Yaaarrrrr!!!! Me be lookin fer pirate fiction!&#33

[Blackjack McGregor]

Avaste ye mates!!! Me be looking fer good pirate fiction...can ye be of some assistance maybe?

[LongTom]

I assume you want something a little less obvious than Robert Louis Stevenson and Patrick O'Brian (Both excellent reads, by the way. Treasure Island is a good read-out-loud book, if you have a youngster to be your audience.)

I read an interesting one recently: "The Pirate's Son" by Geraldine McCaughrean. Reasonable plot, though the writing was aimed at 11 and up I was going to read it to my kid, but for some reason that didn't happen. Anyway, here's a copy on amazon though the one I read came from the local library.

[Red Sea Trade]

I can recommend a few of my favorites. Most are available used, some of them for just a few dollars on Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com (my most recent shopping trip netted me 6 classic pirate paperbacks, average price under $3).

Donald Barr Chidsey wrote many good books. I especially enjoyed "Buccaneer's Blade", "Marooned" and "Captain Bashful", but there are many others.

A classic from the 1920's is "The Rogue's Moon" by Robert W. Chambers. Try to find the illustrated version.

A more recent book, available from most larger bookstore chains, is called "The Guardship", but I cannot remember the author's name.

Anything by Rafael Sabatini, but especially "Captain Blood" and "The Black Swan".

Good hunting!

[PirateQueen]

I'll second the recommendation for anything by Rafael Sabatini, one of my favorite authors.

Anything by James L. Nelson ("The Guardship" author), including "The Sweet Trade" that he wrote originally under the pseudonym Elizabeth Garrett.

Also try "The Requiem Shark" a dark tale from the point of view of Bart Roberts' fiddler. (I forget the author's name.)

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

I picked up a free copy of a book which appeared to be about pirates... and it was! It was a really good read, but is perhaps not the hardcore GAoP thing you may be looking for...

Wake of the Perdido Star by Gene Hackman (yes, that Gene Hackman) & Daniel Lenihan.

Circumstance, hardship and the burning need for revenge drive a man to piracy on the high seas. Worth reading.

There is a copy (HB) selling on eBay right now autographed by both authors. But the paperback was free in the second-hand kiosk at my train station.

[Naveed]

If you want a good humorous pirate book, then check "The Pirates, in an Adventure with the Scientists." It's by Gideon Defoe. Here is the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/140007750...1612114?ie=UTF8

I forgot to mention that the copy I linked is a double book and includes the sequel "The Pirates, in an Adventure with Ahab".

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

If you want a good humorous pirate book, then check "The Pirates, in an Adventure with the Scientists." It's by Gideon Defoe.

I have read this book. It is a very entertaining and silly diversion. I recommend it highly, but not for "serious" readers.

[Phillip Black]

I would also recommend Howard Pyle's The Book of Pirates. It's a bit dated, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

I would also recommend Howard Pyle's The Book of Pirates. It's a bit dated, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I have been trying to get a copy off ebay for ages. Still trying.

[Phillip Black]

Capn Pete, if you don't need a first edition, you can get it from Amazon...Although I think I understand if you want to get one of the earlier editions. The first time I read it was a library copy from 1953 or so...it was very cool.

As for eBay, yeah...I've only seen it once or twice and it always shoots up to way past my budget...

[Hrothgar Addams]

Ye can buy used copies of Howard Pyles Book of Pirates on Amazon.com too, ye just don't get the chance ta bid low. Amazon also serves as brokers for used book sellers.

Fer fun readin' I'd also recommend The Pyratesby George(?) Mcdonald Fraser.

And for a lighter read about traditional pirates in the modern world, try Pirates of Pensacola by Keith Thomson.

[William Blydes]

Fer fun readin' I'd also recommend The Pyratesby George(?) Mcdonald Fraser.

I was going to recommend the same book.

Fraser wrote the screen play for the 70's 3 &4 Musketeer movies and wrote the "Flashman" series of books.

[Gyp The Blood]

I found On Stranger Tides by Tim powers a fun read. Especially if you enjoy the supernatural pirate element of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Other than that, I echo the recommendations of a couple of other posts of Sabatini, in particular Captain Blood .

I'm interested in reading other books by Sabatini, but Captain Blood is the only one I can recommend from personal experience. But based on it alone, I'm inclined to say Sabatini captures the adventure, romance and lure of a pirate yarn. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.

[Sebastian Arms]

I am currently reading Daniel Defoe's 'The Life Adventures And Pyracies of the Famous Captain Singleton' and enjoying it immensely.

Not piratical but nautical and well written is the series Kydd by Julian Stockwin.

Sebastian Arms

[Quartermaster James]

Well, if it's fiction ye be seeking...

I just finished a wee book titled The Pirates of Pensacola.

Nothing historical really, but an engaging little adventure.

[PirateQueen]

Speaking of Rafael Sabatini:

The only thing the movie, The Sea Hawk, has in common with Sabatini's novel is the title. The novel is a terrific story about a nobleman who's betrayed and ends up turning Turk--becoming a corsair. Takes place in the Elizabethan era.

Sabatini wrote three books featuring Captain Blood. The one most are familiar with (and the one on which the movie was based), is Captain Blood: His Odyssey. He followed this one a few years later with Captain Blood Returns, which recounts various of the captain's piratical adventures. It's a good read. The last one was The Fortunes of Captain Blood, the weakest of the three.

I found my copies while prowling used book stores. The first book is usually common; the others take a little more work to hunt down.

From the Rafael Sabatini web site, check out this review.

[Sebastian Arms]

Here's another book I just finished, 'Dead Man's Chest' by Capn Johnson. This has no connection to the movie. It is a sequel to Treasure Island. Based right prior to the Rev War it focused on that naval power house John Paul Jones. Takes a while for pirates to be involved, but old Long John himself is behind the scenes a lot.

Mr. Arms

[Lame_Bill]

My favorite pirate tale is Henry Martyn, by L. Neil Smith. It's the tale of a man driven to piracy to avenge the destruction of his family by corrupt nobles.

[Hester]

I've just finished _Fan Tan_ by Marlon Brando (yes, the same) and Donald Cammell:

Unlike most pirate novels, which are set on the Spanish Main in the Golden Age of piracy, this one is set in the South China Sea in 1927.

The book is great fun. Cammell (who was the real writer) enjoys wordplay and provides some evocative imagery of life on the sea and in the ports of Asia in the not-so-distant but still romantic past.

The main characters are a washed-up Scottish-American sea captain/gun runner (a role Brando envisioned for himself, but which I'd rather give to Kris Kristofferson) and a proud and deadly Pirate Queen descended from a Tanka pirate dynasty.

The book is a surprisingly good read.

Cheers, Hester

[Hester]

I've also recently read _Pirates_ by Celia Reese:

The book is categorized as "Young Adult", as the key characters are two teenaged girls -- a British-born heiress to a Jamaican sugar plantation and the slave she befriends.

I thought the writing was excellent. Indeed, I enjoyed Rees's book even more than Christopher John Farley's _Kingston by Starlight_, which is a fictionalized account of the life of Anne Bonney and her relationship with Mary Read and Calico Jack:

Another novel that creates a fictional story for a real-life female pirate is Alan Gold's _Pirate Queen: the story of Grace O'Malley, Irish pirate:

Cheers, Hester

[Hester]

The only thing the movie, The Sea Hawk, has in common with Sabatini's novel is the title.

I recently caught this movie on satellite TV at my cottage. I found that both the story and the action really dragged. And despite the fact that I'm a Robin Hood fan, Errol Flynn really doesn't do anything for me:

Cheers, Hester

[Cpt. Alva]

I got a first edition copy of Howard Pyle's book of Pyrates (In used, but fantastic condition) from an antique store in Pennsylvania......this thing is SO good, it still has the advertisement from Harpers, to order other books in it!

I got a heck of a deal, because the seller mistakenly thought it was a 1926 copy....

as for recommendations: I suggest Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, as well as the sequel....Peter and the Shadow Thieves......

not to mention Peter Pan by JM Barrie, and Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean

yeah, you see "Peter Pan" and think "Kids Book" but I assure you, there's still plenty there for adult readers.........

[Hester]

Well, last spring, I was walking home on garbage day, and out of the corner of my eye, I spied a jolly roger in someone's recycling bin. It happened to be on the cover a paperback copy of Nelson DeMille's Plum Island:

Well, always on the lookout for piratey fiction, I scooped it out of the recyclables and took it home. I put it away with stuff to take to my cottage, but then forgot exactly which box I'd put it in and "lost" it for a few months.

I eventually did get around to reading it, and just finished it yesterday. It was a slow process, as I kept putting the book down and forgetting (and not caring) where it was.

The main character, an NYPD homicide detective recuperating on Long Island from multiple gunshots, wasn't very appealing. In fact, he was a dick (and that's not just a short form for "detective".) He was a wiseass, apparently reflecting the author's juvenile sense of humour. And he was a hardass -- becoming progressively more violent and sadistic as the story wore on.

There is piratey stuff in the book, but it doesn't enter the plot until around page 200, and it's rather difficult to put up with the gratingly annoying "hero" until then.

Cheers, Hester

[Hester]

Having finally waded through the interminable Plum Island, I'm now gleefully starting this find from my local library, The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte:

I'm always a little leery of books in translation, fearing the language will be stilted and distracting. But, judging by the first chapter this book is both well-written and well-translated, and far more literary than the plodding Plum Island.

Here's Amazon's blurb:

"A treasure hunt for a Jesuit ship sunk by pirates off the coast of Spain is the plot on which Perez-Reverte's new novel turns, but a love story is the real heart of this nicely crafted, carefully told adventure. A suspended sailor happens on a maritime auction in Barcelona, where he meets the beautiful Tanger Soto, a museum curator whose winning bid buys her a 17th-century atlas that may reveal the final resting place of the Dei Gloria. Coy, the sailor, is totally smitten, so it's no surprise that he signs on to help Tanger track the sunken ship to its grave in waters he's sailed since childhood. Enlisting the aid of a diver friend, Coy and Tanger stay a few steps ahead of the crooked salvagers who've been trying to get the atlas, outmaneuvering the attempts on their lives and the efforts to keep them from the treasure. Perez-Reverte (The Fencing Master, The Club Dumas) is better at plumbing the mysteries of the human heart than those of the sea, but The Nautical Chart manages to combine history, suspense, and obsessive love in a slow-paced but ultimately engrossing read."

Cheers, Hester

[Hester]

I'm currently reading Pirates of Pensacola, but I'm not enjoying it very much. The premise is intriguing -- a nerdy accountant discovers that his estranged father is the last of a venerable pirate family that still plies the trade -- but the execution is leaden. Neither of the two main characters, father or son, is very sympathetic, and the 'madcap adventure' comes across as stilted rather than geniunely amusing.

I far preferred Jimmy Buffet's A Salty Piece of Land, which I read last summer: