The Road to Samarcand

by Patrick O'Brian

Overview

O'Brian's richly told adventure saga, with its muscular prose, supple dialogue and engaging characters, packs a nice old-school punch." —Publishers Weekly

This story begins where Patrick O'Brian's devoted fans would want it to, with a sloop in the South China Sea barely surviving a killer typhoon. The time is the 1930s and the protagonist a teenaged American boy whose missionary parents have just died. In the company of his rough seafaring uncle and an elderly English cousin, an eminent archaeologist, Derrick sets off in search of ancient treasures in central Asia.

Along the way they encounter a charismatic Chinese bandit and a host of bad characters, including Russian agents fomenting unrest. The narrative touches on surprising subjects: astronomy, oriental philosophy, the correct identification of ancient Han bronzes, and some very local cuisine. It ends in an ice-bound valley, with the party caught between hostile Red-Hat monks and the Great Silent Ones, the Tibetan designation for the yeti.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393333169
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	12/17/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.62(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

One of our greatest contemporary novelists, Patrick O’Brian is the author of the twenty volumes of the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series, as well as many other books, including Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, The Unknown Shore, and biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso.

Date of Birth:

December 12, 1914

Date of Death:

January 2, 2000

Place of Birth:

Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire

Place of Death:

Dublin, Ireland

Education:

Shebbear College, Devon

Website:

http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobhome.htm

Editorial Reviews

"A rattling good adventure story....The first chapter alone is worth the price."

|Los Angeles Times

Years before a top sailor named Jack Aubrey, rising through the ranks of the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, joined forces with his best friend-an Irish-Spanish doctor, naturalist and spy called Stephen Maturin-to make the seas safe and profitable for the British Empire, another young spy named Richard Patrick Russ was falling in love with the sea. He began his long and eventually illustrious career after changing his name to Patrick O'Brien, and his first work of oceangoing adventure was this unformed but energetic tale of a teenaged American boy who goes on a dangerous voyage across the typhoon-tossed South China Sea. Originally published in the UK in 1954, this book's stateside debut was in 2007. Simon Vance, who has recorded almost all of O'Brien's work on audio, is perfect; he catches every vocal social nuance and foreign accent without veering into caricature. A Norton hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 16, 2007). (May).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

First published in 1954, O'Brian's tale of an orphaned American teenager chasing down a mysterious treasure in Central Asia gets a sparkling new edition. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This adventure story, set in the Far East, was originally published in 1954; it predates the naval warfare novels that made O'Brian (1914-2000) famous. Derrick, an American teenager in China between the World Wars, recently lost both his missionary parents, but don't feel badly for him; he's a spirited lad, enjoying his apprenticeship on a schooner in the South China Sea. He's there because its skipper Sullivan, a resourceful man of action, is his uncle. They're on their way to meet Professor Ayrton, an elderly English archaeologist and Derrick's cousin; Ayrton wants the boy to attend school, the one thing Derrick dreads. As a palliative, the kindly prof suggests postponing school until they've made an overland journey to Samarcand, the legendary Central Asian city; there will be archaeological digs en route. The schooner is dry-docked, and the group sets off from Peking, joined by two sailors, a Scot and a Swede, the ship's cook Li Han and three Mongols with their pack animals. They will travel the Old Silk Road on horseback, crossing the Gobi desert and Mongolia; the principal danger will be rival warlords. Sure enough, Sullivan and Ross, the Scotsman, are soon taken prisoner by the villainous Shun Chi, who's in league with the Russians. The frail professor, discovering in himself a "transient thirst for blood," leaps into action. By impersonating a Russian he frees the two men, and threatens a warlord with his own revolver. This is dramatic, but only up to a point, for we know the good guys will emerge unscathed. Only much later, when the group is forced to enter a valley in Tibet haunted by the Abominable Snowman and three of the group are left for dead, does the action have realbite. A miraculous escape in a Russian helicopter from some hostile monks completes the story. A likable if far-fetched jaunt; O'Brian lacks the mastery of his material which he will show in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

Kirkus Reviews