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The Alchemist’s Dream by John Wilson (book review)

July 9th, 2008 by monnibo | Books, Challenge, Reviews

The Alchemist’s Dream is a YA novel by John Wilson set during the exploration for a Northwest Passage. When a greedy sailor returns to London from a voyage to Hudson’s Bay in 1669 and shows up at Robert Bylot’s door, Bylot is thrown into a whirlwind of memories. We follow Bylot through his life: meeting and studying with Dee, The Alchemist; Bylot’s desire to sail the oceans, and his friendships with explorers John Davis and Henry Hudson; and most of all — the truth behind the fateful journey in 1611 to find the pathway to the Pacific.

This novel was well-written and the story was complete, and it was a good read — I’d recommend it for children aged 8 – 12. I really liked the structure of the novel; It started at the beginning of the end in 1669, then flashed back to Robert Bylot’s childhood, his studies, his voyages, his journey with Hudson in 1611, and concluding by answering Bylot’s nagging question in his aged body: Did anyone live?

• BC Book Prizes (2008 Finalist) • Canada Council for the Arts – Governor General’s Literary Award (2007 Finalist) • Key Porter Books • John Wilson’s Blog • Blog for The Alchemist’s Dream • One of the books from my Canadian Challenge 2 list •

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Books, Challenge, Reviews.
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5 responses about “The Alchemist’s Dream by John Wilson (book review)”

  1. Wendy said:
    July 9th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    Sounds like a good book. I’ll have to put it on my want to read list.

  2. John Mutford said:
    July 9th, 2008 at 11:39 pm

    I went through a Northwest Passage obsession phase– this would probably rekindle that.

  3. PrincessPea said:
    July 10th, 2008 at 1:23 am

    It sounds great – I’ve recently been writing about the people involved in the search for the North West passage for my work, so it’s a subject I’m quite interested in at the moment. Thanks for telling us about it!

  4. Nicola said:
    July 12th, 2008 at 7:14 pm

    Wow, I haven’t ever seen anyone ever blog about this book other than myself. Glad to see your review. I thought it was quite good myself.

  5. John Wilson said:
    August 1st, 2008 at 9:24 am

    I found the blog when Google Alerts sent me a hit for my book, The Alchemist’s Dream. The book challenge is a great idea and fun to browse. I just thought for PrincessPea and John Mutford, I wrote a novel back in 1999 that is a recreation of the journal of James Fitzjames, the third in command of the Franklin expedition. the book is called, North with Farnklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames. The book was for adults and is in the process of being reworked for a Young Adult audience, but I have copies if the NWP interest is rekindled. I also have a biographies of Franklin and John Rae. Check out details on my blog and feel free to drop me an e-mail

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