The Treasure of Dead Man's Chest

Commander Johnson deserves 5 stars just for ambition. He has not merely written a sequel to Treasure Island BUT ALSO a sequel to A. D. Howden Smith's excellent but mostly forgotten  Porto Bello Gold : A Prequel to Treasure Island  AND offered an explanation for a 20 month gap in John Paul Jones' history AND for how he overcame several obstacles to obtain one of the very first Colonial Navy commissions AND cleared up another mystery involving another historical figure or two AND produced several coincidental meetings of old acquaintances AND suggested that it is all based on a true story AND ... well, perhaps that is the problem. That's quite a lot for just over 300 pages, which all too often breaks through the most sincerely attempted suspension of disbelief.Which is a shame because Johnson has put together a pretty rousing adventure overall. His Long John Silver may be the most Machiavellian of all, spinning a scheme that would cause Andrew Murray to blanch, carrying it out mostly from offstage like a spider tending a monstrous web (though when he finally takes a hand, it tends to be decisive). I hesitate to describe his scheme both because I don't want to give too much away and because it is so damn complicated!Briefly, having failed disastrously at convincing Robert Ormerod to reveal where the larger portion of the treasure was buried in  Porto Bello Gold , Silver has an epiphany (so to speak), what Ormerod won't do for money or in response to threats he MIGHT do for a higher cause: The Revolution. Silver's adopted brother, a comparatively honest merchant, has come into possession of a shipload of the finest cannon, disguised as ballast, in a ship he obtained from the notorious pirate, Joshua Smoot, Flint's illegitimate son, who was unaware of their presence in the bowels of his prize. Silver's idea is to get John Paul Jones, currently in town and on the run for killing a mutineer, to convince the American would-be revolutionaries, to convince Ormerod to dig up the treasure and trade it for the cannons, without anyone realizing that he is the author of the scheme because who would ever trust Long John Silver?That's just the beginning; now things start to get complicated. JPJ picks a bad time to fall in love; the Revolutionary leaders figure out where the cannon originally came from; detouring to the original Treasure Island to pick up the silver bars left behind by the Hispaniola is suggested; Smoot gets wind of the scheme; a certain Lieutenant James (Jim) Hawkins, RN, shows up; etc.; etc.; etc.As tends to be the pattern in Treasure Island versions, prequels, and sequels, one of the most interesting relationships is between a naive young boy and a Machiavellian old man. The man of course is LJS, and the boy is David Noble, the son of LJS' adoptive brother. David is easily the least naive (and most conflicted) of these potential proteges because he knows exactly who his uncle is and is willingly helping LJS to succeed with his scheme (well, the part of it he knows about, anyway). When he's lying through his teeth trying to con JPJ, you know he's a long way from Jim Hawkins or Robert Ormerod for that matter.Faults other than a plot that makes an Indiana Jones movie look like a PBS documentary and a crappy job of editing? I can think of two that really bothered me. First, by far the most boring, tiresome character in the book is John Paul Jones. Maybe the retired USN officer author didn't feel comfortable messing around with one of our greatest naval heroes, or maybe JPJ just wasn't that interesting a person at this stage in his life, but the result is that whenever JPJ takes the stage, the reader will be impatiently waiting for him to leave it. Not what I've come to expect from reading about the later man, that's for sure.Second, Johnson really treats A. D. Howden Smith's characters rather shabbily, spoiling the ending of  Porto Bello Gold , which came as a surprise because with the increasingly wild revelations as the novel hurtles toward its end, I was sure that he was going pull a rabbit out of the hat for them, too, and I could even see how he was going to do it. Instead we get the craziest revelation of all, and Smith's characters get zilch.It says on the back of this edition of  Dead Man's Chest  that this book is being developed into a major motion picture. I'm sorry, I just can't see it. Besides the problem of having crammed in more plot twists than could be handled in a mini-series, such a movie REQUIRES a movie version of  Porto Bello Gold  and a remake of Treasure Island just to set it up! The only hope would be if all three books could somehow be slipped onto Peter Jackson's reading list! Still, I'd love to see it happen, if only Commander Johnson would agree to fix the problems with the ending!

Loved it. Great way to keep treasure island going.

Not only is this a sequel to "Treasure Island" it is also a sequel to "Porto Bello Gold" by Arthur D. Howden Smith. Characters and events from both novels fill this book, which takes place at the beginning of the American Revolution. Long John Silver spends more time as a mover behind the scenes, with young Captain John Paul--who is forced to add 'Jones' to his name--being the central character for the majority of the tale. Pirates, treachery and surprises in a convoluted tale to recover a treasure as great as that left by Flint on Treasure Island, hidden on the islet known as Dead Man's Chest.

It was a fun read.

Awesome

A great book, but the type is very small, making it difficult to read. Even more disappointing is the fact that apparently its short sighted publisher only elected to print it in a paperback version. I have always felt that any book worth writing or reading should be available in hard back form. If one is available, please advise.

There were times I agreed with the very positive review on Amazon, and times I agreed with the vitriolic one. Too many plot lines and some lack of clarity. Some of the nautical detail left me behind, but that's my ignorance. Yes, bad editing (misspelt names etc). Absurd that Howden Smith's "Porto Bello Gold" is not named anywhere; if I hadn't known that "Treasure Island" prequel I think I'd have been completely lost. Silver's early attempts to get the location of the treasure from Robert seemed to me unclear, and to require a lot of turning back to understand. And the final twist - you could see something like it coming - is just odd. Why (without issuing spoilers) the lady in question had, as a girl, a different name from her father, I never understood. Nor why she was said to have had TWO children. She is very sanguine about being an unmarried mother, too, for her time. David's romance seems a bit of an afterthought, and his sweetheart a rather uninhibited wooer for a girl of the period. The poor girl who DIDN'T survive being taken prisoner is given somewhat indecently short shrift.BUT there is some terrific writing, especially involving the young pirate, and the maroons who were left on Spyglass. At times the author convinces you he is keeping all the balls in the air successfully, and bringing [back] to life his ambitious mixture of original characters, Stevenson's characters, Howden Smith's characters and real people.Commander Johnson's pirate captain Smoot seems to be a version of Flint, which is fair enough as - of course - he has two names and a secret parentage. His Dutch captain seems like a version of Howden Smith's Peter Corlaer in "Porto Bello Gold", until he displays some more distasteful characteristics.It seems a little surprising that originally English characters like Silver and Gunn should be so wedded to American Independence - but I can forgive the Commander a good deal for the originality of some of his writing.

I feel in love with "Treasure Island" about 45 years ago as a child. I've always longed for a sequel. I've read many sea historical fiction novels since then but I couldn't find a "Treasure Island" sequel. I've read a biography on John Paul Jones. He's a man I admire and appreciate. I was captivated with "Dead Man's Chest" by the time I reached the third page and hated to put it down. CAUTION FOR PARENTS: This book is definitely for the 13+ age group. There's blood, murder, treachery (of course we're talking Long John Silver and pirates here!) cannibalism, illicit sex, drinking. . . These are (mostly) vital to the plot, but not appropriate for the under 12 crowd. Can I give this book 10 stars?

While the idea is good: taking some missing months in Jone's life and filling the gap with a bit of swashbuckling derring-do, the execution disappoints. The characters are all too flat, JP Jones to good and honest to be true, and the prose is very stilted on occasion. If you are interested in a novel that brings characters from Stevenson's Treasure Island back to life, then Bjorn Larsson's "Long John Silver" is far superior, on every level.