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| Iron Maiden | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Musgrave
Publisher: Contemporary Instructional Concepts
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $14.31
You Save: $0.64 (4%)
New (14) Used (7) from $3.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 1327521
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0977650359
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780977650354
ASIN: 0977650359
Publication Date: June 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New American book. Printed on demand and shipped within the US in 4-7 days (expedited) or about 10-14 days (standard). Standard can occasionally be slower so we advise using expedited if quicker delivery is important!
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Product Description
Jared Diamond's COLLAPSE inspired this alternate history that takes place during the Americal Civil War, and tells the story of eight people who come together after the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. Using the money they earned by tricking the U. S. Government into buying more Monitor-class ships, they attempt to escape the war and retreat to "paradise," Easter Island. However, this paradise has been transformed by the natives into a human ecological disaster and monument to pagan fertility rights and even cannibalism. Through the inventiveness and labors of the main characters, the fanatical Bird Man cult is finally banished, but not before many people have died as a result.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Iron Maiden July 18, 2007
Iron Maiden is an alternate historical story about the American Civil War. I'm actually a little wary about this genre. I tend to know just enough about the time period that the lack of historical accuracy really irritates me. Then, the aliens arrive or some other dramatic paranormal event occurs. This tends to make the situation so laughable that I start to think of the work as comedy. Usually, the authors of such works don't share my sense of merriment.
Iron Maiden is different, in a good way- a really good way. The author obviously knows his time period and has done a lot of research to make his story fit seamlessly into place. His attention historical accuracy definitely shows. Two of the characters were real people and the author's story fits very neatly with the records of their personalities and their life stories. I even felt the need to do some checking to see where the alternate history started and ended. I liked that aspect.
This book also made me laugh. The characters were so set on "going native" in the Easter Islands but they really had no clue about these islands or the inhabitants (fitting in perfectly with the knowledge that these people would have actually had at that time). The results are incredibly ironic.
 Book made for a great read November 21, 2006
Reviewed by A.J. Cooper for Reader Views (10/06)
"Iron Maiden" was about the American Civil War and building a great, war ship to defeat the south. John Ericsson was a ship builder that had a great idea he felt that would defeat all ships currently built for the Civil War. He had been in America with his wife and had great dreams of building this war ship. His first partnership prior to the war was not a success, due to no fault of his own. His plan was finally accepted by the U.S. Navy and he needed to complete the ship in a short amount of time. His wife had also left and returned to her family in England.
The South soon discovered through spies that the North had commissioned someone to build a great, war ship. The spy that was found was given threats of killing his family back in England if he did not find a way to kill Mr. Ericsson and destroy the war ship prior to sailing off to war.
"Iron Maiden" made for a great read. Even though most of the characters did not really exist by name if felt to me that they really played a huge part in history. As I read about the effort to build the ship for the North and the efforts of the South to destroy it I could hardly put the book down. I enjoyed the mix of characters that is what made it seem real to me.
All types of different people would be enlisted to help build the ship and to serve on the ship. The battle scenes made me feel like I was there close by watching everything play out and I could not wait until the USS Monitor arrived to help its sister ships in the battle.
It was very odd to me that a ship builder would want to take his wife and the people that he could enlist to go with him to an Island inhabited by natives. That portion of the story I did not find believable. I do not recall reading any history books that mentioned a naval officer wanting to go with a group of people he did not know to an island he did not have much information on.
Up until the group actually set sail for this island, I could not stopping reading the book. Once they started to sail for the island I lost interest in the book and put it down for days at a time to read something else. Overall "Iron Maiden" was a very interesting read and I enjoy reading books about history and based on history. I realize the concept of how societies survive is based on fact but I felt the book turned into fantasy writing and I really lost interest.
Iron Maiden Book Review September 3, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Iron Maiden is an eclectic collection of historical and literary subjects strangely woven together to create a unique novel-maritime activities during the Civil War; inventor John Ericsson's battleship-the Monitor; readings from and references to Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Moby Dick and The Bounty; John Wilkes Booth's attempted assassination of Ericsson; three romances; slavery; anthropological research about the South Pacific islands, Easter Island; and Plato's Republic. Quite a feat-tying it all together!
There's adventure, romance, intrigue, deception, betrayal and power struggles throughout. John Ericsson tricks the U.S. Government into buying more of his Monitor-class ships for money to escape the war with seven others to create his own version of Plato's Republic on Easter Island. To find out whether or not John succeeded, you'll have to read the book.
I generally like to include a sample of the author's writing to give you an idea of his style and for this I have chosen an excerpt from John Ericsson's Journal, pages 255-256:
"My grand experiment is going smoothly, even though the addition of Sinclair and his wife has caused me to change some of my plans. I have had time to reflect and to read, and it has been Plato who has been my ultimate salvation. His Republic has given me the inspiration to design my plan so that it will serve us well in our new environs. Combined with my exploration into the characters of my passengers, this philosophical treatise will become the bedrock upon which we will build our community on Easter Island.
"First, off, Plato's understanding of the human soul has been of great assistance to me in my own designs for the future. He believed that each of us could be categorized according to our class and according to our interest and virtues. And, beneath our surface life, there is the motivation of the soul. . . .
"I note, with pleasure, that I can place each of my new citizens into one of these three categories. For example, Sinclair and Greene are perfect candidates for the Warrior Class. They have the spirit and courage that is demanded of these `Guardians of the Republic,' as Plato calls them. I know that Green has been aspiring toward something he believes is knowledge, but the Transcendentalists are not true philosophers. Emerson never lived in Nature, about which he preaches so profoundly. And Greene has been truly fooled by the chimera of unity. It will not take me long to put him back into the class upon which his soul is truly based, the warrior of spirit and courage! As for Sinclair, he is the epitome of Platonic spirit. He even saw the South as men who were fighting for honor, and thus he became a compatriot for their cause. Sinclair will be easily swayed by the manipulations I will use on him.
"The Commoner Class shall, of course, be the natives on the island, as well as Mister Charles McCord, the Catholic. Even though McCord fools himself onboard ship, once he gets out into this pleasure-seeking wilderness, he will become his old self again. We will work on his temperance." Ah, and how power corrupts!
So now that you know a little about the book and the author's writing style, let me tell you something about the Jim Musgrave, and I quote from the back cover:
"Following reading experiences such as Camus' The Stranger . . ., James Musgrave began his own odyssey to become a published author of `radstream' (radical as opposed to mainstream) prose. His nonfiction title, The Digital Scribe: A Writer's Guide to Electronic Media (1996), was his attempt to teach techies how to write with their entire brains, and his three novels soon followed in an attempt to teach humans how to read with their brains damaged by American `bestsellers.' . . . He presently teaches collegiate humans in San Diego how to think (and hopefully write) with their brains damaged by the American K-12 system. His motto: Carpe nocto!" (Latin for: Seize the night!)
It's not a bad read and you just might learn something, one way or another.
Reviewed by Kaye Trout - August 29, 2006
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