This has been my favourite Pathfinder Tale to date - and I've read all of them bar two.

Jackson has a written a piratical/nautical/revenge/heist novel. Torius Vin, swashbuckler and captain has been tricked by one of his former victims, and is determined to take revenge. But when that revenge involves his naga lover pretending to fall for the mark, things start to get messy...

I was really impressed with how much tension Jackson got out of this narrative - and it wasn't from the physical struggle, but the internal emotional danger his characters were in. I was genuinely excited and ripping through pages as fast as I could.

It is, ironically, a ballsy writer that makes the lynchpin of his RPG novel a romance, but Jackson does so, and he does it so effectively the book gets more mileage out of its central romance than any of the derring-do amongst the rigging.

Not that the derring lacks do, far from it. Pirate's Honor has some great show-stopper scenes that call to mind Captain Blood and the like. Jackson's experience on actual boats is clear and his prose is comfortable and confident on the high seas.

His characterisation is equally assured, which is critical due to the nature of the story. I really loved reading a sword-and-sorcery novel where the writer isn't afraid to invest so much time and plot into the characters and their feelings. I thought it worked brilliantly, and is a real sign of maturity in a genre that often lacks it.

I'm very keen for a sequel to this one. ( )