I love the wonderfully evocative opening, full of rich descriptions - new hopes, new beginnings, and new lives to be lived our in a strange new land the other side of the world. The setting of the ship as a location and important element of the story, is also new and on it's maiden voyage.
We are introduced to Mayken, a young girl sailing to be with her father who she has never met. She has been told that her father has a marble mansion, legions of servants, stacks of gold dishes and numerous horses. Roses adorn the front door - or is it a rose tinted version of his life?
A preacher with his family are brought into the story and straight away we can see that he is not a straight-faced puritan - he has humour and character.
Barely a few pages into the story and I want to know more about these characters, I care about them. Why is Mayken really being sent across the world to be with her father? The opening lines describe their being many layers to her - what are they?
Why has the preacher uprooted his family, taking them on a journey lasting many months, across the world. Is it religious persecution or another reason?
The opening chapter is laden with foreshadowing. Red and white roses like blood and snow mixed. Cut them and they'll only live for an hour. Their thorns are vicious and will take out an eye. Bloody flux, bloody flux, bloody flux. A red lion on the prow of the ship, claws sunk into the beam and staring down into the water. The ship is bleeding. Ships worms burrowing into the timbers of the ship and sinking it. Gun ports painted red.
Mayken enquires of the ships name - Batavia she is told - is that a damned word? Batavia she sings, waiting for catastrophe. All of them portents that things are not going to be well. (As I read a lot of nautical history I am well aware of what happens).
But this will be just the beginning of the historical sections of this novel
I love time slip novels and I want to keep reading, what happens next, what happens to the characters how do they connect with the characters in the modern section of the story. (I have already got this book listed on my virtual to be read list)
I think the cover is absolutely wonderful - it paints a picture of the novel - the ship floating between the two worlds past and present, as if a ghost, connected to them both.
We are introduced to Mayken, a young girl sailing to be with her father who she has never met. She has been told that her father has a marble mansion, legions of servants, stacks of gold dishes and numerous horses. Roses adorn the front door - or is it a rose tinted version of his life?
A preacher with his family are brought into the story and straight away we can see that he is not a straight-faced puritan - he has humour and character.
Barely a few pages into the story and I want to know more about these characters, I care about them. Why is Mayken really being sent across the world to be with her father? The opening lines describe their being many layers to her - what are they?
Why has the preacher uprooted his family, taking them on a journey lasting many months, across the world. Is it religious persecution or another reason?
The opening chapter is laden with foreshadowing. Red and white roses like blood and snow mixed. Cut them and they'll only live for an hour. Their thorns are vicious and will take out an eye. Bloody flux, bloody flux, bloody flux. A red lion on the prow of the ship, claws sunk into the beam and staring down into the water. The ship is bleeding. Ships worms burrowing into the timbers of the ship and sinking it. Gun ports painted red.
Mayken enquires of the ships name - Batavia she is told - is that a damned word? Batavia she sings, waiting for catastrophe. All of them portents that things are not going to be well. (As I read a lot of nautical history I am well aware of what happens).
But this will be just the beginning of the historical sections of this novel
I love time slip novels and I want to keep reading, what happens next, what happens to the characters how do they connect with the characters in the modern section of the story. (I have already got this book listed on my virtual to be read list)
I think the cover is absolutely wonderful - it paints a picture of the novel - the ship floating between the two worlds past and present, as if a ghost, connected to them both.