Tough Traveling: Pirates!
The Thursday feature “Tough Traveling” is the brainchild of Nathan of Review Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information. Compulsive list-maker that I am, I’m very excited to take part!
This week’s tour topic is: Pirates
PIRATES range the seas in force, though most of them operate individually…The sole qualifications are that they must be rough and ruthless, which a penchant for dressing gaudily.
Believe it or not, I actually have a “Pirates” shelf in Goodreads, so this is a pretty easy week and I’m featuring a handful of the books on there. I’ve also come to learn that pretty much every fantasy novel that takes place for any significant amount of time on the high seas will inevitably have pirates.
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
Locke and his partner Jean flee the Bondsmagi by taking a ship to the city state of Tal Verrar, and are soon back to doing what they do best: planning a spectacular heist. They soon find themselves unwittingly sidetracked, joining the pirate crew of the notorious Zamira Drakasha, who dresses gaudily indeed but has a heart of gold rather than a rough and ruthless personality.
The House of the Four Winds by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
This maritime fantasy takes place mainly on a ship and on the ocean, and so naturally…pirates. The crew of the Asesino rise up against their corrupt captain only to find out he was in league with pirates, and a secret map discovered on his body leads to a mysterious hidden island run by — you guess it — more pirates and an evil enchantress. I recently finished this book, and hope to have the review up next week.
The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick
It’s been a while since I read this one, but it might possibly have been the first maritime/nautical fantasy I’ve ever read. I could barely remember the plot but I know it’s got a little bit of everything: magic, mermaids, romance, mystery, legends, sorcerers, sword fights, political machinations, talking animals, and YARRRGGGHH of course, pirates.
The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
Speaking of books with a little bit of everything in it…this one’s an interesting and rather uniquely different novel. It has a nice blend of science fiction and fantasy, as well as the historical with the futuristic. It has two timelines, one that takes place 2132 and another in an alternate 18th century. The latter is the fun one, featuring a world with alchemical-powered ships, alien races on faraway planets, and explosive clashes against space pirates!
Silver Mirrors by A.A. Aguirre
This second book of the Apparatus Infernum series expands the world by having the main characters Janus Mikani and Celeste Ritsuko travel afar on a ship to the far north to investigate strange happenings in the mines. And yes, while on their journey they run afoul of vicious raiding pirates (but you probably guessed that already)!
The BiblioSanctum 
I bet if I raid your Pirates shelf I’ll find at least one or two other picks I’ve read -.-
None of these, though. I haven’t read any on this list.
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You need to read Lynch! Seriously, you won’t regret it 🙂
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Yeah you must read Lynch! I thought you had!
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Its on the shortlist! Just need to find time.
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Oh yes I’m currently in The House of the Four Winds. When the theme is pirates, I immediatly thought of the Suzanne Johnson series.
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I hope you’re enjoying House of the Four Winds 🙂
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LOL, I sadly do not have a pirate shelf on GR 😉
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I have read quite a few pirate books…though not as many as I thought, after doing this list 😛
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The House of the Four Winds sounds SO GOOD. I feel terrible admitting this, but I’ve actually never read a book by Mercedes Lackey. This one is on my pile though, so I’ll remedy that soon! And I had no idea that Aguirre’s steampunk series had pirates in it – even if they do only have a small cameo. Cool!
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I hadn’t either, until I read HotFW! 🙂
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There are Pirates in Silver Mirrors! Hot dang I need to get around to reading that stat. Why do I let so many books slip by unread. Lack of time – I need a time turner.
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Yeah, they don’t play a huge role though, just cause a right bit of trouble for our protagonists 🙂
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Ah, look forward to your Four Winds review – I have that to read and I’m quite looking forward to it – was it good??
Silver Mirrors – is that Ann Aguirre who wrote Enclave??
Great list – Red Seas must be on most lists this week – Jean Tannen – *deep sigh*
Lynn 😀
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It was pretty good! The review should be up sometime in the next week. I think you’ll enjoy it. And yes, that’s Ann Aguirre and her husband writing together as “A.A. Aguirre”!
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Well of course! A pirate shelf. I should do that for every possible tough travels post to save me time in the future.
I read The Red Wolf Conspiracy years ago, but never finished the series.
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This is the only one time my goodreads shelf has helped…I certainly don’t have shelves for “Northern Barbarians”, “Large Men” or “Fairgrounds”!
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Red Wolf Conspiracy has been on my TBR list forever. I think I might actually own it too. Reading House of Four Winds right now, looking forward to seeing your review on it 🙂
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Should be up in the following week. I saw that you had finished it too, looking forward to your thoughts as well 🙂
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I REALLY want to try that Aguirre series, and I will definitely be checking out your pirates shelf soon (and making one of my own) b/c pirates<—–I love 'em 😉
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Everyone could use a pirates shelf!
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