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South Sea Tales

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South Sea Tales

By: Jack London
Narrated by: Lloyd James
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A rare pearl is fought over during a hurricane on a South Sea island. A zealous missionary sets out to spread the gospel in a land of cannibals. The son of a Polynesian chief becomes the slave of a white man. These stories and others portray life in the South Seas in the days of tall ships over a century ago. In powerful and compelling language that seems not the least bit dated, Jack London tells eight tales of high daring and great savagery, of bravery and death, even of occasional humor, that could only take place in the exotic South Sea islands. Based around themes London considered important—race, culture, justice, and heroism—the stories derive their intensity from the author’s own far-flung adventures, conveying an impassioned, unsparing vision borne only of experience.

Included here are the following stories: “The House of Mapuhi,” “The Whale Tooth,” “Mauki,” “Yah! Yah! Yah!” “The Heathen,” “The Terrible Solomons,” “The Inevitable White Man,” and “The Seed of McCoy.”

(P)2001 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Action & Adventure Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Fiction Short Stories
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Critic reviews

“He was an adventurer and a man of action as few writers have ever been…The excellence of his short stories has been almost forgotten.”

(George Orwell)

“Lloyd James reads wonderfully, turning a one-man reading into a lyrical presentation that feels like a full-cast production. Not only does James handle half a dozen accents easily, he shifts pace to capture the cadence of London’s vivid passages of extended description and allows London’s near-poetry to ring out powerfully.”

(AudioFile)
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I am reading everything from Jack London right now, and I love this collection and narration. It draws you in throughout, very much like the spell binding last story of the collection. The editing between the stories is rough, too tight and clipped, seemingly letting the end of each story run into the next, like a wave crashing on top of another. Hopefully this will be fixed. But even with this editing faux pas it’s a beautiful audio book and I listen to it like the ‘page turner’ it is; in one go.

Excellent collection & narration

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Missionaries, cannibals and colonialism feature in this collection of short stories where cultures clash to brutal effect. The 'N' word is used repeatedly in The Inevitable White Man - so make sure you have your headphones on. The language is historically appropriate and is an important testimony of a vile attitude but this didn't make it any easier to listen to and I had to take a break because I felt so angry. Likewise, the final story captures the unrelenting misery inflicted by human upon human during this period of history.

The audio is abrupt with each story stopping without a pause. Given the subject matter, a small interlude or musical break would help give the reader time to reflect.

Has he sent whale teeth?

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Poor editing. There was not a single seconds break between the stories. Often realise I was already listening to the next stories. Lazy editing quite often in audio books.

Excellent writing and reading spoilt by poor editing.

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Loved it, enjoyed every minute off it! Specially the story off two friends and changing names.

True adventure stories

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The editing is badly done, there is no gap at all between stories. It has the last sentence of one, the title of the next, then right into it with no more of a gap than between two sentences.

Varied, but some good stories

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