Sunday, September 20, 2009

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters


A follow-up to the popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters provides readers with another chance to experience classic literature with a twist. This time, the setting of the popular Jane Austen novel has been changed to allow for contact with the deadly sea creatures in the book's title. If you're ready for a laugh, this may just be the book for you.

After her husband is eaten by a shark, leaving the family penniless, Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters move into a rickety old cottage on an island owned by her cousin, the famous treasure hunter Sir John Middleton. The waters around the island chain the Dashwoods now call home are populated with any number of fearsome beasts, many of whom make appearances at the least expected times.

There's less of Austen's work this time around. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies boasted 85% of the story's original wording, whereas Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters only features 60%. However, that doesn't mean that Austen's fans will be disappointed. In a work that I think Miss Jane Austen herself would have approved of, Ben H. Winters has created something that is part Edwardian romance, part Pirates of the Caribbean, and all great fun.