Son of the Sun

Son of the Sun Synopsis

Contains a number of lesser-known South Pacific tales.A SON OF THE SUN (excerpt)The Willi-Waw lay in the passage betweenthe shore-reef and the outer-reef. From the latter came the lowmurmur of a lazy surf, but the sheltered stretch of water, not morethan a hundred yards across to the white beach of pounded coral sand,was of glass-like smoothness. Narrow as was the passage, and anchoredas she was in the shoalest place that gave room to swing, theWilli-Waw's chain rode up-and-down a clean hundred feet. Itscourse could be traced over the bottom of living coral. Like somemonstrous snake, the rusty chain's slack wandered over the oceanfloor, crossing and recrossing itself several times and fetching upfinally at the idle anchor. Big rock-cod, dun and mottled, playedwarily in and out of the coral. Other fish, grotesque of form andcolour, were brazenly indifferent, even when a big fish-shark driftedsluggishly along and sent the rock-cod scuttling for their favouritecrevices.On deck, for'ard, a dozen blacks pottered clumsilyat scraping the teak rail. They were as inexpert at their work as somany monkeys. In fact they looked very much like monkeys of someenlarged and prehistoric type. Their eyes had in them the querulousplaintiveness of the monkey, their faces were even less symmetricalthan the monkey's, and, hairless of body, they were far moreungarmented than any monkey, for clothes they had none. Decoratedthey were as no monkey ever was. In holes in their ears they carriedshort clay pipes, rings of turtle shell, huge plugs of wood, rustywire nails, and empty rifle cartridges. The calibre of a Winchesterrifle was the smallest hole an ear bore; some of the largest holeswere inches in diameter, and any single ear averaged from three tohalf a dozen holes. Spikes and bodkins of polished bone or petrifiedshell were thrust through their noses... About Jack London:Jack London (1876-1916), was an American author and a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction. He was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from writing. London was self-educated. He taught himself in the public library, mainly just by reading books. In 1898, he began struggling seriously to break into print, a struggle memorably described in his novel, Martin Eden (1909). Jack London was fortunate in the timing of his writing career. He started just as new printing technologies enabled lower-cost production of magazines. This resulted in a boom in popular magazines aimed at a wide public, and a strong market for short fiction. In 1900, he made $2,500 in writing, the equivalent of about $75,000 today. His career was well under way. Among his famous works are: Children of the Frost (1902), The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), The Game (1905), White Fang (1906), The Road (1907), Before Adam (1907), Adventure (1911), and The Scarlet Plague (1912).

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