional. There is ocean adventure, followed by pastoral prose chapters; but once you get to Part 3, prepare yourself for an annoying, one-dimensional, grow-out-of-able trufflehunt. It's like a bad cartoon; a very long one. Go ahead and read the first two parts, but don't worry about the last part.

Is this a nostalgia five? Possibly. I regret nothing.

There might be some general envy of the a boy and his dog being able to communicate via their thoughts and save towns from certain destruction. Or just that Jacques writes worlds that the reader wants to be a part of.

The moral of this story might be that we change even when our favorite books don't.

Forgot how heartbreaking these books could be. Immortality isn't that great, is it?

Yeah. It was a book