Rating: 
Summary: Worthy "Dutchman"
Review: Everyone knows how great Brian Jacques is, from the 12-plus Redwall series. Though he specializes in medieval rodent battles, Jacques's talent shines in a new and unique offering. Though the cover, with a handsome lad in a storm-tossed ship, seems to indicate a very different kind of book from the kind it is.Ben, the mute hero of the story, survives the destruction of the Flying Dutchman, a sailing ship. Now he wanders the Earth with his talking dog (interesting switch), living forever thanks to an angel. Apparently they're supposed to "bring confidence and sympathy, help others to change their fate." Though this sounds like the beginning of a "Once in a Lifetime"/"Touched by an Angel" drama, it's anything but. Centuries pass, and the two come to the peculiar town of Chapelvale. The citizens allow them to stay, but the villain is plotting the industrial destruction of their town. A scramble ensues to save the town, full of riddles and hidden clues. Ben and Ned (the dog) are a delightful duo, well-balanced and sympathetic. Jacques' writing style is smooth and polished, his well-loved formula of good vs. evil as present as ever, even if Ben isn't a walking mouse with a sword. With delightful dry wit and a supernatural thread running through the prose, Jacques steps outside his series. As well-beloved (and still fresh) as the Redwall books are, hopefully he will write more books in this vein.
Rating:
Summary: Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
Review: I found this book a big disappointment. I hated all of the characters, including Neb, as they were all very irritating and flat characters that weren't humorous, interesting, or new. Big big disappointment, especially since Brian Jacques did such a great job on his redwall series. So, forget about reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Corny
Review: I had rather high expectations of this book, because the cover looks cool. Shiny, too ... But, once I finally finished this book (yes, it's the type of book which you "finally" finish), I came to this amazing conclusion: "What a stinky book!" As I said in my title, it's incredibly corny. If it gives you some idea of how cheesy this book is, there's a *talking dog* which has "a sense of humour that any intelligent being would envy." Good grief. (And all the dog's "jokes" made me flinch!) The beginning of this book is only good because they make the plight of the Flying Dutchman's crew seem more unpleasant than other stories manage to. However, most of the story takes place in a cutesy little English village. The town is being threatened by a company who wants to tear it down to make a quarry or something. The only way to save it is to find some sort of ownership papers. So they spend the whole book following all these clues which were put there by somebody who, for reasons unknown, wanted to hide the papers in a safe place or something. There really seems to be no reason for the papers being hidden behind all these different clues. As if it wasn't enough to hide the stuff from his descendants in the first place, whoever it was wrote *poems* as clues. The type of poem-clues nobody would ever figure out. (for example: [page 173] "Turn as a third Gospelmaker would" It turns out because the third Gospelmaker is "Luke," so you turn "left." whooo boy...) But of course, the kids in the book figure everything out pretty much instantly, follow clues to find more clues, and end up finding papers saying that this old lady own the entire town just in the knick of time. If the book isn't dumb enough already, the characters just make it worse. The main character is cheerful, smart, etc. The other two kids, Amy and Alex, are both attractive, intelligent, yada yada yada. All the good guys are the same, while the bad guys are all exactly the reverse. How original. ...
Rating:
Summary: BJ's next series!
Review: I love the Redwall books, and when I saw this on sale for only $2, Icouldn't resist! I started out thinking it wouldn't be so good, but I thought wrong! This book is very similair to BJ's Pearls of Lutra book, but in the real world. It starts in 1620,the episode of the Flying Dutcman, skips to 1623, the episode of Loiue the Sheperd, and then skips way over to 1893, the episode of Chapelvale and exactly 200 years after after the last episode. In the third section, they search for the wills to Chapelvale, owned by a nice old lady named Winnifred Winn who has, up till then, been considered the owner of Chapelvale. But when a big-city business, in the name of "progress", takes some surveys of the land, and finds the town is seated upon a major limestone deposit,giving a deadline one week away from that day.And on the way they find ancient treasures from the Byzantine empire. This is a very good book, I got hooked and one day I read over 200 pages of it! Overall, Bj's made a really good book worthy to be made into a series.
Rating:
Summary: Not unlike Redwall
Review: I read this and found that it was extremely similar to Jacques series REDWALL. It follows with a little myth, and his book persuades you to feel sorry for a small mute child taken into a pirate ship and forced to do the cooking duties for the entire crew. He finds a poor underfed dog to stay with him, and the two bond together. When the ship is wrecked, the boy is saved by some sort of divine force and given a voice. He is also given the ability to commute thoughts telepathicly with his dog, and the two roam the world without aging. He meets people and they solve Redwallish mysteries with Redwallish problems and Redwallish enemies.
Rating:
Summary: This book was boring.
Review: I thought this book was dull and it was hard to get through.
Nothing ever happened to the book's characters after the storm, they always know the answers...i didnt enjoy this book much.
Rating: 
Summary: First Part Good, The Rest Really, Really, Really Bad
Review: I've liked Jacques' Redwall books (though even those are becoming more and more repititous) and when I heard about this book, a novel based on the mystery of the Flying Dutchman, I was intruiged. That said, I'll start off with the good. The first 90 or so pages, dealing with the Flying Dutchman's voyage and subsequent fate, was good. The writing seemed to present an old style tale of high adventure on the sea and I enjoyed this change from the medieval world of Redwall. However once the narrative moved to the small town in 1890, this book became absolute drivel. The plot, of trying to find a hidden deed so the town wouldn't be demolished by an industrialist, lacked any kind of excitement. The characters were poorly done, the heroes-the boy and dog- so sweet, good, nice, and morally right, made me sick. Very unrealistic, no depth to them at all. The villians likewise, were nothing more than moronic fools. Most dissapointinly, the rousing action that I have enjoyed in Jacques other books was GONE here. The scuffles with the bullies that were passed off as action scenes were laughable and the constant preaching by the boy of 'you shouldn't fight' made me feel like I was being preached to. The rest of the story moved at a dull pace, with the constant going back and forth trying to find clues: merely filler for the lack of plot and action. To any fan of Jacques' work on Redwall I DO NOT reccomend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good plot, but...........
Review: If you have read any of Brian Jacques' other books you should have an idea what this particular one will be about. Even though its main characters are people, unlike the majority of his books which are animals, it has the same kind of idea. I was a little disappointed with the book because I expected it to be about the ship, The Flying Dutchman, and it was not after about half way through the book. Instead, it was about solving riddles, making friends, and beating the bad guy, all on land. However, the plot definitely is a good one. A boy and his dog are shipwrecked, and are the only ones who are spared from a curse that will doom the ship and its crew to sail the seas for ever. The boy and his dog then go on and help to save a town from being ruined. This is really a good book, but if you have read any of Brian Jacques' other books, and think that this will be a lot different because it is about people and not animals, think again.
Rating: 
Summary: A Decent Read, yet not of Redwall Standards
Review: In "Castaways of the Flying Dutchman," Brian Jacques seeks a different outlet than that readers have previously been privy to in the excellent Redwall saga. Mr. Jacques writes capably, proving once again his talent, yet somehow this novel does not quite follow its acclaimed literary predecessors. While the opening is full of excitement and several twists, such as the fairly good foreshadowing prologues, once readers follow the shipwrecked boy and his talking canine companion to a quaint English village, it slightly goes downhill. The characters have fairly good devices, yet as the story progresses the dialogue slightly goes stale and we find a much too easily resolved ending. The book is fine and commendable, yet after Redwall, it is hard to become accustomed to the writer's new pursuits. However, die-hard Redwall fans will have "Taggerung" to keep them pacified.
Rating:
Summary: Castaways!
Review: ISBN#0-399-23601-5
PRICE $$$
PAGES-327
PUBLISHER- PHILOMEL BOOKS
PUBLISHING DATE-2001
BOOK REVIEW
THE CASTAWAY OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN The Castaway of the Flying Dutchman, a mystery adventure by Brian Jacques is a story in three parts.
The first part, The Ship, takes place on board the boat, The Flying Dutchman. Neb, a mute boy, Den, a dog and Captain Vanderdecken are the main characters in this part. The crew of the ship tries to round Cape Horn at the bottom of South American. Often a place where there are great storms, the crew encounters a large storm, where everyone is thrown overboard. It is only Neb and Ben who are saved. An angel saves them and gives them special 'gifts' such as the gift of speech and eternal life. The angel also says that' wherever you go you must help the people in need'.
In Part 2, called The Shepherd, Neb and Den having been washed up on the beach are brought back to health by a shepherd, named Luis. After three years living with him, another storm comes and while trying to herd the sheep, Luis falls from a cliff and is killed. Neb has a vision from their special angel. Hearing a bell Neb is told he must leave at this time.
In Part 3, The Village, the year is 1896 in England. Neb and Den have changed their names to Ben and Neb. They arrive in a small village by train, having once again been directed by their angel. There they find a lady being tormented by a gang called the Grange Gang. Ben taking pity on the old lady tells Neb to attack them, which drives the gang away. There he finds that businessmen are going to knock down the village, and replace it with a cement factory. Since Ben is always supposed to 'do good' he goes out to find the lost deed to the town to protect its future. To find out whether Ben finds the lost deed and saves the village you'll have to read the book. I would suggest this book to both genders and for people who enjoy a good mystery and adventure. Some of the reading in this book is kind of hard so I would suggest this to people in 5th-9th grades.
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