Shiver me timber and splice the mainbrace, pirates be Tough Travelling this week!
17 July 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Pirates in Fantasy, The Fantasy Review Barn, Tough Travelling
Every Thursday Nathan at the Fantasy Review Barn takes us a roaming through some of the tropes of fantasy. This week the topic be 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.’
1. The Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Much feared his daring and sword fighting abilities precede him. However, there’s more to Roberts than at first meets the eye???? I won’t give it away here though.
2. The Sky Pirates from Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. Captain Shakespeare sails his vessel around the skies illegally collecting lightning until one day he collects two unsuspecting passengers instead.
3. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. In which our two Gentlemen Bastards turn to the high seas and try to find their sea legs. They are unwittingly captured by Captain Zamira Drakasha and taken on board her pirate ship.
4. Anvil of the World by Kage Baker. A fantasy tale packed with action and so much wit. Blending fantasy with murder mystery and pirates. Smith, a retired assassin takes on the role of caravan master. Lets just say a lot of trouble ensues. False names, butterflies in glass, Lord Ermenwyr – who is literally one of the funniest characters ever, not to mention a duel of fatally verbal abuse. The pirates only play a small part in this story and I can’t remember what they were called! I was thinking Gilders???
That’s it for me this week.
Books and travelling with Lynn 
Haha I love that quote at the top! I just started reading The Princess Bride for the first time. SO GOOD!
I love The Princess Bride – so many excellent scenes and the film is a really good adaptation – there’s only really a couple of extra chapters that you’ll find in the book that never made it to the screen.
Inconceivable!
Lynn 😀
Anvil of the World sounds interesting, haven’t heard of it before! Also, I love Zamira! 🙂
Zamira is brilliant – such an excellent character!
Anvil of the Worlds is a great read – so long as you don’t mind your fantasy mixed up with a huge dose of humour. Lord Ermenwyr is hysterical! I wish I could remember half his lines.
Lynn 😀
I would TOTALLY let the Dread Pirate Roberts abduct me on the high seas. Just saying.
Haha, I think I totally would as well! In fact, no, I’ll wait for Jean Tannen ahhhhh.
Lynn 😀
I have long been meaning to read Baker.
The sky pirates were a pretty cool addition to the movie. I have not read Stardust in years, I really should again. It would only take a day, such a quick read.
I really enjoyed The Anvil – so long as you realise that the book is far from serious. It’s got a huge amount of humour.
Stardust is definitely a very quick read – it almost feels like a bedtime read.
Lynn 😀
From Anvil of the World; a duel of fatally verbal abuse This reminded me of Monkey Island’s Insult Sword Fighting…
‘give me your treasure, you filthy unwashed thing, you’!
Where on earth do you find these things – very fitting in terms of The Anvil.
Lynn 😀
I used to play the Monkey Island games and introduced my sister to them a few years ago. They’re great examples of excellent writing in video games. You’d definitely love them due to the gothic/fantasy elements and great humour!
They look ace. Kind of remind me of an early version of games like Skyrim where you’re faced with a range of potential answers.
Lynn 😀
It’s a point and click adventure and so it is heavily story driven with lots of puzzles to solve. It’s a lot more entertaining than Skyrim but that’s just my opinion.
I love the films of The Princess Bride and Stardust. I would really like to read The Princess Bride novel. I recently read A World Apart which had some pretty ruthless pirates in it.
I love both the book and the film – in fact the film is such a good adaptation it sticks to the book almost religiously – even the dialogue. But I just love both of them. Ahh, A world Apart – I am going away to look that up on your reviews!
Lynn 😀
I’ve already checked this one out – I remember!! It’s huge – like over 800 pages! Oh my goodness that’s a proper undertaking. I might buy it for kindle. It’s pretty reasonable at the moment.
Ta
Lynn 😀
Wow I read 800 pages no wonder it took be a long time to read. I seem to lose a grasp of the length of books when I read on my Kindle. As there is not a physical reminder for me.
Sounds like some awesome options. Pirates are a good topic for summer. I totally need to read The Princess Bride – you can smack me now.
Whoa. Great list!
Thank you 😀
I am so embarrassed to admit I’ve never read the Princess Bride! XD
And hooray for RSURS, Zamira’s best damn pirate ever. And my heart broke for Jean!
I know – poor Jean! I loved Zamira and particularly the scene where she first captured Jean and Locke! So funny.
Lynn 😀
I’ve read the first two and am soon going to continue with the Gentleman Bastard series but I definitely haven’t heard a thing about the third book—I need to check it out. 🙂
The Anvil of the World is really good fun – very funny indeed in parts.
Lynn 😀