Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion

In Silver: Return to Treasure Island, the offspring of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver take to the seas to return to Treasure Island. It's been forty years since the events of Treasure Island and Jim and Natty want to retrieve the treasure that was left behind on the island. The whole trip is more than they bargained for and getting to the island and finding the treasure is only part of the battle. They still have to return home.

This was such an interesting concept that I was really looking forward to the book. It started off wonderfully, but about halfway through, I got bored. It just seemed to go on and on and nothing very interesting was happening. I had imagined lots of swashbuckling action with pirates and sword fights. I guess there was some of that, but it wasn't enough to hold my attention. Perhaps if I had read Treasure Island or if I was more familiar with the story I would have enjoyed this book more or at least knew what to expect.

Motion is quite an accomplished writer. He's written fiction, poetry, criticisms, biographies and memoirs. He was the poet laureate of the UK, has been knighted for his contributions to literature, and is a professor of creative writing. I'm only sorry I didn't enjoy this book more.

There are plenty of positive reviews out there. This book just wasn't for me.

For more information about this book, please visit the Random House website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at RandomHouse for this review copy.

Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion, Broadway Paperbacks (Crown, Random House, ©2012. ISBN 9780307884886(Trade paperback), 402p.