Customer Reviews

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab: A novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gideon Defoe's sequel to The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (which I haven't read). A good funny read, somewhat in the Lemony Snicket gothic vein but a bit more burlesque. The pirate captain foolishly purchases the fanciest pirate ship in the yard and as a result the pirates have to turn to increasingly desperate ways of making money such as treasure hunting, putting on a Vegas show, and actual pirating. A "Learn More About..." section in the back suggests ways you can help yourself if you, too, take on unmanageable debt. I actually liked the incidental gags more than the main humorous thrust of the book -- the map in the front showing how the whale evaded the pirates by hiding among tepees in North Dakota, the "Learn More About..." seciton, and the list in the back of 150 non-existent additional books in the series, such as The Pirates! In An Adventure with Rabbits, The Pirates! In An Adventure With Catastrophe Theory, and Back To Pirate Academy, Pirate Captain! vols 1-7.

Weirdly, this is called The Pirates! In An Adventure with Ahab in America even though the original British edition is called The Pirates! In An Adventure with Whaling. Why?

It's Pirates....It's Captain Ahab...It's Las Vegas, I ask all of you out there, what's not to love?!

Fans of the first book 'Pirates: In An Adventure With Scientists' will be well rewarded by this sequel. Mr. Defoe maintains his sense of fun when our favorite band of scurvy curs hooks up with Captain Ahab in his search for the great white whale. I particularly loved the comparative terminology list between pirates & cowboys..that alone is worth the price of the book.

If you want a serious, dramatic work of literary fiction then get yerself a book by Dickens. If you want a fun, fast, rolickingly funny tale of piratical daring-do & the pitfalls of ship-shopping then 'Pirates: In An Adventure With Ahab is for you.

I look forward to 'Pirates: In An Adventure With Rabbits' myself.

Gideon DeFoe brings us a return trip with the Pirate Captain, the pirate with a scarf, the albino pirate, the pirate with gout, the pirate in red,... you get the point. Another fun filled romp with the Pirates who actually attempt some real pirating. We get run ins with Ahab, Black Bellamy, Cutlass Liz, and then sail to Las Vegas. There's even a Pirate-to-Cowboy translation list! Time means nothing here and the humorous references to things yet to come are ... well... humorous. It's madcap shenanigans once again and some extremely light-hearted reading, it'll take you about 2-3 hours to read it at 140-some pages. I just wish these books were longer. None-the-less, I'm truly enjoying these stories, just beware where you read them, sudden outbursts if read in public will draw attention to you.

Monty Python's Flying Circus in piratical dress. If you like Monty Python and are in a cheery mood, Defoe's light-hearted romp is a lot of fun. Sometimes the jokes get a little old, and the Pythons were wittier writers; but Adventure with Ahab is nevertheless a great weekend read. Best of all, it never succumbs to the pitfall, so common in contemporary books, of taking itself too seriously.

It'll be interesting to see what the next book in the series brings.

After reading Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists, I was excited for the release of further adventures. The crew's adventure with Ahab did not dissapoint. While some criticize DeFoe's writing style as overly light and simple, I appreciate these books as highly-entertaining palate cleansers between deanser works. It's not, however, the ease of reading that I enjoy most about his work, but rather the perfect mix of bitterness and nonchalance in his repeated references to rejection a man without comedy in his heart would find thoroughly and unhumorously depressing. I want to beleive DeFoe is wholely truthful in claiming his books are solely to impress a girl. Moreso, I hope that works out for him.

I loved both this book and Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists. Gideon Defoe is probably my new favorite author and had he written the book to impress me, it probably would have worked. But then, I'm a sucker for pirates and hilarity. :) I can't wait for the next book in the series. Keep em coming Gideon!

What fun! I agree with the reviewer who liked the chapter titles. I also found the promised titles listed at the end most hilarious.

. . . but would like something a little less serious. fantastic, better than the first can't wait to read The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists.

While not as fine as the first book, this is a very respectable sequel to the Adventure with Scientists. The gag is not as surprising as it was when I read the first book, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

I still love the collection of characters that drive Mr. Defoe's work, and the new situations make the crew quite fresh.

I hope to see another work of G. Defoe soon.

Gideon Defoe's novels are brilliant because they work so well upon a bad idea- cartoonish pirates. The novels themselves flow like a seven year old's creative writing- full of historical anachronisms, childish metaphors and characteristics- genius. A weird idea, but genius. The Pirate Captain (none of the pirates are named) is as likely to cut one's belly as he is to eat a bowl of cocoa puffes. (He does both). The implausibility and juvenile surrealism of the plots make Gideon Defoe's work addictive. The picture of the author is pretty sexy, too.