Revolver (2009)

For a book about a gun it was kinda boring and incredibly frustrating. My issues was with the compellingness (I made up that word because I'm lazy.) More in a blog post later. ( )

This is a short, simple and powerful story that I sat down to sample and ended up finishing in no time at all. [b:Revolver|6491917|Revolver|Marcus Sedgwick|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1319727900s/6491917.jpg|6683327] is the second book I've read by [a:Marcus Sedgwick|110234|Marcus Sedgwick|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1298204345p2/110234.jpg] - the other being [b:Midwinterblood|10836471|Midwinterblood|Marcus Sedgwick|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1319727124s/10836471.jpg|15750616] - and I have to say that both his novels have managed to impress and surprise me.

If I'm being honest, they just never really sounded that appealing to me, despite the fact that I've been told by numerous people to give his books a try. This story is about Sig and his family who live in the arctic circle, it alternates between 1899 and 1910 until the secrets of the past catch up with the present and things start to fall into place. It's quite a beautiful novel about choices and what happens when a good person is faced with a difficult decision involving a gun and the life of someone who means them harm.

If you're into short, meaningful stories that impart a message which is likely to affect you and make you think for a while, then [a:Marcus Sedgwick|110234|Marcus Sedgwick|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1298204345p2/110234.jpg] is your man. However, it's difficult to recommend this book to anyone because I can't promise you lots of action or romance or magic... but if you don't need a story that is swamped with fast-pacing and melodrama, this could be for you. For a book that is quite subtle and not packed with the aforementioned, it is still addictively readable. I ate it up.
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Although I’ve disliked the cold ever since my army infantry training days, I do like to read about it. The setting is one reason I picked up Revolver, by Marcus Sedgwick. A turn-of-the-century gold field and the environs of an iron mine in the frozen north of Alaska (OK, that north isn’t really frozen all year round but it always makes for a more dramatic description) provide the setting for this adventure novel. While this sounds like the very ingredient of a riveting Jack London story, I should warn you at the outset to be prepared for something slightly different.

The hero is Sig, a 14 year old boy who along with his family becomes a captive of the mining camps when his father catches gold fever. Sig’s entire childhood is spent in this harsh environment because once there his family is too poor to escape. At least that is what Sig believes until the day he finds his father dead and a dangerous man at the cabin door.

As the book progresses the reader gradually learns more details about the family and how it came to be in its predicament. And at the same time the reader, along with Sig, learns an awful lot about the 1873 model Colt revolver owned by Sig’s father. This background story is revealed through interspersed chapters that repeatedly jump back to events of a decade earlier. I’m not a fan of this technique because the breaks keep interrupting the main story line and the action. However, the opinions of other readers may differ.

Sig’s story, which plays out over a day, begins when he finds his father has partially fallen through lake ice and lies dead within sight of the family cabin. Sig retrieves his father’s frozen body by dog sled and, after laying it out on kitchen table, stays with it while his older sister and stepmother go to town for help. The threatening man at the door, who goes by the name of Wolff, demands something Sig knows nothing about. The rest of the story is about Sig’s frightening encounter with Wolff, who turns out to have a long-ago connection to Sig’s father, laid out on the table. Through Wolff, Sig learns that his father was not quite the man he thought he knew so well. Of course the title practically shouts out that the Colt revolver has a role to play in the proceedings.

I won’t reveal the ending, but will say that I found the resolution to the encounter between Sig and Wolff clever but at the same time improbable. What I couldn’t quite buy into was, with Sig’s life and that of his sister both on the line, would a boy of Sig’s age make such a fine moral distinction and take the risky chance he did to resolve the threat.

Because of the many breaks in the action from the repeated flashbacks, this book might better suit adults than young readers, who crave continuing action. Sig is certainly a hero the young reader could identify with, but his character could have been more fully developed for this age group.
http://ericheipert.com/2012/01/02/a-boy-a-gun-and-a-moral-dilemma-revolver-by-ma... ( )

En bok man inte gärna lägger ifrån sig, en perfekt komponerad och komprimerad berättelse.

This was a very different young adult historical fiction book; it is written with a lyrical quality yet is very suspenseful. In the Arctic Circle in 1910 Sig is alone in his cabin well alone with the corpse of his father who died earlier that day when surprisingly there is a knock on the door and a scary looking man named Wolff is looking for his father, they have unfinished business. This starts the tension that flows through this book like a pulse. The title of the book comes from the revolver that is in a box in the next room and Sig’s decision to try to get to it or not.

I can see why this has won many awards as it is so different than anything out there. But I think if you are a fan of Hatchet you’ll really like this book. This is definitely one I will be picking up in paper form for our local library because I do think this is one that male readers and /or reluctant readers will get into. This is a short book but packs quite a punch I enjoyed this story and will recommend it in audio & print. However for myself the audio version really brought it to life for me.

Peter Berkrot is a new to me narrator and I was very impressed with his narration of this book, his voices were distinct and you always knew who was talking, he seamlessly went from voicing a 15 year old boy to the gruff and rough Wolff with ease. I will definitely look for more books narrated by, Peter Berkrot.

All in all I highly recommend this one.

4 Stars ( )