To be completely honest, I did not read through the entire blurb before purchasing this book. I downloaded it to my Kindle, and upon opening it, my little reading machine automatically forwarded me to the preface. So I was actually a few chapters into part one before I realized that this was a retelling of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. (It was kind of amusing, really. Of course, I went back once I realized that I had been automatically fast forwarded into the text.)
I feel that retellings have to be done well in order to merit the act of telling a story over again. Particularly classics; if there isn’t anything new to add why bother, and at the same time readers and fans of the originals want enough of the core story to be present and characters to be at least somewhat recognizable.
I think that this adaptation was done well.
My favorite bit was Part 3 into Part 4, with the introduction of sorcerers and teleportation through the fabric of time. Science fiction elements being introduced into what is a classic satire/fantasy story is an interesting twist. This too is something that has been done before, but takes a certain amount of cleverness to pull off. I think that in this case it was successfully handled.
Brett Wiens 