Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution

Book Description

Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution
The video game industry is expected to double in sales over the next five years. It has already eclipsed motion pictures to become one of the largest and fastest growing markets in history and a lamplight illuminating where the future of entertainment is headed. In an effort to grab a chunk of that market, Microsoft—an absolute newcomer to the gaming industry—has put billions of dollars on the line in a gamble to build the fastest, most mature, most advanced video game console ever: the Xbox. Is this new Microsoft venture just another experiment that, like WebTV, was launched to much fanfare but will be quickly forgotten? Or will it become the next Windows, finding its way into the homes and lives of millions of people around the world?

In Opening the Xbox, award-winning journalist and gaming-industry expert Dean Takahashi guides you deep into the amazing story of this much-anticipated game console. Through exclusive interviews with top executives at Microsoft, exhaustive research, and a penetrating investigation, he unveils the tumultuous story behind the development of the project and how it could change the entertainment industry forever. Inside, you'll discover that what started as Project Midway, spearheaded by Jonathan "Seamus" Blackley and three of his renegade cohorts, turned into Xbox—a multibillion-dollar enterprise that became Microsoft's largest internal startup ever and a personal pet project of Bill Gates. The colorful infighting, the cutthroat tactics used to lure partners, and the race to vanquish bitter rivals Sony and Nintendo are all laid bare in this unvarnished, high-tech drama. It's a story like no other, full of heroes and villains, plot twists and intrigue—all before the backdrop of Microsoft's grand ambition to move from the office into the living room.

If you're like the millions of gamers, investors, and business spectators who anxiously anticipated the Xbox, then you don't want to miss the explosive, exclusive, behind-the-scenes story in Opening the Xbox.
"I had not thought it possible to write an entire book on a single game console. Takahashi has done it and done it well. Opening the Xbox is consistently interesting and very personable. It's also a book that should ruffle a few egos, including my own."
— Steven L. Kent, author, The Ultimate History of Video Games

"Opening the Xbox provides fascinating insights about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering at Microsoft. Takahashi's fly-on-the-wall style of writing is complemented by insightful analysis of the gaming industry and interesting vignettes about the personal lives of the Xbox creators. This book perfectly intertwines a compelling business story with human drama."
— Geoff Keighley, editor in chief, GameSlice

"Thoroughly researched, this book exposes the guts of the video game industry through the prism of Microsoft. Takahashi gives us an engrossing glimpse of an industry that's at once juvenile and ruthlessly systematic in its manufacturing of digital fun."
— Alex Pham, staff writer, Los Angeles Times

"Takahashi has meticulously researched this book. It's required reading for anyone interested in the next-generation console race."
— Tom Russo, director of program development, G4 Media

"Reads like The Soul of a New Machine for the new millennium. Dean provides insights into the people and the motivation behind Microsoft's high-stakes bid to break into the home-entertainment market. And, he doesn't miss a detail."
— Dawn C. Chmielewski, staff writer, San Jose Mercury News

Customer Reviews:

Worthwhile Read.......2006-09-11

"The revolution will come in fits and starts. It probably won't come from giving hardcore gamers more of what they already like. Doing a fighting game with better graphics isn't really a new invention. Yet much of the industry is currently afflicted with the illusion that it is. About 60 percent of the successful games now are either sequels or extensions of brands that exist in another medium. There is a real risk of what the IDSA'a Doug Lowenstein calls "creative ennui."...The gaming industry has produced cultural icons before, from Pac Man to Pong, and it will do so again. As every gamer believes, the ideal game isn't here yet. It's just around the corner." (p. 346 - 347).

I just got done reading "Opening The Xbox". I found it to be a very readable book, with a very comfortable writing style. The descriptions of the what the project team went through, however, seemed very reminiscent of many other professional projects I have been involved with in my career, and not necessarily unique to Microsoft or the tech. industry. What was enjoyable and enlightening, however, was the detail which Mr. Takahashi provided. Liberally spiced with information that was outside of the inner mechanics at Microsoft (like the challenges with Nvidia, Flextronics' manufacturing capacity, the marketing and sales performance of competing platforms, etc.), provided the perfect backdrop to the whole story.

In the end, I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read. It provides great insight into Microsoft's launch of the Xbox, and an interesting perspective on the video games industry as a whole. I also appreciated the "personal face" Mr. Takhashi gave the story by providing interesting tidbits of the personalities and their lives, throughout the story. That technique not only made it very readable, but it also helped me relate to the story in a much more fulfilling way.

Good book. Microsoft seems a bit clueless........2005-11-05

This was a good book for those interested in Microsofts entry into the game console market. I thought it was well written and easy to get through. It helped me understand how Micrsoft does things, and it is not a pretty picture. After reading the book, I was left with the impression that Microsoft is spending billions of dollars to get into an industry that it really knows little about. Further, it was lead into this pursuit by a team of people who hadn't been with the company all that long, and while they seem hyper competitive and smart, they really didn't know what they were doing either. Sometimes it is easy to believe that a company with Microsoft's track record is invincible when it decides to enter a market, but this book disabused me of that notion.

three-and-a-half stars.......2004-01-18

What the book is:

An interesting look at how projects evolve inside a company like Microsoft and how that evolution effects subsequent strategy. It makes an interesting point of comparison for similar projects in other companies.

A good look at how Microsoft is responding to the question of games and the gaming industry.

What the book is not:

Particularly well-written, at least in my opinion. The writing felt clunky, too much like an extended magazine article and not enough like a book.

Well documented. I expected more than interviews and anecdotal evidence.

Good, fast, easy read of the xbox creation story.......2004-01-02

The video game industry is quickly become a monster of a market into today's economy. This book is a good introduction to the internal organizational politics that occurs. I believe the author has used several themes to highlight the story of how Microsoft created the Xbox.

1. Innovation. This is always a topic for business stories. The book does an excellent job on describing the (almost) day to day activities that an internal, subversive group within Microsoft that hatched the idea for a game console.

2. Corporate culture. Microsoft has been accused of having a insular culture that prohibits risk-taking activities. I think in the Windows Operating System group this might be true. But Microsoft's game console strategy was one of new entrant. Sony, Sega, and Nintendo were the heavyweights. It was interesting to read how Microsoft approached the market by listening to game developers and gamers needs. They outlined a strategy that highlighted several competitive elements that the other, more entrench firms ignored.

3. Overview of Game Culture. The author is a well-known journalist that has been covering the game industry for years. There are some great insights on the industry's perks and unique charactistics. The Japanese game culture is much more highly developed vs. the American. The demographics are very selected in the US -- 18 to 26 males. Microsoft, as part of its initial console strategy, aimed to enlarge this demographic to include woman and older men.

Yet I have several misgivings about this book.

1. There aren't any reproduced internal memos, white papers, or notes that made up the effort to create the console. We are only shown photos of Microsoft employees. It would have been nice to see actual artifacts.

2. The reading sometimes is too easy. The author, of course, is a journalist. It is by far an unscholarly text.

NonInteresting.......2003-05-15

Thought the book talked about the technical aspects of the XBOX.
It did not! It gave a boring historical time line of how the idea of the xbox started and nothing more. Alot of words about nothing of interest. No pictures or diagrams of the XBOX, in or out. It explained nothing at all about how it worked!
If you like history buy the book, but if you want information, look elsewhere.

Book Description

In recent years, the Department of Defense (DoD) has places increasing faith in competitive sourcing to make its operations more efficient and effective.

Book Description

The work of Douglas Harper has for two decades documented worlds in eclipse. A glimpse into the life of dairy farmers in upstate New York on the cusp of technological change, Changing Works is no exception. With photographs and interviews with farmers, Harper brings into view a social world altered by machines and stuns us with gorgeous visions of rural times past. As a member of this community, Harper relates compelling stories about families and their dairies that reveal how the advent of industrialized labor changed the way farmers structure their work and organize their lives. His new book charts the transformation of American farming from small dairies based on animal power and cooperative work to industrialized agriculture.

Changing Works combines Harper's pictures with classic images by photographers such as Gordon Parks, Sol Libsohn, and Charlotte Brooks-men and women whose work during the 1940s documented the mechanization and automation of agricultural practices. Part social history and part analysis of the drive to mass production, Changing Works examines how we farmed a half century ago versus how we do today through pictures new and old and through discussions with elderly farmers who witnessed the makeover. Ultimately, Harper challenges timely ecological and social questions about contemporary agriculture. He shows us how the dissolution of cooperative dairy farming has diminished the safety of the practice, degraded the way we relate to our natural environment, and splintered the once tight-knit communities of rural farmers. Mindful, then, of the advantages of preindustrial agriculture, and heeding the alarming spread of mad cow and foot-and-mouth disease, Changing Works harks back to the benefits of an older system.

Customer Reviews:

Review of Changing Works .......2005-11-05

I found "Changing Works" to be a very informative text in the area of technological advances in the dairy industry. Harper uses SONJ pictures to highlight wonderful interviews with various dairy farmers that farmed in the generations before World War II. These interviews bring the past back to life as the reader goes through the mechanization introductions such as replacement of horses and the reconstruction of the milking process. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the dairy industry and to future dairymen. As an agricultural student, I was enthralled throughout the entire book. Harper tends to be less descriptive when it comes to the actual workings of the machinery, but it does not take much away from the rich narrative he weaves with the farmers' interviews. The reader gets a feeling of loss for the traditional ways that Harper projects throughout the book and it only enhances the content.

A Vision for U.S. Agriculture.(farm trends) : An article from: Farm Journal

Average customer rating:

A Vision for U.S. Agriculture.(farm trends) : An article from: Farm Journal
Sonja Hillgren
Manufacturer: Farm Journal Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000B7OAGW
Release Date: 2005-08-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Farm Journal, published by Farm Journal Media on February 17, 2005. The length of the article is 667 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A Vision for U.S. Agriculture.(farm trends)
Author: Sonja Hillgren
Publication: Farm Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 17, 2005
Publisher: Farm Journal Media
Page: NA

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This volume discusses recent advances and future prospects in the exploration of the gravity field. Both theoretical and practical aspects, ranging from gravity instrumentation, space and airborne gradiometry, satellite altimetry, the presentation of international measurement campaigns and projects, networks and gravity field-related data bases and software, to geophysical inversion techniques and recent undertakings such as the determination of the geoid in Europe, are dealt with.

Book Description

Bay Area parks and preserves offer a dramatic variety of landscapes, from rugged redwood-forested canyons to breezy coastal bluffs, grassy rolling hills to sunny chaparral-coated hillsides. Well-known destinations such as Point Reyes National Seashore, Mount Diablo State Park, Mount Tamalpais State Park, and many other more obscure jewels of the Bay Area park system are just a short drive from the heart of San Francisco. 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: San Francisco guides readers to a splendid assortment of trails in the 9 counties surrounding one of the world's most beautiful cities. A gentle Mediterranean climate encourages year round hiking and provides such seasonal splendors as carpets of colorful wildflowers, rushing waterfalls, and creekbeds littered with maple and oak leaves. Whether hikers crave a quick and easy get-out-of-town stroll or a challenging day-long trek through wilderness, this book is the perfect trailblazer, for City natives and first-time visitors alike.

Customer Reviews:

best layout for bay area hikes.......2007-04-04

I love the layout of the book, where I can easily see how far away I live from the trailhead and how difficult the trail is. Having dog information for every hike is very nice as well. Clear and well layed out maps of the trails and a quick map of how to get there for every trail. A good listing of easy to hard hikes everywhere around the greater SF bay. I've got lots of pages bookmarked for later hiking adventures. I highly recommend it.

Great book but wait to get the new edition!!.......2007-03-28

This book is really excellent! I use it almost every weekend. A new, 2007 edition is being released this week though, with a number of new hikes and updates to the old ones (obviously, landmarks can change over five years). Hopefully that one will be on Amazon soon. If not, you can get it through the publisher's website.

Very comprehensive guide with pretty detailed information.......2006-07-18

I disagree with one of the previous reviewer's comments. As the title suggests, this is a book with information about hikes within 60 miles from Washington D.C. This book perfectly fits this billing. It is very comprehensive -- from D.C.'s National Mall to Rock Creek Park, from Maryland's Catoctin Mountain to Virginia's Massanutten Mountian. Yes, maybe the author stretched a little beyond "60 miles", but I think that is a good thing, as it expands the selections. I have other hikings guides that cover one national park or one area only, but this guide offers a diverse selections of hikes, which sets it apart from the others.

A very usable map and in most cases a photo or two are provided for each hike, giving the reader very detailed information about it. Sure, a topo map would be nice, but for what it is, I think this is a very good guide.

A convenient, thorough reference.......2004-09-10

I purchased this book before I did a day trip with my dog, and I've kept it in the car ever since. It's wonderful to have when I'm out and about -- I can just check out the area I happen to be in and see what's available. I find the general layout of the book to be easy to use, and I've found the directions and descriptions to be accurate. I've also found myself reading it in my car when I have a few minutes to spare -- the author has an easy flowing style, and I like the personal tidbits she adds about her visits to the various areas. A great hiking book -- even if you don't have a dog!

A Letdown.......2004-09-10

I found this guide weak on directions for finding the trailhead which counts for hours of lost time if you only have a weekend to go out hiking around here. I've checked the author's website and find it more useful than the book because it's easier to follow.

60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Francisco, 2nd: Including North Bay, East Bay, Peninsula and South Bay (60 Hikes - Menasha Ridge)

Average customer rating:

Favorite North Bay Hiking Book
A Fine Selection of Bay Area Hiking

60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Francisco, 2nd: Including North Bay, East Bay, Peninsula and South Bay (60 Hikes - Menasha Ridge)
Jane Huber
Manufacturer: Menasha Ridge Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0897329724

Book Description

Bay Area parks and preserves offer a dramatic variety of landscapes, from rugged redwood-forested canyons to breezy coastal bluffs, grassy rolling hills to sunny chaparral-coated hillsides. Well-known destinations such as Point Reyes National Seashore, Mount Diablo State Park, Mount Tamalpais State Park, and many other more obscure jewels of the Bay Area park system are just a short drive from the heart of San Francisco. Completely updated and including five new hikes, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: San Francisco, 2nd guides readers to a splendid assortment of trails in the 9 counties surrounding one of the world's most beautiful cities. Whether hikers crave a quick and easy get-out-of-town stroll or a challenging day-long trek through wilderness, this book is the perfect trailblazer, for City natives and first-time visitors alike.

Customer Reviews:

Favorite North Bay Hiking Book.......2007-06-13

I've really been searching for a great introductory book to get me started hiking at all the great state parks in the North Bay section of the Bay Area and this book came up. [...].

Each park has an introductory section detailing distance, trailhead location, directions to the trailhead and much, much more. I usually use the introductory information to start my hike and then when I'm finished I go back and read the details. If I find I've gotten lost or found an unmarked trail, I can usually discover which is the correct direction.

So far, I've only made it to five parks here in Sonoma and Napa County, but with the help of Huber's book, I'm looking forward to exploring farhter and discovering a new favorite hike.

A Fine Selection of Bay Area Hiking.......2007-04-25

The San Francisco Bay area has some of the best hiking in the state. Indeed, when I found myself with time off from work this April I left southern California and flew my father in from Idaho to enjoy a week in the region. Between Point Reyes National Seashore, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the many state and local parks in the Santa Cruz mountains, Bay area hikers pretty much have it all. I'm actually envious of all the area has to offer and periodically threaten to move there until I remember that home prices are positively prohibitive. Still, spring is a wonderful time to visit and this new edition of Huber's 60 Hikes within 60 miles, San Francisco, is a good place to start.

This book has all the nice features found in the "60 Hikes, 60 miles" series, including a nice locator map, decent trail sketch maps, and a list of author hiking recomendations broken down by hiking distance, best places to take kids, and areas where you can actually walk a dog in the canine unfriendly Bay area. Each hike also includes a "key information at a glance" section where readers can learn the mileage, elevation gain, a rough estimate of hiking time, and the GPS coordinates for each trailhead. In all, the book provides solid information for each trail.

But what makes this book so special is the care Huber has taken in selecting the trails. As the webmaster for bahiker.com, she is very familiar with all the Bay area has to offer, but this guide does an excellent job of selecting some of the best. Included are several hikes on Mt. Tamalpais, Point Reyes, and numerous walks among redwoods. The latter are my favorites and I have hiked the routes she describes in Henry Cowell Redwoods (often overlooked) and Big Basin State Park on multiple occasions. Berry Creek Falls in Big Basin has to be one of the top hikes in the state. Huber has also gone to great effort to select a variety of different trails for readers. Hikes range from 3/4 of a mile to over 11 with the vast majority falling in between 4 and 7 miles. Literally anyone can find a hike suited to their abilities within this book. Finally, Huber is something of a self trained naturalist and she shares her extensive knowledge of plants and animals found along the trails in her detailed route descriptions.

I try to get to the Bay area a couple of times a year to hike. For the most part, my explorations have been confined to Marin county and the Santa Cruz mountains, both of which can feel quite remote despite their close proximity to the city. I've hiked several of the routes Huber describes here, and am interested in doing many more on my next trip. I am also keen to explore the many regional parks in the East Bay area now that I have read this book. In all, this is a great guide to Bay area hiking. If you are a resident or frequent visitor, it will be a nice addition to your outdoor library.

Average customer rating:

The standard almanac The question of historical accuracy

Almanac Review

Likley the very best

TIME Almanac with Information Please 2006

Manufacturer: Time Almanac
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Almanacs | Almanacs & Yearbooks | Reference | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1932994416

Book Description

From global trends to national events...outer space to cyberspace...the past to the present...all the comprehensive up-to-the-minute facts, statistics, dates and information you'll ever need or want.Highlights include world statistics and countries, astronomy and space, calendar and holidays, health and nutrition, sports results, business, economy, personal finance, the Internet, web-site guide, e-mail addresses and so much more! Turn to Time Almanac 2006 for over a million answers! What Roman emperors had months names after them? * How Many major earthquakes were there in 2005? * What is the world's smallest country (in square miles)? * According to the RIAA, what is the top-selling certified album of all time? * Who leads the NBA as the player with the most rebounds of all time?

Customer Reviews:

The standard almanac The question of historical accuracy.......2006-11-17

This is a standard almanac of the kind 'Information Please' has been putting out for years.
I read some of the country - entries to check for accuracy. I found them generally quite good, but not without a certain bias at times.
This Almanac provides all the usual features of almanacs, and can be a useful source of reference. Even with the 'Internet' there are times when certain kinds of information are more readily found by turning pages.

Almanac Review.......2006-02-28

This is a well-organized reference that I use every day. I have purchased one of these annually for a lot of years. The ONLY bad thing is that they never have figured out a way to keep the colored pages with the maps from falling out after a little while. Even if you baby those pages, they are doomed.

Likley the very best.......2006-01-23

I found the 2006 Almanac excellent and full of information. It is a must for the office desk

Average customer rating:
Treasure Island: With Story of the Treasure of Normon Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
Manufacturer: Ferguson Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Stevenson, Robert Louis | ( S ) | Authors & Illustrators, A-Z | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0894341286

Average customer rating:

A Trifle Dated but Still Worth a Read

This is how a pirate story should be. Sorry, Johnny Depp.

Pieces of eight, pieces of eight!

Free SF Reader

Pirates, Parrots and Buried Treasure!

Treasure Island: With Story of the Treasure of Normon Island (Classics for Kids)
Robert Louis Stevenson , and Vincent Buranelli
Manufacturer: Silver Burdett Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Classics by Age | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Stevenson, Robert Louis | ( S ) | Authors & Illustrators, A-Z | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0382068106

Amazon.com

Climb aboard for the swashbuckling adventure of a lifetime. Treasure Islandhas enthralled (and caused slight seasickness) for decades. The names Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins are destined to remain pieces of folklore for as long as children want to read Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous book. With it's dastardly plot and motley crew of rogues and villains, it seems unlikely that children will ever say no to this timeless classic. --Naomi Gesinger

Book Description

Discover the classics! Beautifully designed and carefully abridged, Troll Illustrated Classics are the perfect introductions to the world's best-loved literature.

Customer Reviews:

A Trifle Dated but Still Worth a Read.......2007-10-18

I missed this one as a boy though I had always loved adventure fiction. So years later, and no longer a boy, I picked it up and tried to read it. But I just couldn't get into it and so put it aside. More recently I picked it up again, this time determined to see it through.

Although it wasn't compelling at the start, with the appearance of an old pirate, Billy Bones, at the Admiral Benbow Inn run by young Jim Hawkins' father, it did start to pick up a head of steam as I pushed my way into it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it catching me up with the discovery of the map and the appearance of the pirates in hot pursuit of Billy Bones, and Jim's race to Dr. Livesy and Squire Trelawney to gain their protection. Intriguingly these upstanding English gentlemen, pillars of their community, decide to hunt the treasure for themselves though the squire, at least, lacks the good sense or discretion to keep the project secret. And so young Jim is swept along into the excursion, upon the death of his father, and soon finds himself aboard a suspect ship manned by an even more suspicious seeming crew on the way to a desert island in the Caribbean where old pirate Captain Flint's treasure is purportedly buried.

The most interesting character is, of course, the by now famous Long John Silver who has long since entered into the cultural zeitgeist. But Silver's not nearly as charming or charismatic in this book as he has come to seem in popular recollection. Young Jim Hawkins, for his part, is a mischievous fellow who manages to get himself into one scrape after another while always coming out alright, even when he is obliged to face down a treacherous mutineer or when he stumbles unthinkingly into the pirates' own nest.

In truth Treasure Island is not quite as exciting or as easy a read as one might expect for all its reputation. Still, it was nicely done and kept me reading to the end (though it did end with something of a letdown, leading me to think it somewhat overrated). It was a boy's book from the first, according to its author and I think it works well enough as that. Still, it's somewhat dated and lacks the excitement we've come to expect in our adventures today. Good but not among the best, in my view. I thought Stevenson's Master of Ballantrae much the better book.

SWM

This is how a pirate story should be. Sorry, Johnny Depp........2007-10-06

I'm not a young boy, and yet I love this book that has been traditinally associted with kids every since it was written. In fact, it is one of my favorite books, and why not? Here is a book that first and foremost recognizes that a pirate adventure should be, well, an adventure, and makes sure to put the fun, danger, and excitement in the front with all the silly, pop-corn vibe action any kid could ask for.

It begins in England in seaside inn, told by the voice of hero Jim Hawkins. His parents own the inn, and one of the strangest guests is a man named Billy Bones, a guy who practically has split-personality in is treatment of young Jim. It turns out that the man is wanted for possessing a map to a legendary treasure. When pirates attack in an awesome pirate attack (how else can I describe it?) Jim finds himself aboard a ship on an adventure to find the treasure.

What follows is a classic, pulse-racing adventure of good and evil, pirates and good guys, and island fun, complete with all the necessary twists and turns and danger and betrayal.

It's not all fluff--Stevenson adds some surprisingly deep human emotions that actually serve to make the adventure that much more powerful. But never fear, it does not turn into a soap opera no matter how many subsequent movies want it to.

As I said before, it's an adventure story of piracy on the high seas, and that's what makes it so great.

Pieces of eight, pieces of eight!.......2007-09-04

Treasure Island is the first greatest pirate story of all times. The young and brave Jim Harkins, the scary but honorable Long John Silver, the smart and solid Doctor Livesey. Frankly I could go on and on listing interesting characters, major or otherwise, but let me just say that, having never before read the novel, I totally enjoyed it. It has everything, from a blind beggar to a treasure map to drunken pirates, a parrot, and lots of plotting. Who is with the good guys? Who is with the bad guys? Who is out for themselves? Read and see.

Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

A tale of pirates, peglegs, parrots, purloining and perfidery and old Blind Pew.

A lost treasure map is wanted by many, who are willing to kill to get it. These men are pirates, and a young lad, Jack Hawkins, and the odd other innocent get caught up in the struggle.

A source of much classic pirate caricature and pretty enjoyable.

Pirates, Parrots and Buried Treasure!.......2007-08-17

By Laura B.

Treasure Island is an amazing story of adventure on the high seas, a tale of betrayal and friendship; an exciting saga of pirates on a search for buried treasure, this is a story that any age group will love. I have only seen Treasure Island movies in the past, and on reading the book I found the story different from what I've known. I am going to tell you a little about the book, I don't want to spoil the story so I won't tell you the entire thing.

The story first tells of how young Jim Hawkins got Captain Flint's Treasure map from Captain Billy Bones. Jim found the map in Billy Bones' sea chest when Jim and his mother were looking through the chest for the money that Bones owed them. Because you see Bones had died during his attempt to escape the evil pirates who were after him. So Jim and his mother had to hurriedly look for the money, and while his mother was trying to count out the right amount of money Jim took Captain Flint's map.

After the pirates attacked the "Admiral Benbow" that was the name of the inn that the Hawkins family owned, Jim goes and gets help from Dr.Livesey and Squire Trelawney and together they board a ship called the Hispaniola and set a course for Treasure Island.

On board Jim becomes friends with the ship's cook Long John Silver (who owns a parrot named Cap'n Flint after the infamous pirate captain), but little does Jim know that Silver is actually a pirate and an ex-member of Captain Flint's crew. Jim soon learns of a sinister plot being made by Silver to steal the treasure that might endanger him and his friends.

I won't say anymore. If you're the type that enjoys stories of pirates, treasure, and a parrot that says "pieces of eight, pieces of eight" you'll have to read the book. You can also read other Robert Louis Stevenson books like Kidnapped which I haven't read but it's supposed to be good, but the book you'll enjoy most is Treasure Island.

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