Graeme Kent

Ben Kella is the aofia (the leader) of his people in the Solomon Islands and a police sergeant working for the Brits as they are slowing turning the Islands over to independence. Sister Conchita is the new nun posted to his island, some of whose people are Catholic but many remain true to their mystical roots. A series of murders and other illegal activities lead the sergeant and the nun on the hunt to unravel this complex web and do their best to stay alive. It is a complex plot, with likeable main characters, and extremely well-written. I didn’t mean to start out reading a series, but I will absolutely read the next two in it.… (más)

Quando contou pela primeira vez suas fábulas aos gregos antigos, mal sabia Esopo que, séculos mais tarde, elas ainda seriam populares entre os jovens e adultos. Embora Esopo não tenha de fato escrito suas fábulas como hitórias, outras pessoas, vendo como eram interessantes, o fizeram.

Então no século XIX, as fábulas originais foram redescobertas e ilustradas para crianças.

Esta bela edição conserva todo o encanto clássico das fábulas, mas de uma maneira que deleita a criança de hoje. As gravuras e o estilo de ilustração dessa época acrescentam uma qualidade atemporal a fábulas como "A lebre e a tartaruga", "A raposa e a cegonha" e "O rato da cidade e o rato do campo". As histórias são tão atraentes para as crianças dos nossos dias quanto o foram para as crianças de todos os tempos.… (más)

This turned out to be an okay book. For maybe the first third, first 80 pages, it was a full-on 1-star. I found it tough sledding. I didn't care for the story nor the characters. But I did fully enjoy the geography lesson(s).

I mean, the Solomon Islands are literally in the middle of nowhere, no man's land in the middle no mans land. There are "millions" of islands in the topical Pacific, but getting to the Solomons is major work for 99.99% of the population of the planet so few people actually make it there. Point being, my knowledge of the archipelago was somewhere between little and none; Guadalcanal, sure, wait... you mean there are more islands?

Reading about the islands – and cultures – and doing periodic Google lookups, I found rewarding. I did find Sergeant Kella's travels and traverses a bit confusing as he bopped from village to village, island to island, but I managed to track it well enough.

Anyway, I didn't really like the main characters Ben Kella and Sister Conchita. For me, as I mentioned above, things only really got interesting when we met Wainoni, The Gammon Man; his shtick was hysterical (I won’t give it away). Alright, I’m beginning to warm up to this story, I'm willing to go 1-1/2 to 2-stars. Then another third of the book, at 160 pages or so, we meet Giosa, The Tree Shouter, another brilliant add to make up what had been more of a lackluster cast of characters.

By the end I was good with 3-stars, maybe it is better but I wasn't pulled along; it's kind of weird as a mystery or crime fiction goes. Kella also emerged as a more interesting character as various parts of his history was mixed in. The cultural and historical aspects of the Solomon Islands was fascinating as well as how a literal speck in the middle of the ocean can be of such historical and geopolitical importance... whether the native Melanesians care to be or not. Also, the time period 1960, post-World War II and pre-Independence seem to be well represented and / or conveyed; a different time and place. I will definitely pick up the other books in the series if I happen to run across.… (más)