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Out of the Dark
Faced with the tragic loss of his mother, Ben Elliot is forced into a move he hates. He has had to give up his home and friends in the city to move with his father and younger brother to the tiny village of Ship Cove on Newfoundland's isolated northern peninsula.
The only thing that makes the place bearable is its nearness to the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, where he finds comfort in the ancient myths and sagas his mother loved. He also revives his childhood game of imagining he is Tor, a young Viking shipbuilder. But when the Tor game becomes increasingly real and harder to control, Ben discovers that the lines between past and present, fantasy and reality, are beginning to blur - with dangerous consequences.
The only thing that makes the place bearable is its nearness to the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, where he finds comfort in the ancient myths and sagas his mother loved. He also revives his childhood game of imagining he is Tor, a young Viking shipbuilder. But when the Tor game becomes increasingly real and harder to control, Ben discovers that the lines between past and present, fantasy and reality, are beginning to blur - with dangerous consequences.
185 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
1 person is currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Welwyn Wilton Katz
16 books58 followersEveryone has interests. Some people like my father had very few but he knew everything about them and received an OBE for the work he did on one of them during the second world war. Obviously this anecdote shows that having only a few interests isn't a bad thing. However, sometimes I think that the more things people are interested in, the more chance they have of becoming a traditionally published author. For example, here is a vastly incomplete list of my own interests: making jewelry (which I never thought would enter into my writing but is starting to, in the book I'm mentally reconstructing now), Rumi (because his poems are so beautiful and help me step back onto my own spiritual path if I've gone astray for a time), standing stones and dowsing and other new age tidbits as you will see in my book Sun God Moon Witch, playing the transverse flute and recorder and learning the Indian flute and the Japanese (zen) shakuhachi, folklore, legends, mythology [as most readers will see were resources in my books [book:False Face], The Third Magic,Witchery Hill Come Like Shadows), a writerly interest in character growth over certain excellent television series such as NCIS and Bones, yoga (both physical and its philosophical monism - a spiritual path I find fascinating), social issues such as prejudice and the changing of country boundaries because of it as shown in my books False Faceand Come Like Shadows, interspecies communication particularly with whales as in my book Whalesinger, climate change as has already outpaced my imagination as shown in my book Time Ghost, sketching, gorgeously impossible golf courses even though I don't play golf, Stonehenge and other standing stones as well as the math and science of prehistoric peoples, online shopping, murder mystery novels, J.S.Bach's and Mozart's music though mostly I prefer medieval music and some modern songs such as "You" by Fisher (album The Lovely Years),"Japanese Music Box" by Itsuki No Komoriuta (album "Forest" played by George Winston), "The Lady of Shalott" by Loreena McKennitt (album The Vist), "Leonard Cohen Live in London" (double album, all of it), "Someone to Watch Over Me" by Willie Nelson (album Stardust), "Autumn" by George Winston (whole album), "Fragile" by Jorane (The You and the Now), and "Words Can't Go There" by John Kaizan Neptune (album of same name).
Like you I love movies, nature, some TV, and I play bridge and even some video games (Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS: favourites Kingdom Hearts, and P4). Books, of course. We'll find out more about each other in my blog, I'm sure.
Like you I love movies, nature, some TV, and I play bridge and even some video games (Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS: favourites Kingdom Hearts, and P4). Books, of course. We'll find out more about each other in my blog, I'm sure.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 4, 2020
The book was not interesting as the cover is a boring book
January 28, 2022
Meh 🤷♀️
July 20, 2022
A story of Vikings in Newfoundland.
Read
December 30, 2020Cross-posted from my blog where there's more information on where I got my copy and links and everything.
(2.5)
I'm a little conflicted about this. The writing is really quite good. The Newfoundland setting isn't something I run into a lot in books, and it's vibrant and wonderful. Basically, the only thing that I really didn't like was the Viking stuff. Like actually in the story, it was well worked into the setting and the character's interest, but the random italics got really distracting. Honestly, if they had formatted the Tor stuff (the character Ben pretended to be, not the publisher, ha) differently, it probably would have worked better. There was also some Norse mythology told in italics, most of which Ben's mother had told him at some point. But the thing is, Norse names plus italics make word soup, honestly. I would have preferred hearing it from Ben, not just having the mythology told to me out of the narrative.
Honestly, it's not even that those parts were badly written or anything. But you'd be reading these really interesting scenes about Ben and his family and even just Ben talking about the history of Newfoundland and then bam, suddenly Vikings. Like (and I'm making this up as an example) it'd be Ben and his dad getting in a boat, switch, Tor making a boat for the Vikings or something, switch, Ben picks up the oars. I get the idea behind it, that he's escaping reality and stuff, but it really interrupts the flow of the novel at times. When it's integrated into the story, and thread into what's actually happening to Ben, it's really cool. When it's just thrown onto the page, it's a bit clunky.
And honestly, I spent a lot of time really worried about this kid. He's kind of hallucinating or dissociating or something, and this is obviously because of the loss of his mother. Someone should probably talk to the kid about that! Like, that's a little too glossed over.
However, though, I still liked this one. Again, the writing is good, the setting was awesome, and it's interesting. I just wish the bits that weren't Ben's story had been blended in a bit better. I think that kids who are interested in Norse mythology would really like this, and I would definitely be interested in checking out other books from the author. I even have one on my to-read pile that I'm excited about reading, since the writing will probably continue to improve. Even with this being a bit older, I think most of it still works well. Kids may ask why they don't have computers or internet, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if rural Newfoundland lacks in a bit of technology - like my aunt in Northern Saskatchewan can only get one internet provider on her farm - and a mention of video rentals raising questions about a lack of DVDs, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You could have a good conversation from that.
I complained a lot, but I don't think this was a bad book at all. It was a good book, and I can definitely see kids enjoying this. The only thing is, I don't think the cover is the best choice. It reminds me of The Other Elizabeth, which is a book I read about eight hundred times as a kid and I should do a blog post on some day (and can't find a cover picture of online - I'll take one and put it next to this post). But this only has two stamps from people checking it out. Maybe it had an index card that was stamped instead, but the stamps are from 1996 and 2001, so that's a bit of a gap. And the book looks brand new - I thought it was from the mid-2000s, not the 90s. I don't think this cover makes kids look at it and want to read it.
Which is a shame! If you come across this, I'd say go ahead and check it out if you're into kid books. It's worth giving a chance.
(2.5)
I'm a little conflicted about this. The writing is really quite good. The Newfoundland setting isn't something I run into a lot in books, and it's vibrant and wonderful. Basically, the only thing that I really didn't like was the Viking stuff. Like actually in the story, it was well worked into the setting and the character's interest, but the random italics got really distracting. Honestly, if they had formatted the Tor stuff (the character Ben pretended to be, not the publisher, ha) differently, it probably would have worked better. There was also some Norse mythology told in italics, most of which Ben's mother had told him at some point. But the thing is, Norse names plus italics make word soup, honestly. I would have preferred hearing it from Ben, not just having the mythology told to me out of the narrative.
Honestly, it's not even that those parts were badly written or anything. But you'd be reading these really interesting scenes about Ben and his family and even just Ben talking about the history of Newfoundland and then bam, suddenly Vikings. Like (and I'm making this up as an example) it'd be Ben and his dad getting in a boat, switch, Tor making a boat for the Vikings or something, switch, Ben picks up the oars. I get the idea behind it, that he's escaping reality and stuff, but it really interrupts the flow of the novel at times. When it's integrated into the story, and thread into what's actually happening to Ben, it's really cool. When it's just thrown onto the page, it's a bit clunky.
And honestly, I spent a lot of time really worried about this kid. He's kind of hallucinating or dissociating or something, and this is obviously because of the loss of his mother. Someone should probably talk to the kid about that! Like, that's a little too glossed over.
However, though, I still liked this one. Again, the writing is good, the setting was awesome, and it's interesting. I just wish the bits that weren't Ben's story had been blended in a bit better. I think that kids who are interested in Norse mythology would really like this, and I would definitely be interested in checking out other books from the author. I even have one on my to-read pile that I'm excited about reading, since the writing will probably continue to improve. Even with this being a bit older, I think most of it still works well. Kids may ask why they don't have computers or internet, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if rural Newfoundland lacks in a bit of technology - like my aunt in Northern Saskatchewan can only get one internet provider on her farm - and a mention of video rentals raising questions about a lack of DVDs, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You could have a good conversation from that.
I complained a lot, but I don't think this was a bad book at all. It was a good book, and I can definitely see kids enjoying this. The only thing is, I don't think the cover is the best choice. It reminds me of The Other Elizabeth, which is a book I read about eight hundred times as a kid and I should do a blog post on some day (and can't find a cover picture of online - I'll take one and put it next to this post). But this only has two stamps from people checking it out. Maybe it had an index card that was stamped instead, but the stamps are from 1996 and 2001, so that's a bit of a gap. And the book looks brand new - I thought it was from the mid-2000s, not the 90s. I don't think this cover makes kids look at it and want to read it.
Which is a shame! If you come across this, I'd say go ahead and check it out if you're into kid books. It's worth giving a chance.
March 21, 2015
I was surprised by the poignancy of this book. The plot summary doesn't really give much away - I sort of thought the main character would end up traveling to the past and meet Vikings and stuff, but it turned out a lot different. It's a really great insight into dealing with grief and with isolation, with changes and coming of age, and how craftsmanship and make-believe can be great coping tools. But they can also go too far, and it's difficult to see the line. I thought it was very well written and never patronizing. I did feel like people were hard on Ben for not being friends with the mean local kids who kept calling him names, but I guess kids are like that.
I also feel like the issue of race was neatly sidestepped - not in a negative way. It's hard to explain - you can't glorify Vikings without realizing that they murdered Native Americans, it's just a fact. But there was a lot of consideration of that - mentions that this was their land, that the Vikings had struck first and the Natives were defending themselves, that they were being cheated. I didn't feel like it was a lesson on race issues, but it did bring it to mind and didn't try to make the Vikings out to just be "the good guys".
I also feel like the issue of race was neatly sidestepped - not in a negative way. It's hard to explain - you can't glorify Vikings without realizing that they murdered Native Americans, it's just a fact. But there was a lot of consideration of that - mentions that this was their land, that the Vikings had struck first and the Natives were defending themselves, that they were being cheated. I didn't feel like it was a lesson on race issues, but it did bring it to mind and didn't try to make the Vikings out to just be "the good guys".
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews