Oh my! I haven't had this much fun reading a book in a long, long time. I came late to Jane Austen. I didn't read her books until about 5 years ago. I decided I should start reading the classics I didn't read in High School so I picked up a book with all of Austen's tales and I read it straight through; one right after the other. While they were all similarly plotted I did end up liking Sense and Sensibility the best. I was therefore looking forward to reading Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters to see what Mr. Winters would do with the tale.

Well, I was not disappointed. Mr. Winters interjected his story of the Alteration seamlessly into Miss Austen's book. He writes in the same style with the same strict adherence to the manners and mores of the time even though we are dealing with a Captain with wildly moving tentacles on his face, a "fang-beast" and a variety of marauding sea monsters.

I laughed from the first page to the last. The humor and irony are delightful and knowledge of Austen's work is, I think, essential to truly enjoying the book. I suspect that if someone picked it up to read without having read the base story first the humor would be lost.

I can't wait to now go and read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - the first book in the series. ( )

There was romance in this story, and then there was science fiction. For me, it was a strange and unpleasant combination. It took me forever to push myself through this book, but I have to admit, it wasn't all bad. it just wasn't my cup of tea. Just an example of the ridiculous nature of this book, in the reading guide in the back, one of the questions is;
"Have you ever been romantically involved with someone who turned out to be a sea witch?"
Um, who would actually answer yes to that?
Maybe there is some people who will really love this tale, I'm sure there is somewhere. They'd have to love romance/sci-fi/strange, that's all. Not on my recommendation list though. Sorry. ( )

First off, I have just got to say that I think Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters deserves to win Cover of the Year award. I just love it. There’s a poster of it hanging on my wall. It’s so cool. I just love the tentacle face.

In the monster update of Sense & Sensibility, the Dashwoods are now sent to live on an island full of mysterious steam vents and aquatic horrors. Sir John is now a semi-retired adventurer who kidnapped his wife from her Islander tribe and forced into marriage; she is forever scheming of ways to escape to her homeland. Sub-Marine Station Beta, located under the sea protected by a huge dome, is the center of English society. Sea witches devour their husbands and cast curses that cause tentacles to sprout from the faces of their victims. The evil menace of angry swordfish and enraged octopi must be fought off every few pages.

While the first Quirk Classic, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, was only about 15% new content, S&S&SM clocks in at a whopping 40% tentacle-curling action. That’s a lot less Austen, so I was a little worried that it would hurt the story. I think that having more of the story reworked made ‘sea monster’ insertions flow more organically from the text. It was less obvious exactly where Austen ended and Winters began, because the Verne-esque additions still matched the sound and style of the original story.

Unfortunately, I just didn’t find the book that entertaining. I mean, part of the problem is S&S itself. I always thought it was a novel with serious pacing issues, with too much pining and sighing for absent lovers. When they were adding in the scales and the tentacles, I don’t think enough judicious cuts were made to Austen, so even with several fights added for variety the plot still drags. The end, too, seems hastily cobbled together and gets rather messy as pirates and Lovecraft references compete for attention.

The critique of Britain’s colonialism through the characters of Lady Middleton, Mrs. Palmer and her mother – all of them Pacific Islanders forcibly removed from their homes and brought to England as the wives of their captors – was a little too cheeky for my tastes, but it was an interesting idea to bring to the story. In fact, I think that would be my summarizing statement: there were a lot of interesting ideas brought into Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. You will probably get a laugh or two out of the book, but overall the story lacks unity and development. It lacked the freshness of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but whether this is due to rushed production, a weaker Austen source, too many attempts to touch on undersea mythos or a combination of the above is something I just can’t decide. ( )

If you are looking for a book that has action, suspense, and sea monsters, don not read this book.
Sure it has sea monsters in the name. But the sea monsters come in to play very little and the scenes weren't very good. I found my self very bored after the first hundred pages.
Also it had to many things going to on. With Sense and Sensibility, it had a lot going on but it worked for it. This book had too many things to it. It was hard for me to keep up with it all. Too many things at once.
And the characters weren't as developed as Sense and Sensibility. They were boring and not round. They were all had only one sides. And it made it boring. If they were a little better, maybe it would have been a better book.
If you see this book and think hmmmm this looks good, don't buy it. it's was not worth the ten dollars buying it. ( )

Summary: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

So...looking around at other reviews on this book I seem to be one of the few who feel the same way I do about this book, or maybe one of the few who hold this opinion but actually read the book. Before I read this book all I could think about was how this man is destroying a classic, totally defacing it. Now, after having given the author a fair chance, I feel he is totally defacing a classic but...in a creative way. This is the first time I have ever seen a book like this and well, by the pop up of these books over the last year, it won't be the last. I finished this book and Winters goes into some very creative meanderings with the original characters and language as Jane Austen favored but I still just felt wrong reading it.

Also posted: http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2... ( )