The Silver Coin
In 1777 BC, 15-year-old Samsuluna makes his way around the ancient Mediterranean world in pursuit of his Uncle Zim, absolution for the death of his adoptive father Balashi, and one last confrontation with his real father, the evil Dagon. Samsuluna—Sam for short—boards a ship with his friend Keret in search of Uncle Zim. However, soon pirates set them off track and they end up in Crete, where they meet a lovely princess and attempt to stay in the king’s good graces.
The most interesting parts of the book are the descriptions of ancient cities and civilizations such as Cyprus, Crete, Tyre, and Egypt. Drawings of ships, coins, architecture, and several maps provide interest, and combined with chapter-based questions and a bibliography, this book makes a good tool for the classroom. Since notoriously suspect Wikipedia entries make up many of the bibliography’s sources, tread carefully if you wish to further examine the subjects mentioned here.
While the setting and the historical and artistic details are excellent, the writing itself is weak. Stilted dialogue, clunky phrasing, misspellings, and shallow characterization are rife. Events from previous books are referred to continuously, and previous characters pop up without introduction or attribution. The “As you know, Bob …” device to relay exposition in a manner that is supposed to be unobtrusive but is most decidedly not, is overused. In general, there are too many characters, too little depth, a thin plot and a climax with little buildup. Use the book in the classroom as curriculum support; otherwise, it comes up short.
