Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Travel Memoir
Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
“Dan
Scheffler lives just outside Cape Town, South Africa with his wife and son.
He loves
rough travelling, mountains, and the sea.
He is a
doctor in general family practice, but tries not to let work interfere too much
with his surfing.
When the
Cape winters get cold or the Southeaster howls incessantly in summer, he
escapes by writing about wild places and tropical trips.”
Description:
“A wild
adventure through Sumatra’s jungles to the fabled Mentawai Islands in search of
pristine beaches, undiscovered coral reefs, and perfect waves takes a group of
surfers on a rollercoaster journey aboard the Island Explorer, a traditional
Indonesian sailing ship. But the future becomes uncertain when the captain
jumps ship and the stand-in skipper slowly becomes unhinged in the tropical
heat.”
Appraisal:
Even a
land-locked couch potato like me is familiar with the surfer’s quest for the
perfect wave and can get some vicarious thrill from this story of the author’s
search through the islands of Indonesian on such a quest before many of the
places he went became well known in the surfing world. As someone who likes to
know a little bit about a lot of things, even things I’m unlikely to ever do,
the surfing part of the story was interesting, entertaining, and even
educational. Beyond the surfing adventure, there were plenty of lessons to be
learned from Scheffler’s experience about life’s tradeoffs (sacrificing in one
area of life to meet goals in another), the balance of work and play, and an
inspiration for those of us who dream about quests of our own.
FYI:
Uses South
African (UK) spelling conventions. A small amount of adult language.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
1 comment:
I am not a surfer, and I am not a jock (as a matter of fact, I am a 70-year old 'nice' lady)--but I have done a fair amount of ocean sailing and, thus, I clicked on Dan Scheffler's blog
If his book reviewed here is written in half as amusing a style as his blog, I would have hoped for a more deserving review--in addition to the 4-stars. It just shows that even "independent" reviews are subjective according to the reviewes likes and experience.
Inge H. Borg
Author of Sirocco, Storm over Land and Sea
Post a Comment