Blog Tour Review -
The Adventures of Billy Shaman: The Rage of the Sea Witch
by Roland Chambers
When his selfish globetrotting parents abandon him at Charles Darwin’s house for the summer, Billy stumbles across the unexpected – a 200-year-old giant talking tortoise called Charles Darwin.
Charles D, the tortoise, knows everything about the mansion, from its fossils to the beautifully carved Inuit ivory necklace that whisks Billy back in time. In the midst of the shrieking chaos of an Arctic blizzard, Billy meets the rightful owner of the necklace, Ahnah, her shape-shifting grandmother and the mysterious Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer Pytheas.
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| There's a lot of blue foil on this cover, it looks gorgeous! |
Today is another blog tour day, this time with ed public relations. The Rage of the Sea Witch is the first book in the series, The Adventures of Billy Shaman, which is written and illustrated by Roland Chambers and published by Zephyr Books.
The Rage of the Sea Witch is a really charming little story. It's narrated by Charles Darwin, a very old, talking tortoise who lives in the garden of a museum. It's into this museum that Billy Shaman has been dumped by his parents, a couple of explorers travelling, separately, around the world. He's been left in the care of Mrs Cript, who's not too terrible, and Mr Cript who is definitely too terrible!
There's very little time or space wasted on setting up the story before Billy finds himself waking up in the middle of the night and wandering into a most peculiar scene. In one of the museum rooms is a young girl sitting by a campfire in furs. Ahna is an Inuit from the past, and somehow Billy has found his way to her camp in the middle of a storm, in his pyjamas. They're just getting to know each other when another wanderer arrives, Pytheas the Greek explorer. Pytheas is a fantastic character, flamboyant, larger than life, fascinating and a little sinister, and based on a historical figure. There's also a mini biography of him in the back of the book.
Before long, Ahna and Billy are back in the modern world of the museum, where things continue to get quite complicated for them.. There's a lot of drama and excitement that follows, as childhood adventures take a more serious turn. There are definitely pretty scary supernatural twists, and everything wraps up with Billy having a new mission in life, a really solid start to a fun series!
There's some fascinating content in here about explorers of the past and the present, the role of museums and what should happen to cultural artefacts, all told in a fun, compact story with a charming young lead.
The book is also filled with gorgeous illustrations. Every page has pictures on, from small headers, to pieces wrapping through the text to full double-page spreads. It's a beautiful looking book!
I definitely enjoyed Billy Shaman's first adventure a lot, and I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes next!
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The Adventures of Billy Shaman: The Rage of the Sea Witch is written and illustrated by Roland Chambers and published by Zephyr Books on 14th April 2023.
I was given a copy by ed public relations in return for an honest review and participation in this blog tour.
Be sure to check out the rest of the tour!
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