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    Time Bandit: Zwei Brüder, die Beringsee und der Fang ihres Lebens
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    Time Bandit: Zwei Brüder, die Beringsee und der Fang ihres Lebens
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    Time Bandit: Zwei Brüder, die Beringsee und der Fang ihres Lebens
    Ebook372 pages5 hours

    Time Bandit: Zwei Brüder, die Beringsee und der Fang ihres Lebens

    By Malcolm Macpherson and Cameron Glendenning

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Andy und Johnathan Hillstrand sind Kapitäne des Fangboots "Time Bandit". Auf der wilden Beringsee vor Alaska trotzen sie und ihre Crew wüten den Stürmen, monströsen Wellen und bleierner Erschöpfung, um Königskrabben zu fangen. Jeder Fehler kann tödlich sein in einem der gefährlichsten Berufe überhaupt. Keine Saison, in der nicht ein Schiff verloren geht. Die Hillstrand-Brüder sind die "Rocker" der Fangflotte, in mehr als 150 Ländern einem Millionenpublikum bekannt durch die erfolgreiche TV-Doku mentation des Discovery Channels.

    In der Biografie "Time Bandit" gewähren sie "Newsweek"-Reporter Malcolm Mac -Pherson Einblicke in die raue Welt der Fischer von Alaska. Sie berichten vom Umgang mit der Angst, von kurzem Reichtum und ständigem Existenzkampf, von Schlägereien und der Sehnsucht nach Liebe. Vor allem aber von einem Gefühl der Freiheit, das es für sie nur an Bord der "Time Bandit" gibt. Meister haft übersetzt von Olaf Kanter, Textchef von "Spiegel online", der die Biografie mit einem Essay über den globalen Erfolg der Serie ergänzt.
    LanguageDeutsch
    PublisherAnkerherz Verlag
    Release dateSep 28, 2012
    ISBN9783940138170
    Unavailable
    Time Bandit: Zwei Brüder, die Beringsee und der Fang ihres Lebens

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    Reviews for Time Bandit

    3/5

    151 ratings54 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Time Bandit is the story of the Hillstrand brothers, Alaskan crab fishermen. They are just 2 of the men featured on the Discovery Channel show, Deadliest Catch. I'm a fan of the show so I was interested in reading this account of the lives of Johnathan and Andy. Part of the premise of the book is that Johnathan is adrift in a disabled boat on a fishing trip away from Alaska's Bering Sea. As he tells of his predicament, he also recounts his life story and other crab fishing anecdotes. Other chapters are told from his brother's Andy perspective, who spends his off season on a horse farm in Idaho. Luckily, this is a short, quick read since I started to tire of the back and forth between reminiscing and Johnathan's current dilemma. Many paragraphs started off with "once, we were" and "one time" and then went into another scrape the boys got into. Overall, if you're a fan of the show, you'll enjoy this quick account of one its more colorful characters.
    • 3/5
      Reading this book, you have to wonder how the Hillstands actually made it to adulthood. The book backs up the Hillstrand persona from the series. It's a quick read, and entertaining at times, but don't set your expectations high. Worth a read while you're waiting for the next series of Deadliest Catch to start.
    • 4/5
      Ok, let's be honest. I've been fishing, I've eaten crab, and I can find the Bering Sea on a map. This would be the only things I have in common with the authors of this book, and probably most of the people who might read it. Not the best qualifications for a reviewer, one might think. But here I am, reviewing this book, and I have only one thing to say: I loved it! "Time Bandit" was entertaining, informative, and suspenseful. I visited the book's web site for more information, and I've already recommended it to about twenty people (yes, mostly guys). Even though I don't own a television, I've already decided to drop by a friend's house tomorrow and watch the show "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel.Granted, it's not for everyone. There is more than a little swearing and other perhaps "objectionable" activities. But, after all, these are commercial fishermen. (Yes, several of Jesus' disciples were originally fishermen, but let's be realistic.) I found the rowdy writing style to be evocative of the personalities of these two men. I imagine we have Malcolm MacPherson to thank for that.The lifestyle of the commercial fisherman is one that most people will not only never experience, but may never even be aware of. That this book can capture some of this exhilirating, albeit grueling, line of work is a marvel.I'll never look at crab legs the same way again!
    • 3/5
      A book for any fan of the TV Show Deadliest Catch , A Very testasterone filled book,, Lot's of fighting, cursing, and fishing. If that stuff interests you than this is a book for you,,Oh Yea They catch 3 different types of crabs in absolutely crazy and deadly conditions, They tell bad, sexist jokes,, and you find out why people pay $$$ For king Crab Legs
    • 1/5
      Was looking forward to it--love daring real-life adventure stories.Disappointed--too much foolish bravado and poorly written.Still admire these men and others like them.Book doesn't do them justice.
    • 3/5
      The story of one fishing family's experiences on the Bering Sea.I received this book via the Early Reviewers program, and I found it quite interesting. The authors have done a great job of capturing the feel of their profession. Personal stories and important details of the fishing business share the stage in near equal measures. I could easily picture myself there on deck, and I felt like I learned a lot. This was an enjoyable read. Structurally, I did find it a little awkward at times. The chapters didn't feel very organized. There is a framing story surrounding the brothers' recollections, but for the most part the stories seem randomly generated. One event reminds the authors of another, which leads into another, and so on and so forth. There are often thematic ties between the stories, but the chronology is somewhat skewed. As a result, I found the book slow-going at times. I was never really able to sink into it and become involved.Still, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about commercial fishing. It may not have blown me out of the water, but it was still a good read.
    • 3/5
      I have an image in my head of Malcolm MacPherson sitting at a table surrounded by piles of audio-cassettes and notebooks, head in hands as he tries to figure out what in the world to do with the hours of anecdotes, stories, histories, and process explanations that he has just collected in conversations with the Hillstrand brothers. That MacPherson was able to find a central narrative on which to hang all of these baubles is not as impressive as his ability to maintain a lively voice for each of the brothers.Not having cable, I haven't had the pleasure of watching the Discovery Channel's show Deadliest Catch. After reading Time Bandit, I'm not sure that I need to. MacPherson uses the narrative of Jonathan's rescue from being adrift alone during a salmon fishing run to organize the biography of these life-long fishermen as well as a brief lesson in the history and mechanics of crab fishing in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. While the stories are told with first-person immediacy, the book doesn't lose the narrative drive like the disappointing Jorgy. While some chapters may go on a bit, the overall rhythm of switching from Jonathan's narrative to the related tales and obeservations is generally effective. The suspense of Jonathan's situation carrying you over the wave ahead.The "as told to" approach of Time Bandit robs it of the literary quality of the fisherman/authors collected in Leslie Leyland Field's anthology Out on the Deep Blue or the memoirs of Linda Greenlaw, but Time Bandit is not simply two old salts telling war stories. Throughout the volume, both Hillstrands reflect often on the nature of humanity that would put themselves through such danger and also on what drives them personally to continue in an industry that will most likely kill them. Their ruminations go beyond hyper-masculine chest thumping to the questioning of human motivation.At one point describing themselves as dinosaurs, the Hillstrands represent a unique brand of fisherman that was raised with the old, practically unregulated, system and is now transitioning to an era of fishing that is much more controlled by the government. The Hillstrands admit and illustrate the necessity and even effectiveness of the new regulations, but they also fear that the heart of the industry is being eroded by the encroachment of bean-counters and bureaucrats. Time Bandit may then stand as a salt crusted monument to the frontier long after it has been rationalized into the ground.
    • 4/5
      There is something about fishermen: if you have the luck to be within earshot of one, you know you are going to be in for a story. At least half of it could be bullshit, but it won’t matter. The story is the point—not the truth. They aren’t journalists for chrissake, they’re fishermen. And if you know what’s good for you, you had better sit down and listen. You just might learn something.The Missus and I don’t get any television channels out here in the holler, so I wasn’t familiar with the Hillstrand brothers and the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch show when I stumbled across their book. I’ll definitely be surfing the free cable in search of it the next time we find ourselves holed up in a Best Western. I’m a big fan of Sebastain Junger and his dispatches from the ragged edges of gainful employment, so Time Bandit caught my eye as a possibly entertaining and enlightening summer read in The Perfect Storm mode. I was not disappointed. These guys are the real deal.It was 105˚ in our front yard Saturday, so we grabbed the ice chest, some Lost Coast Alleycat Amber, and fled to the beach. I felt a little guilty reading about the brothers fighting the freezing, murderous Bering Sea while I was chillin’ in a lounge chair sipping Eureka’s finest, so to show some solidarity, I jumped into the ocean. Not quite the same experience, I now realize.If I could say one thing about the Hillstrands, it would be: they are insane. By the end of the book, you may understand why they became that way (genetics mostly), but it doesn’t change the reality of their condition one bit.Two days later and it’s cooled off considerably, but I wouldn’t know it since I’m sunburned all to hell. I just couldn’t put Time Bandit down long enough to seek some shade. There’s one cold Alleycat left and instead of pouring it on my tomato-colored chest, I think the Hillstrands have earned a toast. For every wound, a balm / for every sorrow, cheerFor every storm, a calm / for every thirst, a beer
    • 4/5
      I received this book from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. This was the 3rd book I've gotten and by far the best one. The story mostly from the point of view of Johnathan Hillstrand, with a couple shifts to his brother Andy and their friend Russel. I really like how the story unfolds, We are with John when he has a problem out on the ocean by himself when he starts to reminisce about his youth and family. The whole book is a story that follows a pattern that is rather fun, and I think an excellent mode of storytelling. Each chapter usually starts off in present and what is going on now, then something trips a memory and we go back along memory lane to learn how these guys got to where they are and how they became the men they are today.Whether this story is true or not, though it feels like there is some boastful embellishment, does not matter since it is an excellent story with a ring of truth about the Bering Sea and the rigors the fishermen put themselves through for some crabs. The money is huge but so are the risks. I also liked the history about the crabbing industry in Alaska, and how it has evolved over the last 30 years.Overall I found this a great book and I enjoyed it immensely. If you like a good fishing story, or just a good story about someones life, this one is both entertaining and thought provoking at the same time.
    • 3/5
      First off, 'Deadliest Catch' is the most "real" reality show on television. Secondly, this is a book by first time writers, but long time brothers (with help from MacPherson). Thirdly, my copy was an uncorrected proof. Now, on to the review.The brothers Hillstrand are certifiably crazy! Putting this book down when needed was very hard to do. Reading about playing with firecrackers, hitting the rough seas at an early age to earn a living, or being in the middle of a drunken brawl is more than enough reason to keep on reading. It just seems impossible that anyone can live this way, but all Hillstrands have done so. And furthermore, they continue to do so. Whether you are a fan of the show, or of juvenile disobedience--even at an older age--this book is a perfect read for satisfaction.[Drawbacks of proofs are inevitable, and I have no way of knowing right away what the finished print is like. Aside from grammar mistakes, including some brain-twisting sentences, there is the rough timeline of the book. Jonathan has interspersed through many chapters, a riveting story about how he almost ..., eh, maybe I shouldn't say more on that subject. But, in the end, I felt it was a struggle going back and forth between a battle between man and sea, and the MANY ordeals the brothers have faced growing up, and working on the boat. If there was a better division between these two styles, and not this mixing, the book could have gotten another 1-and-a-half stars from me.]
    • 4/5
      I simply find that I cannot be too critical when it comes to this book. Taking into account the men who wrote it, their backgrounds, and the obvious audience for which this book was written, I think it was a fascinating read and an interesting glimpse into the world of two of Discover Channel's more famous "characters." Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand are different as the day is long, yet alike somehow. While they may not win any awards for record-breaking prose, they tell a story that is real. As a fan of their show, I found myself just as fascinated by this book. While some parts felt a bit dry to me, I chalk it up to the fact that I am a 22 year old girl, fresh out of college. If my grandfather read this book, I'm sure he would have loved the technical fishing talk just as much as I enjoyed every little story recalled by these men. Don't read this book if you're looking for an amazing piece of literature, but DO read it if you enjoy fun, interesting, and sometimes dramatic bits of memoir. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, just as much as Deadliest Catch!
    • 2/5
      Time BanditTwo Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World’s Deadliest JobsAndy and Johnathan Hillstrand, with Malcom MacPhersonBallantine BooksPrice: $25.00; Released April 2008 The Hillstrand brothers, for those not familiar with Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, own and operate a crab fishing boat out of Alaska. The TV show follows them and other crab crews over the season. Time Bandit is the brothers’ story of how they became fisherman, how it affects their lives off the boat and the large amounts of alcohol, nicotine and sugar that are consumed during the crab season.The book opens outside the crab season with Johnathan fishing for salmon alone. His boat runs into trouble and without engines and a radio he is at the mercy of the sea. His story serves as a framing device for the rest of the book. While on the boat, Johnathan “remembers” events from his childhood and days as a fisherman. Interspersed with Johnathan’s chapters are chapters from Andy, who is at his horse ranch in Indiana in the off season. Andy also looks back at his fishing life as well as offering some background on Alaskan, national and international laws and politics that govern the community. A few chapters from a third-person point-of-view describe what happens at the fishing camp when Johnathan doesn’t return and can’t be raised on the radio.At times, the interwoven stories are hard to follow. It’s difficult to tell one brother from the other before you get to a specific detail that says “I’m on the boat” or “I’m on the farm.” It’s best to think of the book, not as a linear story interrupted by flashbacks, but as a long evening or two in one of the bars the crab crews frequent with Johnathan and Andy telling you stories. Some are shorter than you want; others are longer. And just like a bar conversation, tangents pop up that derail what seemed like a really good story that you never get back to.Also, just like a bar conversation, the brothers talk about their friends and employees as if you also knew them. For someone who’s not that familiar with the TV series, descriptions of crabbers other than the Hillstrands are light. Readers get to know these men in broad strokes through snippets of stories involving near injury or arguments with the captains.The book is at its best when the brothers take the time to flesh out the narrative and explain their jobs thoroughly. Johnathan describes a crab run that frustrates the men at first before the pots starts filling up. On its way to a processing center to drop off their $200,000 catch, the boat runs into pack ice. The story is occasionally interrupted by a tangent or the salmon story, but it’s told in full and keeps you turning the pages. Andy’s piece on the rationalization of crab fishing, which involves a lengthy discussion of Derby Day and Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, would seem to be a dry discussion of evolving legislation. Instead, it becomes one of the more interesting pieces of the book as he describes how the law changed how he works and the concerns he and his colleagues have over the future of the industry. Both men describe these pieces with passion; readers safe in their armchairs come away with an understanding of what life on the Bering Sea is like.Unfortunately, the overall narrative is often choppy. If you’re having a bar conversation and are just as drunk as the guy telling tales, you’re okay with the tangents and distractions. If you’re the designated driver, you have trouble following the conversation and want to ask a lot of follow-up questions. Andy’s explanation of rationalization, although well written for the most part, has a confusing framing. It begins with Andy walking to the Indiana barn to check out his horses; his thoughts about change lead to the rationalization discussion. At the end of it, however, as he describes how the old ways are disappearing, he is suddenly on a plan with a pilot announcing an imminent landing in Alaska. This disconnect is typical of the book. A careful reader will want to look back at previous pages, thinking he’s lost the thread of the book. No thread has been lost; a new one was picked up without warning.For fans of Deadliest Catch, Time Bandit may be a fast read with the confusion absent thanks to familiarity with the authors and setting. For someone not as familiar, the book is best read in small chunks with the ability to skim over the shorter tangents and confusing bits to reach the longer stories.
    • 3/5
      This story about and by the brothers that run the 'Time Bandit'. This is intesting and vivid, the writing is done as if by someone who is doing nothing but putting together a group of tales told by the brothers. The TV show 'The Deadliest Catch' is the general basis, but this is a more behind the scene, background with the brothers and their crew. While I found the description pretty good, the flow of the story was more difficult to follow.
    • 3/5
      I honestly like the show better, but I thought the book was a decent adaptation of the same thing. Disjointed at times, it reads fairly well.
    • 2/5
      This book is about the two brothers, Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, who captain the Alaskan fishing boat "Time Bandit" featured in the Discovery Channel series The Deadliest Catch. I watched a few episodes of this show before reading the book to get a feel for what it's like. I think the book was written to take advantage of the show's popularity. The stories Andy and Johnathan tell about their modern-day adventures are realistic, interesting and exciting. I learned a lot about Alaskan fishing (perhaps more than I wanted to know; the section on federal regulations was a rather tedious but important part of the story).However, the book itself is very poorly written. I received an advance copy from Ballantine Books/Random House through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, but the book did not arrive until well after the April 8 publication date. I have not seen a copy of the book as published, so perhaps some of the problems I've noted were addressed in the final book.The narrative is told from the first-person viewpoints of both Andy and Johnathan. Trouble is, the book does not indicate who is narrating each passage - you have to figure it out (if you can) from the context. The book also jumps around in time. The book is loosely held together with a "real-time" predicament of Johnathan's (he's adrift alone in a small fishing boat with no radio), but that is interspersed with stories from the past, and at times it can be difficult to tell them apart.Despite the presence of a co-writer (MacPherson has written more than a dozen books and was a former correspondent for Time and Newsweek), paragraphs are often long and jump from topic to topic. The book would have benefited from more editing.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of brothers Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand and their Bering sea crabbing boat the Time Bandit. You may think these names sound familiar - that's because they're one of five crews who are also part of the Discovery Channel's The Deadliest Catch.Crabbing, according to the brothers, is like the most extreme of extreme sports. The book is really gripping and chilling, and was an enjoyable read the way Into Thin Air was; if you put aside your horror at what these people are doing, they are truly amazing individuals, much, much different from you and I. I learned a lot about fishing and crabbing, as well as a lot about Alaska.
    • 3/5
      I'm not quite sure how much of this I took in beyond the realization that these guys are completely insane, and that I never ever want to be on a boat in the Bering Sea. The book is fun, fast-paced, intense. When Jonathan is narrating it almost feels like he's just sitting there talking. He just jumps from one topic to another. But, they are all great stories and he has a lot of them. There are at least three general themes. The first is the one and only reoccurring story, that of Jonathan alone on boat with a fried engine and no communication/locater equipment. The second theme is on fishing in the Bering Sea, a job that has something like an 8% fatality rate. This is the heart of the book, where, when everything goes right, the seas are stormy, the equipment heavy and the crew works for days on end without rest. These stories are intense even when they don't including mauling, hypothermia and death.The third theme is Jon and Andy's personal life, including childhood with a rough father and constant daredevil acts, gory injuries and many near death experiences. One horrifying episode is intentionally set-up by their father, where he sends the boys out into the freezing stormy water, almost drowning one boy with the lesson that they should never give up. Later in the book he tells his sons "I have given you boys every means at my disposal to kill yourselves, and you have failed." These guys are obsessive dare-devils, especially Jonathan. I don't think they can stand anything safe.Jonathan writes "I feel small in universe when I am at sea in an 80-knot blow. I am staring into the abyss. The edge of the earth is over the horizon. I have not yet gone off that edge, but I have seen it. I know my insignificance." The book left me with a bit of a rush.
    • 3/5
      Time Bandit is a simple tale from a simple fisherman. Granted, this fisherman fishes the most dangerous seas around and develops many tales from that. This book would never be remotely mistaken for literature. It reminds me more along the lines of telling tales through oral tradition. This isn't because he necessarily tells tall tales, though I do question the truth in many of them, just the way he writes or speaks.Reading this, I was going to write that the first chapter, written primarily by Johnathan Hillstrand, is more of a primer for the life the brothers lead, but by the time I finished the book, I realized it never stopped this format. Because of this, he goes off on tangents frequently, and a lot of times, for too long. The book is packed full of various mini-stories with everything on how they outfit their boat to some of their more memorable crew. I think this entire book could have been streamlined a great deal. It doesn't seem to have any real strong direction to it. There is a plot of sorts, in that Johnathan is stranded on his 'vacation' boat and his friend is trying to find him, but this plot is so weak that it really is unnecessary. It probably would have been better without the pretense of any kind of plot, whatsoever. I have to agree with one of the other reviews that I read. That is, I wanted to like this book, and maybe at another time with some different editing, I would have liked it, but overall this book was a great disappointment. I had a difficult time picking it back up after I had set it down and it took far too long to read, considering it's length and scope. I rarely toss my books in the bin, but that is exactly where this one is headed. Two and half stars.
    • 1/5
      I just finished reading Time Bandit. I wish I had spent my time better. The book was written by Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand, with William MacPherson. The brothers Hillstrand are among the boat captains that star in the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch. They are Alaskan king crab fisherman.When I first got the book title, my first thought was about the movie Time Bandits. That movie is one of my favorites. The name of the book is the name of the authors' boat: Time Bandit. The authors' father named the boat after the movie.The story opens with Johnathan out fishing on another of his smaller boats. The engine dies and the battery dies, leaving him stranded on the Bering Sea with no way to call for help. The book then jumps back and forth from the stranded boat to past stories of the adventures and misadventures of the brothers. The obvious comparison is to Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm. I am not sure whether it is a fair comparison or not. Regardless, as I was reading the book I kept thinking about The Perfect Storm.I have not watched the Deadliest Catch, so I was not familiar with king crab fishing or the brothers Hillstrand. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more if I had watched some of the show first. But I didn't. After reading the book, I am not any more inclined to watch the show. Johnathan comes across as cliche. He drinks hard, works hard and lives hard. Johnathan portrays himself as indestructible. So it is no surprise that at the end of the book he is rescued just in the nick of time. I thought his brother Andy sounded more interesting as he tries to balance his time fishing in Alaska with his horse farm in Indiana.You can better spend your time re-reading The Perfect Storm or Linda Greenlaw's The Hungry Ocean.
    • 4/5
      I have been a fan of the show "Deadliest Catch" since the beginning. My husband is in the Coast Guard and was actually present during the filming of the first season. I grew up on boats (mostly sailing) all throughout my childhood. And I love any good sea story. So I went into reading "Time Bandit" with a lot of knowledge and history; especially having read a lot of books on historical nautical voyages. The narrative changes between the two brothers and even the other author steps in once or twice I believe; and during the first chapter, the narrative was all over the place without a really linear viewpoint. I thought to myself, "uh oh. A non-writer has written a book and I won't be able to follow a thing." But I got into the swing of Jonathan's style. You have to read it as if your speaking with someone face to face. It's a much more conversational type of style than most which you have to expect from a person who is not writing for a living - he's out fishing and living that life - which is what I wanted to hear about anyway.Fans of the show will understand a lot of references, I think, more than others, but all in all, it's a well done book. Both brothers make no apologies for the crazy lives that they lead. They try to explain their lives and perspectives and I really enjoyed it. They definitely tell it like it is.Life in Alaska isn't easy. Life on the Bering Sea is even harder. There aren't many people in the world that could tell you about this life and I think Andy and Jonathan did a great job with the book. I really enjoyed the stories; I liked getting more information about the industry of fishing in Alaska; and the crazy antics that they would get into as kids reminded me of my own siblings (maybe with a little less of the death-defying acts involved). I think the only negative is that it was difficult to sense at first what the narrative was but if you read it knowing that you have to go with their flow (and not one that you are imposing on it), it's a fantastic read. Well done.
    • 4/5
      There are many anecdotes that are entertaining and fund to read throughout this memoir. But it is really more a collection of tales on the sea than a memoir. The tales are told in no particular order and the relevance to the preceeding story is not always clear. The set-up was confusing when it bounced back and forth between Johnathan's real-time predicament and the stories from the past; however, I had an advance reader's copy and this might have been made more clear in the final version. Overall, a very entertaining collection of sea tales but not much more than that.
    • 3/5
      A look into the lives of two brothers that are commercial crab fishermen and are featured on the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch. The three Fs are well covered, here - fishing, fighting, and..never mind. There is some interesting information about the business of crabbing but also a tendency toward overphilosophizing about the manliness and daring of the crabber.
    • 5/5
      This is story of two Alaska fishermen who co-own the fishing vessel, Time Bandit. They and the ship are regulars on Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch.The book begins with Jonathan's story. His childhood, his relationships with his father, his community (Homer, AK), his family, his brother Andy, and the sea. Always the sea. With Jonathan, it is always the sea. Jonathan is a fisherman, first and foremost. Jonathan comes across as a sensitive guy who would give a friend in need everything he had and kill someone who he did not like if the guy looked at him wrong. He just about did kill a guy once.The stories Jonathan tells are all entertaining. Many are sad. The Bering Sea kills. Jonathan has seen too much death. Many are funny and heartwarming. Jonathan tells us that the men that go to sea can range from the dangerous nut to the best guy with a heart of gold.Andy Hillstrand seems to be a more balanced person. It is not all about the sea as it is with Jonathan. Andy has a horse farm in Indiana where he spends most of the year. He just comes to Alaska to fish with Jonathan. Fish and protect Jonathan from himself. Without Andy, Jonathan would probably be dead. Jonathan admits that readily. Call Andy, Jonathan's keel. I cannot recommend this book enough. Real life high adventure!Get it.
    • 2/5
      I received this book as part of the Early Reviewer program and was highly anticipating reading it. I've never watched The Deadliest Catch but everyone I mentioned the book to had and they were all extremely envious that I was getting a "first look" at it. In hindsight, I don't think they should have been. The book is co-written by Andy & Johnathan Hillstrand and Malcolm Macpherson. To me, the sections written by Mr.Macpherson were extremely obvious. The brothers Hillstrand are fishermen and Mr.Macpherson is a writer. Each man is a professional and, in my opinion, should stick to his given profession from now on. I'm sure Mr.Macpherson would fare as well catching crabs on the Bering Sea as the Hillstrand brothers did in writing about their lives and families. Fishermen on the Bering Sea seem to lead interesting, dangerous lives and I think the realities of their lives could have been better communicated by someone who was a professional writer or, if nothing else, with the help of a meticulous editor. As Jonathan and Andy did most of the narration of the story, there seemed to be a lot of repetition of anecdotes and family history as well as excessive braggadocio. Having never watched the show, it was difficult for me to develop any sort of attachment to the characters in the story since they were never appropriately fleshed out. For people who have been regular viewers of The Deadliest Catch, this book may hold more appeal. Overall, this book gives the feeling of having been (quickly) created to attempt to further cash in on the popularity of the television show. If you have better prospects on your reading horizon, don't hesitate to catch them and release this one back into the wild.
    • 3/5
      If you’ve seen “The Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery Channel, you’ll appreciate this book a bit—no, a lot—more. I know I appreciated it more having just watched several hours of Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch Mother’s Day Marathon.” (I kid you not; it reminded me of 1990, when the BBC showed “The Bridge on the River Kwai” on Mothering Sunday and received a very large number of complaints.)In other words, someone not familiar with “Deadliest Catch” will lack the background needed for much of this book. And even having that background, I found the structure of the book cumbersome. Some chapters are written from the perspective of brother Johnathan Hillstrand, from the point of view of his drifting in a disabled fishing boat. Others are written from the perspective of brother Andy Hillstrand as he awaits word of Johnathan’s fate. As one brother or the other moved away from the story of Johnathan’s being adrift to reflect on his own past or on the broader picture of the fishing life, I sometimes lost track of which brother was telling his story. More than once I had to backtrack to the beginning of a chapter to remind myself which brother was telling his story.And Time Bandit offers much more a memoir of the brothers’ lives than an in-depth look at the fishing industry and its perils and thrills. Such works as Linda Greenlaw’s The Hungy Ocean and the Sebastian Junger’s classic, The Perfect Storm, better describe fishing as a profession rather than a recreation. I can honestly say that the parts of Time Bandit I found most entertaining were the stories of two brothers growing up and trying to out-do each other in more and more creative ways—stories only the mother of two sons could love and truly appreciate. I now know how much harder I could have had it ... or still might have it since at least one of my sons has read this book as well.
    • 2/5
      This was tough...I wanted to read this book, I wanted to like this book, and I should have liked it. But I didn't. From the start it definitely felt cobbled together. It was like listening to a bunch of drunk loggers in a bar in Raymond or Forks. Every once in a while there was something to like, but more often than not, the writing was, well, crap. This book did not do the Hillstrand brothers much justice. This was not an easy book to get through. A disappointment.
    • 3/5
      There is no question that [Time Bandit] finds an eager audience among the fans of the American TV show “Deadliest Catch,” but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book stands up well on its own as an entertaining and informative read. The brothers Hillstrand have a pirate’s lode of great fishing stories, but the book doesn’t stop there. They are also admirably candid about their personal histories and the tough issues they deal with on land (families, obligations, personal demons, compliance with fishing regulations, outfitting for the next fishing run, hiring/firing crew, etc).The first and dominant voice in the narrative is Johnathan Hillstrand whose delivery struck me as egotistical and arrogant to the point that I almost didn’t stick around to give the book a chance--but I’m glad I did. After all, the book opens with the “bad boy of the Bering Sea” perilously adrift and alone, and even if he does seem a bit full of himself, I wanted to see how he would get out of his dire predicament. His situation is life-threatening and serves as the literary means to reflect on his life--kind of a slow-motion version of seeing your lifetime pass before your eyes before you die. Thus unfolds Johnathan’s entertaining story, reminiscences of his life, interspersed with the narrative of his brother Andy and the fellow fishermen who eventually rescue him.At first, I thought the writing style was too unpolished and the tone overbearingly arrogant but as I got to “know” Johnathan better, and then his brother Andy, I decided to cut them some slack. After all, if fishermen were born to be writers, they wouldn’t be fishermen, and vice versa. Thankfully, the authors had the good sense to enlist the help of seasoned writer Malcolm MacPherson who I presume is responsible for creating a cohesive work from two lifetimes of harrowing stories. More effort in that direction would have improved the book even more.I give this book praise for being entertaining. The tales of near death, living on the edge, the roughness of life on land and sea gave me a great escape into a world I could never approach in my real life. I take points off for the literary weakness of the book which is apparently aimed at the established TV audience as a “mixed media” marketing effort. When the TV show eventually ends and the DVD market is sated, the book will not have enough literary quality to sustain it as a book alone. Sharing similarities with [Time Bandit] in subject matter, here are a few recommendations which have more substance as literary works: [The Hungry Ocean] and [The Lobster Chronicles] by [Linda Greenlaw], [The Perfect Storm] by [Sebastian Junger], [Hen Frigates] by [Joan Druett], [Cod] by [Mark Kurlansky].I offer these comments with thanks to publisher Ballantine Books and LibraryThing for this advance reading copy; however, it should be noted that the ARC was not sent to me prior to the book’s release, so I felt no particular urgency to read it quickly in order to post a review by the release date.
    • 2/5
      Time Bandit is not to be confused with the movie Time Bandits. The book is named for the boat, which in turn was named for the movie. The F/V (Fishing Vessel) Time Bandit may be familiar to viewers of the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. Time Bandit is one of the crab boats featured in the series. The book is co-authored by brothers, and co-captains, Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand. Many thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewer for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.I think this book will appeal to readers who enjoy watching the show. If you’ve been a regular viewer, you probably have some liking for the characters and more than a cursory interest in the work they do. For those who don’t know, the F/V Time Bandit fishes for Alaskan king crab in the Bering Sea. As you can imagine, the Bering Sea is a dangerous place to be, especially during the winter crab fishing season, and most certainly aboard a working fishing boat. The seas are rough, often with very high waves, storms are frequent, and the work is difficult and dangerous. The crew works for days with little or no sleep, thereby increasing the danger. If you wonder why Alaskan king crab is so costly, this book certainly explains it all.How many times do we have to read that John Hillstrand likes fishing, drinking and women (in that order!)? Why does he fish? Because that’s how he was raised. The Hillstrand brothers are relatively uneducated, and probably not very well-read. Their narrative style seems better suited to a television audience.The brothers, particularly John, seem to spend an inordinate amount of time cursing, fighting, and performing daring rescues at sea (or being rescued or thrown in jail). The story in Time Bandit is framed by John drifting alone in Cook Inlet on the F/V Fishing Fever. He was aboard the Fishing Fever during off-season for crab, and was fishing for salmon when the engine blew up. So-the book starts with John adrift, and ends, quite predictably with his rescue. Obviously he is rescued or there would be no memoir.Personally, I did not find this book particularly appealing. I found the writing to be amateurish and repetitive. The co-writer, Malcolm MacPeherson and the editors should have had more input; maybe then the book would have been a fraction as suspenseful and exciting as fishing the Bering Sea.
    • 2/5
      When I received my copy of this book, I started reading it with great enthusiasm. I'm a big fan of the Discovery Channel series "The Deadliest Catch," and I was hoping that Time Bandit would in some way enhance my enjoyment of the show. I should preface my review by saying that I do believe that the Hillstrand brothers have some truly remarkable and fascinating stories to tell, and that the idea of this book is a good one. Unfortunately, it never really worked for me. Almost the entire book seemed like someone had just given Johnathan Hillstrand several shots of tequila, and then turned him loose to tell some stories. The stories are, in general, interesting, and sometimes become fascinating. Unfortunately, there's no real flow between them, and as a result the book feels incredibly disjointed. With the exception of a few of the descriptions of specific fishing events, especially the tragedies averted and those experienced, the book was a struggle to finish. I would encourage fans of the show to stick to the show, and leave this book behind. I would also encourage the Hillstrand brothers to find another co-writer and editor and try again. Perhaps someone else would take a firmer hand in shaping the many stories into one coherent narrative, the kind of book that I think it's possible to write from the experiences of these hard-working fishermen.
    • 2/5
      I had a really hard time getting into this book. Narrative is disjointed, as it is usually written in the first person, but jumps between characters every chapter. The plot mostly seems to consist of long winded stories that never seem to come to any solid or interesting conclusions. While I feel that each chapter seems to be leading up to some revelation of sorts, that revelation never really comes. Most of the time I am having trouble remembering who it is that is telling the story and what might be different about their perspective. Since all of the stories seem to be about the same, I was bored within the first 3 chapters. This book might be a great follow on read for someone who has been a fan of the cable tv show and already knows all of the main characters and some of their background. For me the book was a rambling and disjointed tale that failed to tell an actual story. I made it about 3/4 of the way through and decided that it was not quite good enough to warrant more attention. Maybe the end brings everything together and makes the first 3/4 of the book worthwhile, but I doubt it.