Sinbad the Sailor

The valley was full of snakes and serpents as big as palm trees, so huge that they could have swallowed any elephant that met them...Overall Rating: 3.6 / 5Sinbad the Sailor is a book that has been around for what seems like as long as time has existed. Unknown when it was published, this is a book that surprisingly, not much is known about. We do not know the date of publication, the author, or even what country it really hailed from, having spread around a lot of countries before coming to the West. Likely one of the first stories of pirate and adventure that was written down and shared, Penguin Little Black Classics brings a collection of three stories from the original script - The Valley of Diamonds, The Black Giant and The Cannibal King - to modern readers, just waiting for a gem to be discovered.Sinbad the porter, a poor fellow who earned his living by carrying goods on his head meets Sinbad the sailor, who, delighted by the porter’s speech about God, invites the poor fellow into his house. Upon meeting, the rich Sinbad, details he is a sailor, and then takes the porter on an adventure through the retellings of his own personal experiences.The Valley of Diamonds4 stars out of 5The Valley of Diamonds is all about how Sinbad the Sailor was lost to an island with large birds, only to find his path to the valley of diamonds – which could also be considered the valley of the serpents. The first thing I noticed about this story, was the utterly amazing descriptions. I was taken on a journey far out of this world, and left totally speechless. I could see every detail in my mind’s eye. I could see every little thing the author wanted us to see, and I eagerly devoured this story twice in one sitting. It ended too quickly for me. The story was spectacular; I didn’t want it to end, and when the retelling ended, I sighed out loud. I found myself frowning, and was flicking back to the start of the retelling before I even realised what I was doing. My interest definitely peaked, I hurried on to read the next story -The Black Giant3.5 stars out of 5Reading The Black Giant is something that, whilst reading it, I was heavily reminded of The Planet of the Apes. I was brought back to one of the first films I had ever watched as a child. However, I didn’t much enjoy this as much as I did The Valley of Diamonds. Everything seemed to work too much and clicked together, and although I enjoy a story with twists and turns, this one just clicked all too much. It was too much of a happy ending, and it made me frown a little bit. Although entertaining, and very much so, I just… didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to, after enjoying the first story so much.The Cannibal King3.5 stars out of 5I expected more from the first portion of this story, considering the title of this one was The Cannibal King. The story of The Cannibal King himself is merely a few pages long, before we follow Sinbad on the rest of his adventures, and it was a little disappointing. It was entertaining, and wonderful, but I wanted more about the one specific section carved out by the title. Other than this, I found this one to be quite enjoyable. Sinbad the Sailor is a small collection of stories from [b:Tales from 1,001 Nights|8700132|Tales from 1,001 Nights|Anonymous|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1503386414s/8700132.jpg|25879019]. Although I don’t feel like the best stories were chosen from the original text to be shown in this collection, it has done its job in making me want to purchase the full book. My interest is definitely peaked by this collection, and there’s a whole world within this to discover.Although I’ve marked this as a recommendation, I do truly believe that Penguin could have done better creating this. There is a lot that could have been done more – they could have chosen better stories; for one, I felt that the second two stories lacked, as entertaining as they were. I truly loved the first story, and the last one was really well done, but again, there was just something missing. Maybe it was my overall mood whilst reading through all of this collection, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I was going to, and it’s a shame, truly.However, I am definitely going to be looking into reading Tales from 1,001 Nights. This is a great piece of literature and should definitely be considered one of the best classics.