Rating: 
Summary: No Lost Star
Review: This is a credible first novel and cranks up a rousing tale. Perdido Star is strong on plot detail, incident, and excitement, but weak on psychological coherence and development or skilled writing. Nevertheless, it gains momentum and overcame my incredulity. Ostensibly a tale of two young men coming of age in 1806, Black Jack changes too quickly and wiseacre Paul LeMaire not at all, on a round-the-world voyage to commit a murder. Murder and teenage revenge is nearly the sole motive in a story full of combat, shipwreck, diving, battle, natives, ships, piracy, diver's bends, and unfulfilled longing. The story is weak on the slang, lore, and events of actual seaboard life (as seen in the well-written sailing fictions of Lambdin, Llewellyn, O'Brian, or Woodman), but has numerous episodes of underwater action from the junior author (in an age when hardly a sailor was able to swim). A light read most suitable for younger readers who want action and "clean living" from old sea dogs, not nuance and ambiance or anything off-color. First of a series. If a collector, avoid the poor paper of the PB. See Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, for a young man's real life at sea under merchant sail, off the coast of 1837 California.
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