Flint and Silver: A Prequel to Treasure Island

Product Review

A swashbuckling triumph of storytelling, Flint and Silver provides a thrilling ride back to the rich and wondrous world of Long John Silver and his fiendish nemesis Joseph Flint in this prequel to the beloved classic Treasure Island.

John Silver had never killed a man. Until now, his charisma, sheer size and, when all else failed, powerful fists had been enough to dispatch his enemies. But on a smoldering deck off the coast of Madagascar, his shipmates dead or dying all around him, his cutlass has just claimed the lives of six pirates. Finding himself surrounded by their revenge-thirsty crewmates, Silver fears his promising merchant navy career is at an end. But then the pirate captain makes him an offer he can't refuse.

On the other side of the world, Joseph Flint, a naval officer wronged by his superiors, plots a bloody mutiny. Strikingly handsome, brilliant but prey to sadistic tendencies, Flint is regarded as the most dangerous bandit on the high seas.

Together these gentlemen of fortune forge a deadly and unstoppable partnership, steering a course through treachery and betrayal while amassing vast treasure. But the arrival of Selena, a beautiful runaway slave with a murderous past, and Flint's schemes to secure the pieces of gold for himself trigger a rivalry that will turn the best of friends into sworn enemies. And so the legend of Treasure Island begins -- an epic battle of wits and blades that unravels the mysteries of Robert Louis Stevenson's greatest work on the sweltering seas of the Caribbean.

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review

(54 customer reviews)

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

Five stars are not enough, but look at my signature, June 19, 2009

John Edwards "John Drake" (Cheshire, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flint and Silver: A Prequel to Treasure Island (Hardcover)

I've given the book five stars for two reasons. First: because it deserves more, but five is all I'm allowed. Second: because I wrote it. (the sharp-minded will spot the connection here).

I'm joining in because I'm astonished at the quality of the reviews. The UK Amazon site, has just ten reviews mostly quite short. We don't have the Vine programme, and the US population is five times the UK's but there is a clear cultural difference in the formidable length, depth and breadth of the US reviews. So ... may God bless America because I certainly do.

Most seem to like the book, which flatters the ego of a keyboard-basher like me, trying to grind out a few lines to earn a crust. But all opinions are valid, and some people don't like it. So here is my responses to criticism.

1. The book is too violent. Well ... it's about pirates, not Snow White, Bambi, or fluffy the easter bunny. It wasn't written for children, and I point out that Stevenson was...Read more

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

'Tis a good pirate yarn, only.......do not compare it to Treasure Island., April 18, 2009

Archie Mercer "Archie" (Yorba Linda, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flint and Silver: A Prequel to Treasure Island (Hardcover)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

It's been over 30 years since I read Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (Enriched Classics Series), a book that I thoroughly enjoyed as a young lad. So reading Flint & Silver took me back to a story and of characters that I loved. But as I read John Drake's prequel I found things that didn't jive with my memory of how the main characters were and acted. So much so that I felt I had to go back and reread Treasure Island before I could address the issues in a review.

First, though, I enjoyed Flint & Silver as a story on its own. It starts off quickly and rarely lets up. In Flint Drake had almost a blank canvass to create a vile and treacherous character with a strange sense of humor that matched up well with Stevenson's brief description in TI. The battle scenes are detailed and rather bloody. Overall the story is exciting...Read more

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

The Origins Of Treasure Island, April 23, 2009

Philip R. Heath "Gadgets, Music, & Books" (DFW) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flint and Silver: A Prequel to Treasure Island (Hardcover)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

Flint and Silver by John Drake is a prequel to Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. It serves as the backstory for the central figures (John Silver and Joseph Flint) of Stevenson's classic. Trying to add on to a classic is risky business, but Drake manages to do so with a high degree of success. However, Drake's novel is a different style than Stevenson's. While Stevenson wrote for children, Drake's includes violence, language, and sex. So don't expect to read this to your children as a bedtime story.

Drake begins his tale prior to Silver and Flint's becoming acquainted. If a linear plot is a requirement for you, then you should probably skip this one as time skips around significantly from one chapter to the next as a matter of course for about the first half of the book. To help the reader along, though, the author essentially starts each chapter like a captain's log with a date and location so you at least have a reference point starting out.

The...Read more