Peter and the Starcatchers
The Starcatchers series, Book 1
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Hyperion
Fiction, YA Fantasy
Themes: Faeries, Merfolk, Pirates, Twists
***
Description
In long-ago England, an orphan boy named Peter and four companions are shipped aboard a creaking old ship called the Never Land, bound for a distant land and a life of virtual slavery. Also on board are the girl Molly, her governess, and a mysterious black trunk that seems to make strange things happen in its vicinity. Nobody knows what's in it, but a number of people are very determined to find out... including the dread pirate captain Black Stashe, in whose hands the trunk's contents could be extremely dangerous. Soon, Peter is caught up in a centuries-old fight over a dangerously potent magical substance called starstuff, for which wars have been waged and civilizations have fallen. That plain black trunk may tip the balance between the Starcatchers, who try to eliminate fallen starstuff before the wrong people get hold of it, and the Others, who want to use its power for selfish gains. The fight may also alter his own destiny forever.
Review
If you hadn't guessed, this is a prequel to J. M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan, an attempt to explain how Neverland, Peter, and other elements of the book came to be. I haven't read Barrie's book yet, so I don't know how close they were on their explanations. In any event, this isn't a bad story. There are scurvy pirates and ratty sea-dogs and uncharted tropical islands and all. I'm just not sure it gels into its own tale very well. I was often very aware that this was a prequel, that all this was ultimately going to have a certain outcome, wherein a place like Neverland and a hero like Peter would be left for later adventures. The many short chapters - some barely a page long - and illustrations hint that it was intended to be read aloud, but I don't know if young children would enjoy this book as they do Peter Pan, as so much hinges on understanding that this is a prequel. Maybe I would've liked it more had I not kept having to put it down to do other things... or maybe the fact that I kept doing other things meant I had little compulsion to keep reading. Either way, while I didn't hate the book, I didn't enjoy it enough to make finishing it in a timely manner a priority.