Young Writers Society

Before I begin, a disclaimer. This will not be a positive post and if you loved the book, you'll probably hate me. So don't read this just to get upset.

---------

Title: SilverFin
Author: Charlie Higson
Date First Published: 2006
Publisher: Miramax Books/Hyperion [The same people who published Percy Jackson, you can even see it in the font]

Image:


----------


Let me start out by saying a friend of mine gave me the book, so I feel guilty by bashing on it. But it gave me reason. I don't know what the original James Bond is about. I haven't watched any of the movies and have never experienced a thing about it. People probably quote James Bond all the time but I don't pick it up unless it's the surname first, then full name thing. And perhaps that's a bad thing. It would've made me more accepting of the book. How would that be a good thing? Then the author would by riding on Ian Fleming's work, I guess. The plot for SilverFin is as follows.

Back of the Book wrote:
The dark waters around a Scottish castle hold a sinister secret...

SilverFin.

SilverFin is deadly.
SilverFin is the future.

One man with a thirst for power
will use it, whatever the cost.

One boy stands in the way.

His name is Bond,
James Bond.

So already I don't know what's going on. This gives me the sense that the author is indeed just riding on the fame, and that's not what ticked me off about this book.

My Points:
It was all too short
I know, 'What do you expect reading that size of book, Hero'. And I know it may have been ment for someone 12 or 13, but I still can't help it feeling unfulfilled. Is writing for a younger audience a good excuse to put most of the book in the back? Seriously: we discover what SilverFin is on page 230/335 (the font is not stated but it's similar to Percy Jackson, being by the same publisher). Guess how we discover what it is? Two chapters of dialogue.

The Writing was slow
Okay, so what were we doing for 200 pages. We visited James' school where he won a race and we visited his village where we met his loving aunt and uncle (sick) and he learned how to drive. What makes this so annoying is that it is painstakingly slow and there is very little that James has to accomplish. If he doesn't win the race: so what? If he can't learn to drive? So what and also... how wouldn't he?

The Ending was Unsatisfactory


It sounds as if I'm cruel, but what makes the ending unsatisfactory was that... let me explain it like this: we know that unless it's a tragedy (which always take us by surprize), the villain will lose. The main part if making his loss a necessary one for the world. SilverFin didn't give us even a chapter's room space to digest the emotion. Just as we learn what SilverFin is... boom, James has to escape. The experiment barely sees the light of day. There was nothing at stake beside morals. The villain didn't even hav ea personal motive... he just hated how men were wimps is all.

The Premise was undeveloped
Unlike the awesome characters, the premise is undeveloped. I would risk as much as saying the book was focused on good characters, not plot, which isn't a problem - but there's nothing at stake to the characters directly. So like... we love them but they're safe (relatively). James at one point did get into trouble. He got injected with SilverFin. We'd seen all these mutated animals but! nothing happened to James. It was a complete success and that felt like it was ane xcuse to let James escape.

So what is SilverFIn you ask? It's a project aimed at manipulating genes and hormones and stuff to make people bigger, faster, more violent, stronger, etc. The Super Soldier in a sense. Not that that's horrible, just... hard to pull off because the villain failed before he even made one perfect soldier (beside himself). Nobody's life was in danger except for the unnamed soldier.

---

There was one saving grace. The characters were awesome. Each and everyone except two minor villains on the main one's side. Otherwise, while nobody (except the villain's son) developed, and they were all pretty one-sided (except Kelly, James' friend), they were one-sided well. Hellebore, the villain, was mad. While he should have been mad enough to actually do some REAL, lasting damage, he just rambled on. What's great about him? Established from the beginning. We are led to believe he is forcing his son to use some conventional drugs and that's the shocker of the first part, for me (although technically he is using performance enhancing drugs). Hellebore could have been improved by making him stop yakking about how the world needs to improve, and have him actually push someone, beside his son, to insanity.

James managed to get the noble-good guy thing without any specific traits (You know, Jack-of-all-trades-Master-of-none and the main character must be neutral?) and he pulled it off. I loved the fact that he didn't wine about anything or yak on about anything ONCE! He was strictly movement and action, always moving - awesome.

Kelly was a great supporting character and his wild nature was easily apparent, his voice easy to imagine. The author hit the bell here.

I could go on, but I won't.

--------

I must also say it took me almost half the year to read this book. I didn't feel pressured to and I had other stuff I was busy with (Yeah right Hero). It was mostly because of the slow-plot, I guess. The book was average, and if I'd read it fast enough then I might be raving about its epicity right now. But it barely turns the pages, let alone makes me want to read on to the next letter. Out of ten... three - each and every point for the characters.

---------

That's my rantings, TheNewHero.

That sounds just horrible. I hate when authors don't realize they can make a kid's book complicated. I mean we will get it.

Sorry, I haven't read the book, so that is all I have to say.

A. S.

Nowhere near as good as Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.