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When two of the seven boys stranded on Lost Island are kidnapped by techno-punks, their friends attempt a daring rescue mission using a hang glider
- GenresYoung Adult
130 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 1, 2018
Reread: 3/15-20, 2016
***I put this on my "dead dog warning" shelf for my friend who hates seeing dead dogs in her books, but I'd like to point out that these are mean dogs.***
3.5 stars rounded up to four.
Being a more experienced (not to mention cynical) reader than I was 25 years ago, I see some of the weak spots in this series that I missed back then. You need a tad more suspension of disbelief in some of the action scenes, but this is still much better than The Maze Runner series, but the bar is set really low there so that ain't saying much. The kids in this are crack shots with flare guns and crossbows while the mutant bandits who are supposed to be genetically enhanced couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.
"An entire legion of my best troops await you."
They get one good shot in, but one out of how many hundreds? Not a good record. Then there are a few things that a good editor should've caught and fixed. Not with the grammar; that seems fine as far as I can tell. I'm talking about continuity errors and the like. They know the nicknames of the islands though they haven't been told them. The reader knows the names because the mutants referred to them, but the kids couldn't know them because they weren't privy to that conversation. I guess it's possible they were referred to in the journal Miles was reading, and he let them know, but that was never spelled out. Then we get to something that happens between the end of this book and the start of the next. One character has supposedly broken his ankle and the others are carrying him on the last page of this one when something happens. At the start of the next book he's walking just fine though only a minute or two has passed. That's easily the biggest gaffe so far, but it's stuff like that. There isn't a ton, but it's still there.
As for the story itself, the boys find out more about the mystery surrounding the mutant bandits in this one, but not a whole lot. Generally they find a couple of places where experiments took place, some artifacts, find another place to check out but don't quite get there, etc. There's a little bit of danger, and attack, and so on. Read it for yourself for the story details.
This book had a passage that made quite an impression on my 12 year old self. Main characters Len Hayden and Miles Bookman are helping the delinquent kids stage a rescue attempt for some of the other delinquents. (They're doing this against their better judgement and after some heated debate about the prudence of the plan and arguing in favor of an escape attempt, but they agreed to help anyway since they were outvoted.) Main characters have dropped the four others off at the beach, are to wait a bit, do some diversionary stuff, then pick the others back up with their rescued cohorts. After they've dropped them off and are just chilling in the boat, we come to this:
I've seen such displays of nobility in my books many times since, but this might be the first. It showed me that I don't have to see the world in eye-for-an-eye terms, and that I don't have to lower my standards just because those with whom I cavort would. I try to be a little more high-minded, and a better person. This is one of the things that makes me such an insufferable prick, but I'm sticking to my guns here. And, of course, I'm human so I don't do this kind of thing perfectly, but I try to be a man of my word and not dick people over. Still, I remember the first time I read this part, and the second, and now the third. It still makes an impression. Go Miles!
And now we come to the most important part! (At least to me.) Augie meets Commando, a wild dog/wolf whom he befriends and helps. I think in the next book Augie and Commando get separated from the rest of the group (again), and learn to exist on their own rather well. I remember Augie becoming one of my favorite characters in the series due to this.
Around the time I was reading these the first time our dog had puppies, and I got to keep one as my own. I decided to name him Augie after this character. Daddy thought it was a stupid name and urged me to pick something else. I resisted and he relented since he had said it was my dog after all, and was even OK with the name once he found out Augie's grandfather had actually been named Augustus. (They were purebred Brittany Spaniels so we had those kinds of records.) His mother, our other dog, was named Freckles, so come on. There was nothing wrong with naming a dog Augie. Mama loved the name because of Augie Doggie, and who doesn't love him!?
"Hello!"
Ah, Augie. He was a good dog. He was a hunting dog so he stayed outside in a pen in the backyard, but I walked him and Freckles all the time, then him and Patches after Freckles died. I didn't know how to train a dog, but I tried anyway, and Augie and I were kind of tight. He obeyed me pretty well, would come when I called, and I accidentally found out he would sic as well when I set him on a pair of friends who were fighting one day. I called him back, though, and that was that. It broke my friends up from their rumble, so something good came out of it. I was most aggrieved when he got killed by a train on a hunting trip. He and patches had gotten separated from daddy (apparently they didn't obey him as well as they did me), and he found them the next day. Patches survived, and made a full and remarkable recovery. She was the runt of her litter, but the scrappiest and most hyperactive Brittany Spaniel I've ever seen. I loved her too, but she wasn't Augie. Besides, she was technically my sister's dog, though I spent more time with her than she did. And she didn't obey as well, either. Anyway, since then I've never gotten as attached to any other dog. I'm actually a cat person at heart, but I'm allergic to those now. Then I had a beta fish phase. They're good listeners, but they're all dead now too. One day I'll live in a place where I can have a real pet again. For now I have my Lego minifigures on the Lego calendar that get switched out each month.
"Kneel before Zod!" "MISS TESCHMACHER!!!" "For truth, justice, and the American way." "Do you bleed?" "Ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?" "Waugh, waugh, waugh."
They're not the greatest conversationalists, but I'll take what I can get. What the hell am I talking about? Oh, yeah. Book review. I named a dog after something in this book. If that ain't the acme of praise, then I don't know what is. But one part doesn't carry the whole book, so I'm sticking with my 3.5 star rating.
***I put this on my "dead dog warning" shelf for my friend who hates seeing dead dogs in her books, but I'd like to point out that these are mean dogs.***
3.5 stars rounded up to four.
Being a more experienced (not to mention cynical) reader than I was 25 years ago, I see some of the weak spots in this series that I missed back then. You need a tad more suspension of disbelief in some of the action scenes, but this is still much better than The Maze Runner series, but the bar is set really low there so that ain't saying much. The kids in this are crack shots with flare guns and crossbows while the mutant bandits who are supposed to be genetically enhanced couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.
"An entire legion of my best troops await you."
They get one good shot in, but one out of how many hundreds? Not a good record. Then there are a few things that a good editor should've caught and fixed. Not with the grammar; that seems fine as far as I can tell. I'm talking about continuity errors and the like. They know the nicknames of the islands though they haven't been told them. The reader knows the names because the mutants referred to them, but the kids couldn't know them because they weren't privy to that conversation. I guess it's possible they were referred to in the journal Miles was reading, and he let them know, but that was never spelled out. Then we get to something that happens between the end of this book and the start of the next. One character has supposedly broken his ankle and the others are carrying him on the last page of this one when something happens. At the start of the next book he's walking just fine though only a minute or two has passed. That's easily the biggest gaffe so far, but it's stuff like that. There isn't a ton, but it's still there.
As for the story itself, the boys find out more about the mystery surrounding the mutant bandits in this one, but not a whole lot. Generally they find a couple of places where experiments took place, some artifacts, find another place to check out but don't quite get there, etc. There's a little bit of danger, and attack, and so on. Read it for yourself for the story details.
This book had a passage that made quite an impression on my 12 year old self. Main characters Len Hayden and Miles Bookman are helping the delinquent kids stage a rescue attempt for some of the other delinquents. (They're doing this against their better judgement and after some heated debate about the prudence of the plan and arguing in favor of an escape attempt, but they agreed to help anyway since they were outvoted.) Main characters have dropped the four others off at the beach, are to wait a bit, do some diversionary stuff, then pick the others back up with their rescued cohorts. After they've dropped them off and are just chilling in the boat, we come to this:
Len gazed back at his friend. "Let's split, Bookman. Let's get out of here and leave those idiots."
"We can't."
"They don't care about us," Len said. "Besides, we can find help."
"No, Hayden. We've got to see it through. We can't leave them."
"They'd leave us."
"I know," Miles replied. "They would. But we wouldn't."
I've seen such displays of nobility in my books many times since, but this might be the first. It showed me that I don't have to see the world in eye-for-an-eye terms, and that I don't have to lower my standards just because those with whom I cavort would. I try to be a little more high-minded, and a better person. This is one of the things that makes me such an insufferable prick, but I'm sticking to my guns here. And, of course, I'm human so I don't do this kind of thing perfectly, but I try to be a man of my word and not dick people over. Still, I remember the first time I read this part, and the second, and now the third. It still makes an impression. Go Miles!
And now we come to the most important part! (At least to me.) Augie meets Commando, a wild dog/wolf whom he befriends and helps. I think in the next book Augie and Commando get separated from the rest of the group (again), and learn to exist on their own rather well. I remember Augie becoming one of my favorite characters in the series due to this.
Around the time I was reading these the first time our dog had puppies, and I got to keep one as my own. I decided to name him Augie after this character. Daddy thought it was a stupid name and urged me to pick something else. I resisted and he relented since he had said it was my dog after all, and was even OK with the name once he found out Augie's grandfather had actually been named Augustus. (They were purebred Brittany Spaniels so we had those kinds of records.) His mother, our other dog, was named Freckles, so come on. There was nothing wrong with naming a dog Augie. Mama loved the name because of Augie Doggie, and who doesn't love him!?
"Hello!"
Ah, Augie. He was a good dog. He was a hunting dog so he stayed outside in a pen in the backyard, but I walked him and Freckles all the time, then him and Patches after Freckles died. I didn't know how to train a dog, but I tried anyway, and Augie and I were kind of tight. He obeyed me pretty well, would come when I called, and I accidentally found out he would sic as well when I set him on a pair of friends who were fighting one day. I called him back, though, and that was that. It broke my friends up from their rumble, so something good came out of it. I was most aggrieved when he got killed by a train on a hunting trip. He and patches had gotten separated from daddy (apparently they didn't obey him as well as they did me), and he found them the next day. Patches survived, and made a full and remarkable recovery. She was the runt of her litter, but the scrappiest and most hyperactive Brittany Spaniel I've ever seen. I loved her too, but she wasn't Augie. Besides, she was technically my sister's dog, though I spent more time with her than she did. And she didn't obey as well, either. Anyway, since then I've never gotten as attached to any other dog. I'm actually a cat person at heart, but I'm allergic to those now. Then I had a beta fish phase. They're good listeners, but they're all dead now too. One day I'll live in a place where I can have a real pet again. For now I have my Lego minifigures on the Lego calendar that get switched out each month.
"Kneel before Zod!" "MISS TESCHMACHER!!!" "For truth, justice, and the American way." "Do you bleed?" "Ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?" "Waugh, waugh, waugh."
They're not the greatest conversationalists, but I'll take what I can get. What the hell am I talking about? Oh, yeah. Book review. I named a dog after something in this book. If that ain't the acme of praise, then I don't know what is. But one part doesn't carry the whole book, so I'm sticking with my 3.5 star rating.
July 5, 2025
It was pretty good. 😢
I liked every part of the book, but I did not give it 5 stars because the last part about Joey was the worst that I have ever read.😭
I liked every part of the book, but I did not give it 5 stars because the last part about Joey was the worst that I have ever read.😭
June 22, 2008
Escape from lost island series is along the lines of "Lord of the Flies" but without the Devil worshipping. I read this series when I was in Jr. High and recently reread them through interlibrary loan at the library. Well worth the time.
In a nutshell: Evil mutants live on an island that is owned by the military (experiments gone wrong). Plane of young boys get stranded and must try to survive until someone can rescue them or they find a way to escape.
Great set of books I wish the series would be reprinted.
Series includes: Stranded! Attack! Mutiny! Discovered! Revenge! and Escape! by Clay Coleman
In a nutshell: Evil mutants live on an island that is owned by the military (experiments gone wrong). Plane of young boys get stranded and must try to survive until someone can rescue them or they find a way to escape.
Great set of books I wish the series would be reprinted.
Series includes: Stranded! Attack! Mutiny! Discovered! Revenge! and Escape! by Clay Coleman
September 17, 2020
This series lead to my love for reading, so many years ago. It's a nostalgic journey, reading them again after so long.
I have to admit, from Far Cry, to LOST, I've been reminded of this story time and time again.
I have to admit, from Far Cry, to LOST, I've been reminded of this story time and time again.
December 15, 2015
I remember reading this series as a teenager and thoroughly enjoying them. Great story of a plane crash and what some kids find on an island that was used as a genetic research lab.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews