reviewed by neverness
The premise is that a infamous pirate warlord, Captain Lucca Silvaro has been spared prison time and execution by the Prince of Luccini with the added bonus of Letters of the Mark and Reprisal The letter of Mark charges him, and crew, with the task of hunting down the butcher ship and if successful they’ll be pardoned for their crimes. The butcher ship is a mystery pretty much until the climax of the book, though clues as to it’s true origin and power are gathered throughout as they hunt it down.
The plot isn’t so straight forward, as they encounter new ships and towns, the course of the characters (and there are a lot of names to keep track of) often shifts dramatically and suddenly. This was sort of my favorite aspect of this read, it wasn’t that I knew that the basic plot would take us to the final fight, but who would make it there and come out a survivor was quite the mystery.
Abnett’s only fault I think was not including a terminology glossary in the back. He throws around sailor jargon and maritime speech like the average read would be expected to know it. One doesn’t always have a dictionary handy at times, and I think that would help some readers out quite a bit.
I hope Abnett does another story with these characters and that it’s as good if not better than the story here. An Amazon reviewer noted that Pirates of the Caribbean was a huge inspiration for this book. Heck, anyone who ever does anything with pirates again are going to find their work compared to those films, but this story was far more intense, gorey, grittier and nastier. This would make a fun film to watch, very visual story, but Holywood would never make it due to the lack of any love interest. -Another reason why I like it!