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14 Works 100 Members 33 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Includes the name: Deborah Cannon

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Works by Deborah Cannon

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Gender
female
Nationality
Canada
Short biography
Deborah Cannon was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the author of five short stories and four novels. Her archaeology conspiracy thrillers are mentioned in a recent study on popular culture alongside treasure hunters Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, and praised by award-winning author T.J. MacGregor.

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White Raven tells about three themes:
a man, Jake Lalonde, searching for his Haida heritage and parents;
the fight between loggers and environmentalists;
the legend of the Seawolf.

Jake Lalonde was abandoned in foster houses when he was a child, now as an adult is searching for his parents. Jake has just one clue: a photo of a totem pole that bonds him to the Haida heritage.
Jake’s searches open the Pandora’s Box in a small village on Pacific Coast.

In this village loggers and environmentalists fight each other: ‘It’s a complicated situation. Some people, Native and White, want logging under provincial legislation. Others want Native autonomy, the right to do with the forests as they will, to log or not lo log, … Environmentalists want to halt the industry altogether. Each has good reasons depending on whose viewpoint you take …’ (p.233)

The novel is surrounded by an atmosphere of myth: the Haida’s legend of the Seawolf.
Haida is an indigenous nation of the Northwest Coast of North America. I liked the Haida’s description of Diamond Jenness: Haida as the Indian Viking of the North West Coast.
Seawolf legend: a man found two wolf pups on the beach. When the pups had grown they would swim in the ocean and kill a whale for the man to eat. But the wolves killed so many whales and the meat began to rot. The Great Above Person saw this waste meat and punished the wolves, so they had to remain at sea and became Sea Wolf (Killer Whale or Orca or Grampus). ‘A great white wolf transformed itself into a killer whale while retaining its white markings and the habit of traveling in packs.’ (p.32)

From the beginning of the novel Deborah Cannon describes to the reader the atmosphere of the Pacific Coast scenery: ocean’s smell, noises of lorries carrying logs, and the omnipresent magical world of ancient myths.
‘The smell of wet cedar filled the air … Jake imagined the village as it might have once been: smoke spiralling out of the roofs of the houses, fires ablaze on the beach to light the fishermen’s return journey, and a captain who called the island home,’ (p.50)

All together White Raven is a good book, although I preferred more descriptions of the Haida’s world and their legends. In the last chapters of the novel, the hideous Thomas MacPherson prevails and the book becomes a thriller losing the original idea.
‘Be patient. A dance is just a dance and spirit masks are spirit masks. You can’t absorb a hundred years of Haida heritage in one night …’ (p. 2)

A brief guide of the characters:
- Jack Lalonde and his girlfriend Angeline, and his friend Damon Spencer (both archaeologists).
- Thomas MacPherson (the logger), and his wife Susan (Susie), and their daughter Lucy.
- Jimmy Sky (the Sgua-ay) was married with Tilley.
- Henry Moon and his wife Leona, and his mother-in-law Flora.


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NewLibrary78 | 2 other reviews | Jul 22, 2023 |
The Latimer girls, their friends and CJ the parrot are on the hunt again. In this, the second book of the series, they are once again searching for their missing father supposedly lost at sea. While their cousin is working as a marine physicist on a classified mission on an oceanographic research vessel in China, they are enjoying their day at the market when Elizabeth notices a shop with little wooden boats exactly like her father used to make, right down to his unique signature graphic. Thus begins another rollicking adventure through the vortex, this time into the days when pirates ruled the China Sea.

I love this young adult adventure series by Deborah Cannon, full of humour, murderous attacks, kidnapping and Elizabeth's feelings escalating between two young men, one from the past...or is it the future...one from her own time. Though she finds her father in the home of Cho, and escapes with him, he is again kidnapped. Will she find her father again? Will he know her if she does? Fraught with danger, this is a great adventure, mixing history with fantasy as their search for their father and Cho, a modern day pirate and his captor, goes deep into the pirate world of the greatest pirate on the China Seas in the 1800s, Cheng I Sao, Mrs. Cheng.

The biggest problem facing our group, other than staying alive, is to avoid changing history. Lulu at home is keeping track of that on her I-phone and indeed history has been changed a few times; they must correct all the wrongs. Great characters, along with CJ the irascible but irresistible parrot and the mysterious Daniel, all in all, this is an exciting storyline, built on fact and fiction both. This book has all the elements of excitement for young adults, early teens, and adults.
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readerbynight | 2 other reviews | Apr 18, 2014 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
This is the perfect reading for teenage adventurous girls who want to have some entertainment.

I liked the main characters and the game they've played there.

The idea of a virtual pirate coming to life these days it’s really fun.
 
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florryalyna | 4 other reviews | Mar 18, 2014 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
I received a review copy of The Virtual Pirate (Elizabeth Latimer Pirate Hunter, prequel) by Deborah Cannon through Librarything.com.

I am not familiar with the Liz Latimer Pirate Hunter series but if they are written like this one, I can't recommend them very highly. All action no plot, like a modern Hollywood flick. Too many shifts of identity for my poor old brain. One thing I did like, though, was the excellent depiction of Victoria, BC and the harbor. I recognized it instantly even without the text note. And anything that celebrates International Talk Like a Pirate Day can't be all bad.… (more)
 
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Dokfintong | 4 other reviews | Jan 3, 2014 |

Statistics

Works
14
Members
100
Popularity
#190,120
Rating
4.0
Reviews
33
ISBNs
14
Favorited
1

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