Flint and Narvik are the best of a mediocre lot ( )

This was a somewhat mediocre collection of pirate stories. They all involve pirates somehow, a number of them were fairly traditional pirate stories.

My favorite of the bunch was “Elegy to Gabrielle, Patron Saint of Healers, Whores, and Righteous Thieves” by Kelly Barnhill this was a beautiful story that was masterfully told.

Others in this collection that I really enjoyed were: “Boojum” by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, “Skillet and Saber” by Justin Howe, “The Nymph’s Child” by Carrie Vaughn, “Ironface” by Michael Moorcock, “Pirate Solutions” by Katherine Sparrow, “Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake” by Naomi Novik, and “Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe by Garth Nix.

Overall while there were a few really good stories, most of them were mediocre at best. Please see below for the full list of stories and a quick review of each story.

“Boojum” by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette (4/5 stars)
This was a fun story about an engineer on a living spaceship. There was some good irony in here and the story was very creative and interesting.

“Castor on Troubled Waters” by Rhys Hughes (3/5 stars)
This was an okay story about a man who looses a card game. He goes to the cash machine to get money to pay his buddies and when he gets back he has quite the tale to tell about why he doesn’t have the money. It was set in modern times and was kind of a “fish” story type of story.

“I Begyn as I Mean to Go On” by Kage Baker (3/5 stars)
A story about some ex-slaves who sign on to work on a pirate ship were the Captain seems to be cursed. They follow rumors to an island full of riches only to be surprised by what they find there. This was a pretty typical pirate story and was okay.

“Avast, Abaft!” by Howard Waldrop (1/5 stars)
I read the first few pages of this story and it was an absolute mess. It was jumping around between a captain trying to tell his history and a constant pursuit of some other ship...and parts were told in rhyme. I ended up skipping the rest of it.

“Elegy to Gabrielle, Patron Saint of Healers, Whores, and Righteous Thieves” by Kelly Barnhill (5/5 stars)
This was an amazingly beautiful story about a magical young woman who was part pirate and part saint. I absolutely loved it.

“Skillet and Saber” by Justin Howe (4/5 stars)
This was a decent story about a young man who becomes assistant to a ship’s cook. He ends up in a cook-off against another ships cook as he fights for his life.

“The Nymph’s Child” by Carrie Vaughn (4/5 stars)
A story about a woman who escapes death by hanging and seeks a quiet life in a fishing village. However, her daughter seeks the exact same life that her mother ended up leaving behind. This was well written and easy to read.

“68 07’15”N, 31 236; 44”W” by Conrad Williams (2/5 stars)
In this story a pirate is trying to track down an evil pirate and take revenge on him. The story seemed a bit pointless and didn’t have any resolution. I feel like I missed something here but I am not sure what.

“Ironface” by MIchael Moorcock (4/5 stars)
Well done story about an intergalatic space pirate who decends to Venus to get paid his tribute. I was impressed at how much world-building Moorcock accomplished with just a few short pages of story.

“Pirate Solutions” by Katherine Sparrow (4/5 stars)
This was a very creative story about a punch of computer programmers/hackers who drink a bottle of run with a pirate bone in it. This convince them all to be pirates and shows them visions of other previous pirates. They end up starting their own strange programmer pirate colony on an abandoned island.

“We Sleep on a Thousand Waves Beneath the Stars” by Brendan Connell (3/5 stars)
In this story some pirates end up on a strange island where they capture a strange native girl. When typhus hits the boat and takes many lives, the girl undegoes a strange transformation. It was okay but not great.

“Voyage of the Iguana” by Steve Aylett (2/5 stars)
This was a collection of entries from a journal found about some pirates aboard the Iguana. They apparently went crazy at sea. None of it made much sense at all and I almost stopped reading it.

“Pirates of the Suara Sea” by David Freer and Eric Flint (3/5 stars)
This is a pirate story set on a different planet. It was okay.

“A Cold Day in Hell” by Paul Batteiger (2/5 stars)
This was a typical pirate story. I read the first few pages of it, though it was boring and stopped.

“The Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth” by Rachel Swirsky (3/5 stars)
This story was about a bunch of rat pirates. I thought it was boring and only read the first few pages and then stopped. It was okay just very juvenile sounding.

“Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake” by Naomi Novik (4/5 stars)
I enjoyed this story about a young noblewoman sent off to marry. When the ship she is on is attacked by pirates she dones a magical amulet to appear male and joins them on their adventures.

“The Whale Below” by Jayme Lynn Blaschke (3/5 stars)
I read a bit of this story and thought it was boring so I skipped the rest ofit. It involved a lot of airship battles.

“Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe by Garth Nix (4/5 stars)
I really enjoyed this story about a warrior and a puppet who seek the aid of a pirate ship to find a mysterious treasure. Excellent world-building, very creative, and well done characters made this a great story. ( )

A collection of pirate stories, ranging from sf to fantasy to a HMS Pinafore/Peter Pan cross-over. The stand-outs were:
"Boojum," by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. A low-level grunt on a living space-ship grows increasingly uneasy about their latest cargo.

"Skillet and Saber," by Justin Howe. Hilarious tale of the cook's apprentice on a pirate ship. So good that I intend to seek out more of Howe's work.

"Pirate Solutions," by Katherine Sparrow. Futuristic coders start drinking bone rum and become old-fashioned pirates--but they hack instead of sail. I was initially wary of this premise, but Sparrow makes it work.

"Pirates of the Suara sea," by David Freer and Eric Flint. A female sea-captain (reminiscent of Malcolm Reynolds) does some clever dancing to defeat the pirates who overtake her ship. Good world-building (particularly rare in a short story) and characterization.

"The Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth: A Nautical Tail," by Rachel Swirsky. Two crazed rats are the last of their pirate ship--and when one of them falls in love with a mercenary cat, it could be the last of them, as well. Funny, whimsical, but probably not everyone's cup of tea.

And my personal favorite of the collection:
"Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake," by Naomi Novik. Very funny, a fascinating world (I want a whole series about it!), and a memorable main character. Captures the spirit of freedom, light morals, and bloody-mindedness of the best pirate yarns. ( )

I meant to write this review with the book in my hands, which is really the only way I can properly review any anthology. Alas, the volume had to be returned to the library before that happened (and before that, Sam was enjoying it). As it is, some stories just didn't register strongly enough for me to remember them.On the other hand the stories I do recall were really, really good, and if I could rate them on their own they'd get 4s and 5s.I'd read Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette's "Boojum" online, but it was so good that I read it again. I adore their work (individually and together). That story was actually the only reason I even considered reading the book, as I'm not really much of a pirate fan. I'm not into too much darkness in my leisure reading, and I don't like antiheroes.Next, "Pirate Solutions" by Katherine Sparrow was so good that I insisted that Sam read it. RIGHT THEN. I think Katie would have enjoyed it, too. It should be added to the "poly culture" lists. I'll be looking for more of Sparrow's work!Naomi Novik's "Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake" was all right, and I do remember it. It just didn't really toast my bread—possibly because I found Araminta to be an annoying brat."Elegy for Gabrielle, Patron Saint of Healers, Whores and Righteous Thieves" by Kelly Barnhill was absolutely lovely. I can't describe it beyond that without spoiling it for you, which would be criminal.Carrie Vaughn managed to make me cry with "The Sea Nymph's Child." It was especially poignant to me right now, at this point in the parenting process.We may well end up buying a copy of this one. It's certainly worth the cover price! ( )

Summary: Yar, mateys, do ye be lamenting the vasty lack of a proper piratical-themed anthology in yer sea-chest? Have ye been been pining for pirates that are the terror not only of the seven seas, but the solar system and beyond? Well, hold on to your eyepatches and cutlasses, because Fast Ships, Black Sails has got all of your fantasy and sci-fi pirate needs covered.

Individual Summaries and Reviews: - “Boojum” by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. A lowly mechanic on a sentient pirate spaceship has to save the day when the captain seizes some questionable – and highly dangerous – cargo. This story reminded me a lot of Farscape, but once I got over my gut reaction of “But Moya’s a *good* ship, she doesn’t eat people!”, I enjoyed this story quite a lot.

- “Castor on Troubled Waters” by Rhys Hughes. A man goes out to get some cash to settle a gambling debt and winds up kidnapped by pirates. Short and exceedingly silly, but it made me laugh.

- “I Begyn as I Mean to Go On” by Kage Baker. Pirates follow a castaway’s tip to an island covered in emeralds, only to find that the treasure’s not so easily claimed. This was one of my favorites, really good at creating a spooky atmosphere without relying too heavily on anything supernatural.

- “Avast, Abaft!” by Howard Waldrop. This story is what would have happened if Gilbert & Sullivan and J. M. Barrie got together and got very drunk of an evening. As much as I normally like Peter Pan-themed things, I never quite got into the swing of this one.

- “Elegy to Gabrielle, Patron Saint of Healers, Whores, and Righteous Thieves” by Kelly Barnhill. A confession, told by a clergyman, of his daughter, conceived on the sea and destined, against her mother’s wishes, to return there. Another of my favorites, the language was lovely, the story felt almost mythic, and I could absolutely picture the colonial island community.

- “Skillet and Saber” by Justin Howe. A young man is taken on as apprentice in a pirate ship’s galley, and must prove his worth in a very unconventional duel. Amusing, but with a few gruesome twists.

- “The Nymph’s Child” by Carrie Vaughn. A widow and former pirate is visited by the officer who arrested her, and now needs to know the secret of how she accomplished her most famous exploit. Another of my favorites of the collection, and not just because I like women-dressing-as-men-to-go-to-sea stories; I loved how it plays with the bit of old wisdom that it’s bad luck to have a woman aboard ship.

- “68˚ 07′ 15″N, 31˚ 36′ 44″W” by Conrad Williams. A pirate captain pursues vengeance against an implacable enemy to the far reaches of the ocean. I never particularly cared about the protagonist’s search for vengeance, so this story didn’t do much for me.

- “Ironface” by Michael Moorcock. Not a story so much as a sketch, of a pirate poet who is looting the planet of Venice. Well-written, but too short to make much of an impression on me.

- “Pirate Solutions” by Katherine Sparrow. A group of hackers find some magical rum, and start their own version of a pirate fleet. This was fun, and cool, and an interesting play on the more modern use of the term “pirate”.

- “We Sleep on a Thousand Waves Beneath the Stars” by Brendan Connell. A pirate captain takes a strange young island girl captive, only to unleash a set of horrors upon his crew. I liked this one well enough while I was reading it, but it didn’t stick with me very long.

- “Voyage of the Iguana” by Steve Aylett. A series of entries in a ship’s log from the unlikeliest crew to ever set a course of south-by-north-east. I got some chuckles out of the constant absurdities, but it went on for too long without ever getting to much of a point.

- “Pirates of the Suara Sea” by David Freer & Eric Flint. A story of what happens when a pirates try to take a ship full of other pirates. This was one of the stories that used a sci-fi setting to best effect, I thought, and it had a good hook, and a great twist to it as well.

- “A Cold Day in Hell by Paul Batteiger”. Another story of piratical vengeance, set in a world where the oceans have turned to ice. Not a bad story, but it felt like it was relying too hard on the “Pirates…. On Ice!” angle to make itself unique, but actually wound up feeling very similar to the Conrad Williams story earlier in the collection.

- “The Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth” by Rachel Swirsky. Some pirate rats set sail for the open sea, and whatever adventures await them there. It was a cute idea, and had some clever twists on the standard pirate tropes, but it didn’t really have anyone I could cheer for.

- “Araminta, or, the Wreck of the Amphidrake” by Naomi Novik. The Lady Araminta is sent overseas by her parents in order to keep the family from scandal, but Araminta sees it as her opportunity to be everything she’s always been denied. Highborn young women finding themselves through piracy, what’s not to like? I did think that the magical elements weren’t worked into the story as seamlessly as they might have been, however.

- “The Whale Below” by Jayme Lynn Blaschke. An airship attempts a salvage operation on a derelict whaler, only to discover the dangers that led to its abandonment in the first place. This was the only story that had air-pirates (vs. sea-pirates or space-pirates), and it took me a while to get my bearings in the language of the story. Plot-wise, there was plenty of action, and I can see this forming the basis of a very good episode of TV.

- “Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe” by Garth Nix. A man and his puppet-companion lie their way onto a pirate ship in order to gain entry into a guarded treasure cove… only to find out that there’s more defending it than they’d thought. The closing story in an anthology is typically supposed to be the strongest, but I wasn’t crazy about this one, despite typically liking Nix’s work. Too setting and action-heavy, without an equivalent amount of character development, I think.

Recommendation: In the epic battle of pirates vs. ninjas, I come down firmly on the side of pirates. If you do too, and you don’t mind not all of your pirates being strictly historical-Earth-bound, then you’ll get a kick out of this collection. It’s not the most consistently excellent anthology I’ve ever read, but for every story that drags, there’s at least one that’s great. 3.5 out of 5 stars. ( )