Piratical Books

[Capt. Lazarus Gage]

I have two books coming in the mail via amazon I am curious to know some opinions of. The two books are "Silver" by Edward Chupack, and "The Pirate Primer" by George Choundas. Has anyone read them? Any thoughts? I am also curious about "Flint and Silver", but have neither read, nor ordered it as of yet.

[MarkG]

I have two books coming in the mail via amazon I am curious to know some opinions of. The two books are "Silver" by Edward Chupack, and "The Pirate Primer" by George Choundas. Has anyone read them? Any thoughts? I am also curious about "Flint and Silver", but have neither read, nor ordered it as of yet.

I haven't read "Silver" but I can recomend "Flint and Silver" and "Pieces of Eight". Both are installments of a Treasure Island prequel series by John Drake. They are being published in England and are difficult to come by in the US but Amazon carries them.

There is also "Pirate Freedom" by Gene Wolfe which is also pretty good.

The Pirate's Primer is ok for what it is but it didn't impress me.

Mark

[Daniel]

Haven't read Silver. The Pirate Primer is fun, but mainly it made me want to read the novels he got the language from, instead of finishing the book.

[Capt. Lazarus Gage]

Many thanks gentlemen. I have heard of "Pieces of Eight" and "Flint and Silver", actually saw them on amazon when I purchased the other two. Right now I am working my way through "Nelson's Trafalgar" and "Nelson at the Nile".

[blunderingbuccaneer]

Pirate primer puts language to some good context. If you liked it you might try "How to Speak Pirate" by Telfer, "Well Blow me Down" by Old Chumbucket and Cap'n Slappy or "Piratitude: so you want to be a pirate" by the same authors.

IF you like biographies I really enjoyed "Empire of the Blue Water" about Henry Morgan.

I just finished On Stranger Tides and was blown away. It is a fantastical pirate zombie ghost story with Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, and soon to be Jack Sparrow with the new POTC 4 based on the book.

I loved "Flint and Silver" and enjoyed "Pirate Latitudes a post Mortum published pirate adventure.

I actually reviewed them in my blog if you are interested.

I am receiving a couple soon to be published pirate books one from a friend and one from a new acquaintance I plan on reviewing soon.

[Captain Midnight]

Flint and Silver and Pieces of Eight by John Drake are absolutely wonderful works in my own humble opinion. I could barely put them down and grieved knowing that I was nearing the end of them. I am now preparing to buy the third novel of the series, Skull and Bones. The language in the books can be harsh sometimes, and a bit alien to Robert Louis Stevenson's own style, but when one stops to think of coarse, desperate men who've spent long months or years at sea, it is not hard to imagine them speaking like that at all. I give two thumbs up to John Drake and his series.

Edited December 24, 2010 by Captain Midnight

[Captain McCool]

Let me first start by saying I did actually enjoy Flint and Silver. However, I had numerous issues with the book. I never thought Drake captured the character of John Silver particularly well, nor did I feel he really did justice to Stevenson's original work in general. But that's just one pirate's opinion. I know a lot of other folks who are crazy about his work, so I'm probably in the minority here.

Personally, as mentioned above, I was never satisfied with how likeable Drake wrote Silver. I always felt Long John had a deeply sinister side in the original Treasure Island, and while you do end up liking him in a way, you never quite trust him, and you know he'd gladly stab you in the back if he thought he'd profit by it. I felt Drake presented him as much too moral, noble, and sympathetic. Furthermore, I felt the character of Selena was really contrived, and basically just filled the roll of the ubiquitous "beautiful female lead." There were a few other things too that didn't quite sync up with Stevenson's work - like the fact that Silver appeared to admire Flint, as suggested by various bits of dialogue in Treasure Island, as opposed to the complete animosity he shows towards the man by the end of Flint and Silver. Also, Drake seems to have this deep-set opposition to the concept of buried treasure, for which he shamelessly uses this book as a platform. Yes, I realize there is no actual evidence of real pirates ever burying their treasure, but if you're going to write a book based on a story that revolves around this concept, you might want to act like said concept is even slightly plausible. The concept of Flint doing this as a means to trick his crew, and then come back for the treasure later was definitely interesting, and it foreshadowed Silver’s dialogue in Treasure Island regarding him putting his money in banks, etc. but in the end the explanation felt a little flimsy to me.

Still, strictly as a novel on its own, I thought Flint and Silver was nicely written, and it grabbed my attention quite strongly. The characters, though not quite the characters I knew from Treasure Island, were interesting and compelling, and made you want to know what happened next. Even Selena, who was my least favorite character in the story, had some great moments - for instance when she manages, almost accidentally, to blow the head off her would-be rapist towards the end of the book. The description of that scene was great, and rivaled the bit with Jim and Israel Hands in Treasure Island.

I haven't yet read the others in the series (truth be told, I didn't know they were even out yet), but I'll have to look them up. Hopefully Silver will prove a little more complex... we shall see...

[Jas. Hook]

...I haven't yet read the others in the series (truth be told, I didn't know they were even out yet), but I'll have to look them up. Hopefully Silver will prove a little more complex... we shall see...

Mc Cool -

Buggered!

Apparently both Pieces of Eight and Skull and Bones are released but for UK market and not to the US in print or on Kindle.

Copies can be had through out-of-country vendors.

Jas. Hook

[Captain McCool]

Damnation! I really was looking forward to those. Well, maybe I can get one on the net somewhere...