The Star Rover: 100th Anniversary Collection

The Star Rover is not Jack London's most popular work ( see Call of the Wild) but when I read it as a young man it changed the spiritual trajectory of my life. It begins with opening lines I've always remembered: "I am Darrell Standing. They are going to take me out and hang me pretty soon. In the meantime I say my say." Darrell Standing is in San Quentin prison serving a life sentence for murder. The warden believes he has a hidden cache of dynamite and is determined Standing will give up the dynamite or remain in solitary confinement until he breaks. Standing is too tough to crack so the warden puts him in a straight jacket cinched so tight he can barely breathe. He nearly goes crazy until another denizen of solitary confides a great secret: He can leave his body. He can visit other times and places, the other lives he has lived. The back cover of this book calls The Star Rover "An interesting science fiction". But Jack London writes so powerfully with so many convincing place-names and character-names of long gone times (even prehistoric times) that the story of Darrell Standing's multiple lifetimes seems absolutely authentic. This is one of the few books in my life that blew my mind. Jack London wrote 50 books in a 20 year writing career. How did he do that?

This is primarily a review for the Seawolf Press editions of all the Jack London books. I started with The Star Rover and was immediately struck by the quality of the publication. Guess what? These are actually print on demand. Normally I don’t like print on demand but these are really well done quality productions. It’s actually noted at the back of the book that it was manufactured in San Bernardino, CA about three days before I received it. The cover is really nice with reproduction of the original hardback cover illustration. The heavy cover paper has a very nice texture. There are no illustrations inside this Star Rover, but there are illustrations in many of the other Seawolf Press Jack London books. Well, I started reading The Star Rover and was immediately reminded of what an incredible writer Jack London was. In my mind, the guy was clearly a prodigy, maybe even an oracle of sorts...or someone with Divine-league connections. I am floored by his knowledge, insights, and writing skills. This particular book is astonishing, because the main character is a prisoner at San Quentin State prison. He’s expecting to be hanged in the near future. In the meantime, they are torturing him by binding him in a strap-down suit which prohibits any movement for days on end. He can barely breathe when tied up in this thing. Another inmate has suggested that he go into a meditative state that he calls “the little death.“ Once he goes into this meditative state, he can revisit a multitude past lives with incredible detail. And so the book is actually filled with a variety of stories of different lives that this imprisoned character has lived. This is a highly spiritual, metaphysical book. It provides the most compelling and vivid descriptions of reincarnation that I've eved read, and I have read many.I’m absolutely amazed at the detail London gives as to different cultures, historical times, and events. He uses a variety of specialized nomenclature and speaking styles, all of which appear to be extremely accurate in vernacular to me. I would think it would take years to research a book like this. The mystery is that London was able to write 50 books before he died at age 39. I can’t even fathom that. He would have been about 35 when he wrote this. I'm twenty years older and can't imagine such a feat of incessant, technically detailed writing, especially with all his travels and other projects. Jack London was truly a miraculous individual. I’m also struck by the clarity of the writing. He does use some antiquated terms that I’m not familiar with, but I can read what he’s writing and understand it as well as I can understand today’s Los Angeles Times . He’s a very lucid, vivid writer, and everything he’s describing you can see perfectly clearly in your mind. I am directly connecting with Jack London's mind from over 100 years ago.Jack concludes the Star Rover tale with two virtuoso crescendos: The first is a tribute to Woman. He posits that it is Woman that makes his life (lives) worth living. This is truly a poignant, poetic riff he goes off on here, and as a man myself, I found he put into words what I have thought many times. His final theme is a denunciation of the death penalty. Of course, the main character does not deserve the death penalty (based on the description of his criminality), and neither do several of his friends who also get hanged. He also condemns cruelty in the prisons by prison officials. He makes compelling cases on these issues, and it is interesting to see that after 105 years little has changed in these conversations.I’ve read many of Jack London's other awesome books in years past. Especially if you are from California, you need to know this man's work as he really gives you a sense of the State's history. Given my current enthusiasm for this one, I’ve decided to go ahead and buy all 50 of the books in the Seawolf Press Jack London collection over the next few months. They are a worthy literary investment. There’s no guarantee that all these titles are going to be available forever, and I think it would be nice to have a comprehensive collection of the legendary Jack London's work.

Es un gran libro y pienso que quien hizo esta edición lo hizo por cariño y admiración a Jack London y su obra; al sostener el libro, eso me hace muy feliz.