Product Description courtesy of Amazon.com: From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!
Buy it now: on Amazon.com
StrangenessAbound’s Rating: 
StrangenessAbound’s Review: All in all, I think it was a pretty well-done book. Ben H. Winters definitely has a creative imagination to put something like crazed sea creatures in together with the adventures of the Dashwoods. Winters has inserted his own dialogue, situations, settings, and even changed some details in characters (most notably in Colonel Brandon) to make Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. For the most part, Winters does a good job of keeping in line with the period dialect and manner of speech, but this standard of Winters’ seems to relax towards the end of the book when several characters use out-of-period words and sentence structure. Some readers may be put off by the sheer goriness and graphic nature that Winters seems to take delight in and expect the reader to do the same (I was one of those, heehee).
Winter’s plot inventions along with the original plot of Jane Austen’s make for an interesting mix. In the original Sense and Sensibility, Marianne and Elinor Dashwood venture out with Mrs. Jennings and the Palmers to London. This is soon after Willoughby leaves Marianne in tears and without an explanation as to why he must leave. But in Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the destination is not London; rather, Sub-Marine Station Beta, an enormous dome (think The Simpson’s Movie) that has an entire population underneath. This Sub-Marine Station Beta is the source of many experiments and exhibits as to how to tame the evil sea monsters that try to attack human beings whenever the opportunity arises.
Also, in the instance when Lucy Steele reveals her engagement to Edward Ferrars, Elinor’s secret love, instead of being at a party given by Mrs. Jennings and Sir John, Lucy and Elinor are rowing on the sea to Elinor’s home when they are interrupted and attacked by the Fang-Beast, a fearsome sea monster that haunts Pestilent Island (the name given to the Dashwoods’ home).
This fearsome, two-headed beast had been thriving in this dank weather, expanding its bulk, waiting for its chance to strike (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, 2009).
Throughout the book, Winters weaves in his own sub-plots that had me turning pages to find the mystery of the matter – for instance, the upside-down five point star that flashes in Elinor’s mind whenever Lucy Steele is mentioned or comes close to her. However skillfully and subtly Winters wrote these sub-plots, I was disappointed to read how they ended. The sub-plots and their finales were interesting enough, but it was the way in which they were finished that disappointed me. It felt like the author was in a hurry and simply wanted to be done with the whole project. The sub-plots turned into somewhat momentous events in the lives of the Dashwoods and yet they were given less than seven and a half pages to make their mark on the reader. In this case, the sub-plots were a swing and a miss.
Also, there is the matter of Colonel Brandon’s octopus face. Colonel Brandon and Marianne’s plot in Sense and Sensibility was my favorite out of the entire book, but here, Colonel Brandon’s character seems to be run through by the business end of a spear. Initially, in the original, Marianne made fun of Colonel Brandon’s age and the complaints that come with that particular office, but in Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, it feels the entire cast and even the narrator make fun of Colonel Brandon’s affliction behind his back. I didn’t particularly care for this portrayal, especially when I tried to imagine Alan Rickman with an octopus face (I REALLY didn’t like that).
That brings me to the inevitable question of whether or not it is ethical to take a classic work like Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice and give it a new twist, for which a modern author is responsible. A literary purist (and others) might say, “No, absolutely not, under no circumstances,” and I would completely understand their point of view. At the beginning of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, I saw no reason why it would be unethical, but as the novel progressed and I wondered if an editor had combed the entire book before publication, I began to think that maybe it was unethical; especially if the new twist on the novel is not as well-done as the original. With the exception of Jane Austen’s original fingerprint, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters seemed to fall apart towards the end, which was disappointing. The novel had a funny kick-off and was highly addictive to read.
In the end, I give the book three and a half stars. I would definitely read it again. Despite its flaws, it’s still a book that Austen fans or connoisseurs should pick up to enjoy. But I think I’ll go try Pride and Prejudice and Zombies next.
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