| Product: |
Levkas Man - Hammon Innes |
| Date: |
01/08/01 (43 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Good background to the story, Both exciting and interesting, A good selection of characters
Disadvantages: Innes assumes that the reader has some nautical knowledge
On the run from accidentally killing a man, Paul van de Voort returns to his adopted fathers house (Dr Pieter Van de Voort), only to find him gone. This is not a big surprise to Paul. But what is a surprise is to find a girl challenging him in his fathers home. The girl (Sonia Winters) turns out to be a friend of Pieter's, doing some secretarial & typing work for him.
Paul?s father, who is an anthropologist of some note, has disappeared from a dig in the Greek Islands. At first Paul does not intend to do anything, he never got on with his adopted father, hasn't seen him for 8 years, and clearly has problems of his own. But it seems that destiny has decided otherwise, when an old friend gives him a quiet little smuggling job in the Greek islands.
Paul then finds information in the house that his adopted is his real father, an old tutor of his fathers, Dr Gillmore, pleads with him to look for his father, a man who has a theory about the true origination of Man, and is determined to prove them.
Paul van de Voort takes the smuggling job, chartering a boat owned by Bert and Florrie Barret. But as he has time, he decides to take a detour to the dig where his father attacked another scientist on the dig, a man called cartwright.
A Greek intelligence officer is also on the trail of Dr Van de Voort, but under suspicion of being a communist spy, and he is determined to find his man.
Another important character is Dr Holroyd, an academic scientist, who steals the work of scientist in the field, and uses it to further his own career. Holroyd has already taken Dr Van de Voort's theory, and now he wants the credit for proving it!
Paul Van de Voort must find his father, learn the truth from him, and find the truth about Man...
The background to this story, the world of Anthropologists, or Bone Men, makes this an interesting tale. The characters are detailed well, the near insanity of a determined man to pro
ve his theory, when he is all alone, the only person who can help him being his son, who cares not for the world of Anthropology, and is on the run from authority. The other characters came across to me as lesser parts of the story, although always there.
I found the view-point of the book interesting, told as though Paul Van de Voort is writing his story down later in his life.
My only gripe with this book was the tendency for Innes to assume a knowledge of boats and sailing. Several times, terms were used which I did not understand, I am still not quite sure what a ?Kedge? is, even though it was mentioned on several occasions. A couple of times, something was being done to the sails, although I could not clearly picture these events in my mind as the terminology was beyond that of which a non-mariner would know.
I still enjoyed this book thoroughly, and I was happy with the length, and though it seemed to end abruptly, I was not dissatisfied with it. The story was told well, there was plenty of excitement, suspense and thrills. One of the things that I thought was particularly refreshing was that the end was not a ?happy ever after?, and the boy doesn?t ?get the girl?!
Summary:
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Last comment:
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idodoyou - 01/08/01 Nice op, but doesn't sound my kinda thing!
Lisa :) |
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