Originally titled A Son of the Sun, this book is usually listed as a novel. It is really a set of eight tales of the South Seas featuring the same protagonist. Evidently, Grief was once a captain of his own craft; in these tales he has graduated to owner and gazillionaire. Now he hires his captains. In spite of his riches, he is the same adventurer that he was in his youth, yet someone to reckon with (Oops! A preposition at the end of a sentence. I can feel my sixth grade teacher chastising me already.) , yet someone with whom one must reckon. (I feel much better now even though most textbooks by super-educated people are replete with these dangling prepositions.) Anyway, while these tales are interesting, and not particularly farfetched, they do not portray the adventurousness of his later tales. Nevertheless, it is good to have this early collection back in print.

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