James

The juxtaposition of old language, slave dialect AND present phraseology works really well to modernize a classic tale while still exploring the significance and magnitutde of slavery. Add in the alternate pespective and slightly different versions of, or story arcs for, historic characters and you get something that can be read on its own without any knowledge of the orginal tale that it is spun out of/off of. The heavy dialogue also gives the adventure a quick pace and the author's smooth, ever-flowing writing is as effective as it was in his last work - be it that this is an apple to Dr No's orange.