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Emilio Salgari marked my childhood with the anxiety of cliff hangers. After getting hooked to the adventures of pirate Sandokan and his comrade Yañez, I promptly finished this exciting book. Lots of action, exotic settings, and dreadful cliff hangers at the end of each book. Of course, we got the next book, "Sandokan's woman", what we believed to be the end of the series, as it was the only one available at the bookstore. This time the ending was so addicting, that after some research, we ended up spending quite some time downtown hunting for the rest of the series. I think they were 9 books or more. Blessed Porrúa. The first books are very strong, but the series does dwindle by the end.
along with James Clavell's books, this one started my dream of going to S-E Asia/Borneo. Checked in 3 weeks :)
It was fun to read this in Spanish, but I can see why no one has bothered to tranlate it into English. Although listed as a classic, it's a fairly simplistic child's pirate story that probably would have charmed kids thirty years ago. Truthfully, the characterization of the head pirate (Sandokan) is a bit silly, and is telling of the author's youth and hero worship. Most of us are used to expecting characters to have some flaws, so it comes off a bit goofy when the "Tiger of Maylasia" never flinches or missteps.
Well, I guess it was fun in a weird sort of way :-) Salgari appears to be a legend, and while this book was easy enough to read, it certainly didn't grip me. It felt/read as if it was an author's first book, which it is not. I can only imagine the translation (I read it in English) isn't up to scratch, but even forgiving that there is just some strange weirdness in the story, vacillating characters, numerous repetitions and so on.
Fué mi primer libro de aventuras ¡qué vieja soy! A los niños ya no les gustan esta clase de historias porque no hay seres fantásticos, pero yo siempre lo releo con cariño.
A kid's book that adults can enjoy because of brilliant layered story lines.
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