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dotorsojak 's review for:
Brian's Winter
by Gary Paulsen
3 stars, pretty firm
HATCHET is one of my favorite books. I found it in middle age, but still glommed on to it as if I were 14 years old. I only recently found out that Paulson wrote a number of sequels. Obviously, I’m going to have to read them all. Which one is no. 2 of “Brian’s Saga?”
Okay, so this novel is an extension of the original story. It imagines that Brian was not rescued after 54 days and instead had to survive through the cold months of a Canadian winter. Honestly, it’s not terribly plausible. There’s an awful lot of game running around for B to hunt and successfully slaughter. The big animals that Brian encounters—the wolves, the moose, the bears—are also abundant, and the way B is able to deal with them is optimistic to say the least.
There is less emphasis on the modern world tools that B has to work with. In the original, everything turned on the hatchet. Here, the conceit of the story is that he has a lot more stuff from the downed airplane than just his hatchet. I would’ve liked a little more in the way of Robinson Crusoe. If I remember correctly, Crusoe spends a lot of time and effort liberating supplies and tools from the ship, and we get a blow by blow about how he puts stuff to use. The big technology that B spends a lot of time on is a more powerful bow, also arrows. His finding of just the right kind of stone for the shaping of lethal arrow heads is pretty implausible. He does put this tool to good use and that is fun.
I especially liked how Paulson imagines him being rescued—very different from the original book. In fact, I’d have liked the ending better if Paulson had spent more time developing this situation. (I’m trying to write about the rescue without spoilers.)
Overall, despite implausibilities, I liked this book. I’ve always liked castaway narratives.
HATCHET is one of my favorite books. I found it in middle age, but still glommed on to it as if I were 14 years old. I only recently found out that Paulson wrote a number of sequels. Obviously, I’m going to have to read them all. Which one is no. 2 of “Brian’s Saga?”
Okay, so this novel is an extension of the original story. It imagines that Brian was not rescued after 54 days and instead had to survive through the cold months of a Canadian winter. Honestly, it’s not terribly plausible. There’s an awful lot of game running around for B to hunt and successfully slaughter. The big animals that Brian encounters—the wolves, the moose, the bears—are also abundant, and the way B is able to deal with them is optimistic to say the least.
There is less emphasis on the modern world tools that B has to work with. In the original, everything turned on the hatchet. Here, the conceit of the story is that he has a lot more stuff from the downed airplane than just his hatchet. I would’ve liked a little more in the way of Robinson Crusoe. If I remember correctly, Crusoe spends a lot of time and effort liberating supplies and tools from the ship, and we get a blow by blow about how he puts stuff to use. The big technology that B spends a lot of time on is a more powerful bow, also arrows. His finding of just the right kind of stone for the shaping of lethal arrow heads is pretty implausible. He does put this tool to good use and that is fun.
I especially liked how Paulson imagines him being rescued—very different from the original book. In fact, I’d have liked the ending better if Paulson had spent more time developing this situation. (I’m trying to write about the rescue without spoilers.)
Overall, despite implausibilities, I liked this book. I’ve always liked castaway narratives.