I gave this book three stars because it's not *bad*, but my enjoyment level was more like two. I was mostly disappointed that the seafaring theme was quickly dropped; the legendary cursed Dutch ship serves only as exposition for the series. At first I thought that the protagonists (a young boy and a dog) would pop in at different locales to bring otherworldly wisdom à la Le Petit Prince, but they stick in one scenario that bored me pretty quickly. Ok for younger kids, but I just couldn't find any aspect of the story or characters that interested me.

another book I picked randomly at my used book store, and decided to try my luck with it.
and I was lucky indeed. I truly enjoyed this one, and I was surprised that little innocent book had many surprises between its pages, firsts what I thought will be kind of quick paced short tale, turn out nothing of the sort, it took its time , it was narrated through the centuries , at held my attentions, and demanded my time.
the novel is nothing I expected, I thought it will be about a boy and his dog merely surviving, but No it turns out to be more than that, the supernatural was involved, and that totally took me by surprise, the narrating is very innocent sounding and you do feel the age of it , I was thrown away back in time, and I was enjoying my time, Ben's aka Neb's Chr and his dog Den aka Ned, was nothing I ever witnessed, I am very VERY intrigued to read more about these two, but in the same time worried about how it will end , cos it has the potential to break the reader's heart after caring about these two.

SPOILER
..the book is divided into three parts
in the beginning we meet Ben as a poor abused boy running for his life, he is a mute boy , trying to evade his stepfather sons, he ends up aboard the Flying Dutchman, again facing abuse and poor treatment and facing a cruel crew and harsh elements the boy will soon witness a dire occasion as the ship's captain Vanderdecken defies God and gets to be cursed along with his crew to wander the seas for eternity, but fate gives the boy a chance along with his faithful dog to be together and survive the curse, but they take their share of the eternity as they both never age and wonder the earth, their mission is to help people in need, to leave for their next help, add to this the miracle that Ben's regained his ability to talk, and able to share thoughts and converse with his dog mentally, soon you share their travels and their sad departs

Found this also when I was purging books out of my personal Library. Turns out i had two copies. Donating them both to the school.

I loved the Redwall series and find Brian Jacques a very good writer. I found copies of this book and have not read it 'til now. It is a fascinating, legend really. It is about a boy who ends up on the notorious Flying Dutchman, and how he survives. He retains the immortality of the crew of the Flying Dutchman, but since he was an innocent boy he is not condemned to roam the seas forever.

He moves on and has adventures, and is allowed to get over the horrors he endured on the ship.

I would recommend this for young adults and up, with a caveat, the beginning few chapters are bleak.

The beginning of the book and the main concept it established were the most interesting parts of Castaways. The storyline that followed was just...pleasant. Nothing very memorable. And the whole situation with the riddles didn't make sense to me--as in, why someone went to the trouble of making these elaborate riddles and hiding things without telling anyone about it.
But I'm curious to read the next book to see if the boy and his dog meet up with the Flying Dutchman again. Because I know that's going to happen at some point.

I. Absolutely. LOVED IT. I never realized it was a series book though

I thought there was going to be more pirates. Slightly disappointed on that but was still quite an interesting book.

The end.

Brian Jacques never fails to tell a story in such a way that you are right there. Whether it's the animal residents of Redwall Abbey or these two friends traveling together. I am so glad I stumbled over this series.

The cover caught my eye as I passed through the children's section of my local library. A surprisingly good read.
3.5 stars rounded up.
Was very pleased to find it's first in a series.
Will definitely be getting the next volume.

n  "Should the voyage prove risky and the returns valuable, it is wise to sign up your crew from all nations. That way they lack any common bond. A disunited crew is the easiest one to control."n

This is not a book I would pick up normally. I'm not as drawn to straight up adventure novel, but given that this is a friend's favourite book, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Honestly, wasn't a huge fan of the first part of the book when we are actually on the ship of the Flying Dutchman before it becomes a legend. All of the crew are horrible, one dimensional characters save for the greedily mad (but still very intelligent) Captain Vanderdecken. I found it hard to latch on and care about many people besides Neb and Den (which is the point I suppose, but still I wanted more complex characters). As well, I was really disappointed that Neb and Den were more played for pity in the first part then being given a chance to demonstrate their character traits through much action.

I liked the next part better. Though it is definitely slower with less action, but it reminded me a tad of Diana Wynne Jones if she wrote more contemporary-leaning pieces. I love the village atmosphere and seeing everyone come together to solve a mystery. Also the variety of characters we got here was quite charming, and we get a good variety of character clashes for some very funny moments.

Although not my favourite, it was neat to take a break from my usual stories and delve into a more adventure-focused novel - perhaps I'll even take a look into the sequels!

Jacques had an interesting premise that was left in the dust by his return to characters on a quest to absolve suffering for a small group by clever puzzle solving and charismatic diplomacy. He truly can't get away from his beloved Redwall stories and proved to me that he shouldn't try. A good book but one that could've been written by a less talented author. You gave it the good ole college try, Mr. Jacques. Applause for trying to break out of a style just try something different.

In addition to enjoying the opera based on the subject, I’ve always been fascinated by the legend of the “Flying Dutchman.” I’ve appropriated ideas from the legend for role-playing campaigns and novels, as well as recently picking up Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques. Although the book is clearly targeted to the younger side of the Young Adult market, I rather enjoyed the juvenile freshness of a tale which juxtaposes the curse on an evil man (or men) with a blessing which some may see as also having something of a curse element within it. The Flying Dutchman, of course, is cursed to sail with tattered, decaying rigging in tempestuous seas forever, while the “castaways” are blessed with abilities and wisdom beyond their ages and an ability to solve problems with a near-divine acuity. Yet, as with those cursed, the “castaways” move from one individual or group that needs their help to another.

Indeed, the plot seems like it is setting up a series of books (though I didn’t realize it till I looked it up upon completion of this volume) where the human and four-legged protagonists move from place-to-place, time-to-time, and problem-to-problem. In that sense, Castaways of the Flying Dutchman seems like a cross between the ancient Route 66 or Touched by an Angel television series, respectively. Considering the ominous visions and dreams of the ghost ship and stormy seas that the protagonists see when evil is on the horizon, the series even bears a slight resemblance to The Fugitive television series and film with its protagonist helping others while constantly on the run from the authorities over a crime he didn’t commit.

The language in the books is straightforward, though the late Brian Jacques had a bit of fun in writing dialects for many of the supporting characters. And, as one would imagine from the creator of the Redwall series with its swashbuckling depiction of anthropomorphic mice, there is also a talking animal (of sorts) who, in turn, an communicate with other animals. In addition to offering a clever series of puzzles to be solved while reading the book, there are also some morality vignettes designed to teach comportment and consideration—the lack thereof leading to near-certain poetic justice.

Part Treasure Island, part Hardy Boys Mystery, and part Red-Headed League, Castaways of the Flying Dutchman is the kind of book I would have wanted to discover when I was a pre-teen and devouring books by the carload (or, in my case, the bicycle basket) from my local library. It’s such a fine book, I’m sending it on to one of my grandsons so he can enjoy it, too. If you don’t like books with improbable events, treasures, puzzles, and humor, You won’t like Castaways of the Flying Dutchman. But if you do like books with such things, you won’t have to be a pre-teen to enjoy it.