Well, two outta three ain’t bad. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer have kept busy lately editing anthologies, resulting in the great reads THE NEW WEIRD and STEAMPUNK. And now, the pirate-themed FAST SHIPS, BLACK SAILS, which proves to be the proverbial mixed bag. Roughly half of them imbued me with the spirit to sail the seven seas, whereas the other made me want to walk the plank.
It’s the stories from the writers who don’t try and write a more-or-less traditional pirate tale who emerge as the victors in this literary war. One such entry is the opening “Boojum,” from the team of Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Their protagonist is female captain Black Alice, and the sacrifice she makes for her (space)ship is both haunting and harrowing.
Carrie Vaughn tells what it’s like to be the only female disguised as a male among a pirate ship in “The Nymph’s Child,” and she — chest bandaged, hair cropped — has the power to woo dragons. Justin Howe servers up “Skillet and Saber,” perhaps the only pirate/foodie story in existence.
Katherine Sparrow trips time — does she ever! — with a group of techies in “Pirate Solutions,” and Rachel Swirsky spins her tale of pirates as rats in “The Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth: A Nautical Tail.” There are also contributions from Michael Moorcock, Naomi Novik, Eric Flint, Kage Baker and Garth Nix, among others, but these failed to grip me. —Rod Lott
“When he makes love, he rips women open with a razored penis and slakes his thirst on their blood.”
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ANN AND JEFF VANDERMEER:
• THE NEW WEIRD edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
• STEAMPUNK edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
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I had the same “mixed bag” reaction, albeit with different preferences. At some points I felt overstuffed with pirate-flavored morsels. I probably should have read a story at a time, interspersed with other reading. I felt that the anthology started well, with “Boojum,” and finished strongly, but sagged in the middle.