The Tides of Avarice

The Tides of Avarice
John Dahlgren
Editions Didier Millet Pte Ltd.
Singapore
2011
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-981-4260-53-4
464 pages
$ 14.95

The Tides of Avarice is about Sylvester who lives in Foxgrove which is quiet and safe community. This town is a little unusual in that it is inhabited by common everyday lemmings instead of humans. Yes, they are the creatures known to occasionally go over a cliff in a mass suicide.

Sylvester Lemmington enjoys his daily challenge of being a librarian who translates historical documents and dreams of a future life with his childhood friend, Viola. Two events though are quickly going to change Sylvester’s life. First is when he discovers an injured, dying ferret that is in possession of part of a pirate map. The other is that Sylvester has been selected to be part of the next Great Exodus, where the lemmings go in mass over the cliff into the sea. Sylvester has his doubts about this tradition since no one has ever returned from this and also feels a personal loss since his father disappeared from a previous Great Exodus years ago.

The Tides of Avarice is a delightful journey following Sylvester as he leaves the safety of his home into the adventurous life with pirates and searching for a treasure. Besides finding the treasure is also the question of what is the treasure. This is an in-depth adventure with extremely well-developed three dimensional characters. The writing is enthralling and a constant page-turner. John Dahlgren is a masterful storyteller.

There are some aspects of other well-known tales in this in that I could easily find resemblances to Treasure Island, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Watership Down, and The Wizard of Oz all within this one novel.

The dialogues perfectly reflect the characters which are realistic, human-like, and definitely integral as delightful characters that are interesting with a true mixture of personalities, complete with flaws but also charm.

For Sylvester who only read about adventure, being a part in a real-life daily dangerous situation can be a challenge and the reader is privileged to join him during every crisis.

John Dahlgren was born in Sweden and currently lives in Switzerland working as a psychologist and a marketing director for a pharmaceutical company.

The Tides of Avarice is a wonderful adventurous fantasy in the world of Sagaria. Being the first of a trilogy this is a wonderful journey that is aimed at a young adult audience, though anyone older would enjoy this tale of life and death by the truly gifted author, John Dahlgren.

1. What influenced you to write The Tides of Avarice?
2. Which books have influenced you the most?
3. Your character of Sylvester finds himself questioning his religious
beliefs. Does this reflect your personal doubts?
4. Your characters are extremely well-developed. How long have you been
pondering about writing this tale?
5. When did you decide to begin to write this trilogy?
6. Why did you choose lemmings as your main characters?
7. The Tides of Avarice has many strong female characters who are without
husbands but definitely non-compromising with the male gender. Who have
been the strong women in your life and how have they influenced you?
8. With The Tides of Avarice being a pirate adventure, what other adventures
are planned for the future novels of this trilogy?
9. Which character do you view yourself most like? Are there real people
that you based your characters’ personalities on?
10. With being employed and being a father, how do you find the time to write
such an expansive fantasy adventure?