Top Ten Tuesday: Time for Some Thrilling Heroics

This week, That Artsy Reader Girl is giving us a freebie for Top Ten Tuesday!  I've decided to share my top ten favorite swashbucklers with you.

To me, a book or movie is a swashbuckler if it has adventure, sword fights (or brawls), daring escapes or rescues, and a certain amount of swagger.  I adore stories like that!  Here are my ten favorite, complete with a few story elements you'll find in them.  All titles are linked to my reviews.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas -- prison escape, long-lost love, revenge, murder, disguises, tall ships, young love, damsels in distress, bandits...

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson -- stolen inheritance, kidnapping, shipwreck, escape, mismatched buddies, disguises, treason, assassination, fencing, bagpipes...

The Princess Bride by William Goldman -- fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle -- archery, banditry, outlawry, brawling, courtly romance, captures, rescues...

The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley -- fencing, disguises, rescues, chases, more fencing...

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson -- pirates, treasure, tall ships, maroonings, sieges, rescues...

The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini -- pirates, damsels in distress, kidnappings, rescues, tall ships, sea battles, fencing, brawling, treachery...

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope -- mistaken identity, disguises, fencing, kidnapping, doomed romance, rescues...

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy -- disguises, rescues, chases, fencing, romance, mistaken identities, damsels in distress...

Sackett's Land by Louis L'Amour -- exploration, chases, escapes, fencing, brawling, tall ships, sea battles, fortune seekers, romance...

And there you have it!  Are you a fan of swashbucklers too?  Got any to recommend?

"From These Dark Depths" by Vanessa Rasanen

Let me preface this review by saying that the middle section of a trilogy is nearly always my least-favorite part.  I will almost always love parts 1 and 3 of a trilogy, and part 2 will make me gnash my teeth.  The Two Towers?  My least-favorite LOTR section, both book and movie.  The Empire Strikes Back?  My least-favorite original Star Wars movie.  And so on.  I really like the recent trend toward duologies instead of trilogies because then we don't have that pesky middle section where I spend the whole thing knowing that I'm not going to have the resolution I desire.  I spend most middle sections of trilogies just patiently getting things over with so that I can get on to the good stuff in part three.

From These Dark Depths is no exception to that.  Vanessa Rasanen warned readers it would end with a cliffhanger, so I was prepared for that.  Which actually means I simply had "cliffhanger ahead' hanging over my head the whole time I read the book.  Which is probably why I didn't read it very quickly or sink very deeply into it.

It's a good adventure, much like the first book, On These Black Sands.  Some very nice action sequences, and lots of good character development.  Way more angsty prevaricating about "should I love this person or not" than I am usually a fan of, though.  When the author labeled this a "romantasy," she wasn't kidding, and the truth is... I am really not this book's audience.  I don't read much romance OR much fantasy.  And that's probably why I liked it okay, and I can appreciate the world-building and other writing elements for the craftsmanship, but it just wasn't a book I loved.

Particularly Good Bits:

When he woke up, she would disappear, but the feelings wouldn't.  He'd be left with this yearning to be near her and to know her, to care for her, and to live life beside her.  A yearning for something that could never be, could never work (p. 26).

She frowned.  How dare her thoughts be so logical when all she wanted to do was sulk? (p. 180).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16.  Definitely not something I would be comfortable letting a young teen read.  There's a more-detailed-than-I-prefer love scene, plus quite a few instances of dialog with innuendo, and also instances of characters lusting after other characters.  There's also a nasty keelhauling scene that involves torture, and the sirens eat people alive.  Sometimes bit by bit.  And there's a fair bit of bad language.

This has been the 42nd book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.

"The Black Swan" by Rafael Sabatini

I adore the 1942 movie The Black Swan, which is supposedly based on this book.  I'd heard that the book is quite different from the movie, so I've avoided reading it for years because I was afraid that I was going to be disappointed by it.  

Well, that was silly.  The book is ENTIRELY different from the movie, except that it involves Captain Henry Morgan, Tom Leach, and another pirate who pretends a lady is his wife in order to keep her safe.  Those are literally the only similarities.  Which was awesome, because that allowed me to enjoy this book for its own sake.  I'm so glad a couple friends on Bookstagram convinced me to try this book after all.

This book is about a French pirate who protects a young lady by pretending she's his wife when they both run into the dastardly pirate Tom Leach.  The bulk of the book takes place on an island, and there's lots of awesome swordplay, and there's one short sea battle between ships, too.  This is not a deep or weighty book -- it is unashamed of being a rollicking good time, and I am eager to read more of Sabatini's books now too!

(From my Instagram)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some innuendo, mild violence, and a smattering of old-fashioned curse words.

This has been my 47th book read and reviewed for my third Classics Club list and my 38th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer Reading, Having a Blast...

This week's prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books on my summer 2022 reading list."  I have actually already chowed through several books on my summer TBR list, thanks to lots of extra reading time while laid up with my broken arm, but here are ten that are still waiting for me:

1. The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini
2. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
3. Laertes by Carly Stevens
4. Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner
5. Possibilities by Debra White Smith
6. The Prince of Thieves by Alexandre Dumas
7. Robin Hood the Outlaw by Alexandre Dumas
8. Rose Petals and Snowflakes by Kendra E. Ardnek
9. Simply Sara by Hillary Manton Lodge
10. What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge

(from my Instagram)

How about you?  Do you have some books you've been saving for this summer?  Or new releases you're looking forward to?

"On These Black Sands" by Vanessa Rasanen

This book is SUCH a fun time!  I was a little bit hesitant about it because I kept reading reviews that said "this book destroyed me," and I honestly am not particularly a fan of books that leave me feeling destroyed.  As you may have gathered from my recent rant about Summer by Edith Wharton.  However, happily, On These Black Sands did NOT destroy me.  It did leave me reeeeeeally wanting more, but I know Vanessa Rasanen is working on book two already, so I will be patient :-D  I am confident it will be worth it.

So.  This is about Aoife Cascade, heir to a ruling body of women who make all the rules for their island, rules that are enforced by pirates who work with them.  Their island is relentlessly peaceful, and all pirate visitors must remain peaceful while ashore.  This sounds like a wonderful place to live, but Aoife (pronounced EE-fuh -- it's a real Irish name) discovers inadvertently that there's a dark side to the island.  She somewhat reluctantly joins forces with Captain Declan McCallagh, a handsome pirate captain that my mind insisted be played by Errol Flynn, which I did not mind in the slightest.  Together, Aoife and Declan (and Declan's best buddy Tommy) start learning more secrets and uncovering plots and engaging in acts of derring-do now and then... and, obviously, romance also ensues between Aoife and one of the pirates, but I'm not going to spoil things and tell you who because I'm mean that way.

One of my favorite things about this book is how Aoife never quite knows what she should do.  She's an adult, but she's not great at things like quick decisions or understanding people, and that was very relatable for me.  Also, she suffers from panic attacks, and I was really interested in seeing how those can affect a person, and also how other characters respond to them in both good and bad ways.  I think it's important to help people like me, who haven't endured a panic attack, to understand how that feels and how to help cope with them.  And what doesn't help.

While there is some magic involved in the plot, it's really fairly minimal, though I expect things will get more magical in book two.  So while this is technically pirate-fantasy, it's heavy on the pirate and light on the fantasy.

(Mine from Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

He cursed silently at the memories that dared to defy him, swimming to the surface without permission (p. 27).

He was right.  Of course he was right, but there was a difference between knowing something logically and actually believing it (p. 252).

Was this what love felt like?  A confusing yet thrilling, tangled web of emotions and sensations? (p. 354).

Creeping ivy obscured the gray stone walls, covering the windows and stretching out like spindly fingers eager to squeeze the life out of anyone who entered (p. 360).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a lot of innuendo and suggestive dialog (no love scenes), intermittent cussing (no F-bombs), and pirate violence (nothing graphic).

(Also mine from my Instagram)

This has been my 38th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.

"Macario's Scepter" by M. J. McGriff

Y'all know that fantasy is not one of my go-to genres.  A fantasy book has to have something going on in it besides "it's fantasy" for me to want to read it.  Is it by an author I already admire?  Is it a retelling of a story I'm familiar with?  Is it crossed with another genre that does automatically draw me, like detective stories or westerns?  Or does it have some random thing I can't resist?  Like, you know, cowboys or vampires or pirates?

Yup, pirates.  Man, I love pirates.  I really don't read enough pirate books, but I'm starting to fix that.  I used to love to read true histories of pirates when I was a kid, the more blood-curdling, the better (well, as blood-curdling as a nonfiction pirate biography aimed at an 8-yr-old is going to get, anyway).  And I adore pirate movies.  I even hosted a pirate movie blogathon a few years ago.

Anyway, about Macario's Scepter.  I have mixed feelings about this book.  I very much enjoyed the piratical parts, and the pirate captain, Baz Blackwater, was very cool.  But he wasn't really around that much, and he didn't get very well developed until really close to the end, I didn't think.  In the last 40 pages or so, all of a sudden he got lots of character development and lots more page time, and that was definitely my favorite part of the book.

Most of this book focused on twin sisters Samara and Seraphina -- one of them discovers she's a Chosen One who can do magic, and the other is a kind of priestess/devotee of the made-up magical religion that infuses the titular scepter with power.  Samara used to be in love with the pirate captain, Baz, and they spent a lot of time in this book thinking about how sexy the other person was and how beautiful their muscles or shapely legs or other body parts are. And they spent a lot of time thinking it's too bad they couldn't kiss each other anymore.  None of which is my jam, but I'm sure many people like that style of romance, so you know... that's just a personal preference thing.

The story was pretty engaging, with the Chosen One having to defeat sea monsters and stuff.  The action scenes were pretty good, though the descriptions of the exotic islands and various sunny locales was better.  The book as a whole could use a better proof reader, though.

The one thing I really disliked in this book was that one of the main antagonists was named Priest Christian.  For a book that has zero reference to Christianity in it and seems to take place in a made-up world, having a bad guy blatantly named "Priest Christian" felt like a deliberate slap in my face.  I'm so tired of bad guys being named Christian or Christy or Christopher -- it's not even subtle, folks.  You want to declare you think Christians are bad, well, it's a free country, but maybe be clever about it?  I'm not saying that M. J. McGriff did this on purpose, because maybe she didn't, but it sure felt purposeful, and I was offended.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for some violence, a LOT of bad language, discussions of prostitution and sexual relationships, and the aforementioned ogling.  There weren't any love scenes, only a few kisses and the mental longing for more.  There's also a lot of magic, but it's clearly pretend magic and didn't bother me.

This is my 26th book read for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson

I remember liking this book as a pre-teen, and I own a couple different movie versions because I love pirates (Disney's 1950 classic and the 1990 one with Charlton Heston and Christian Bale, if you're curious).  So I was excited to re-read it as an adult, and I decided to go ahead and read it aloud to my kids while I was at it.  They love pirates too because one of the few computer games we own is Sid Meier's Pirates, and they all love playing it.

This book did not disappoint.  It didn't disappoint me, as at it may be even more awesome than I remembered.  And it didn't disappoint my kids because it had all the piratical thrills they were hoping for, and then some.  My almost-9-yr-old says this is her new favorite book.  She actually grabbed it and hugged it when we finished it.

I also taught this book to my high school lit students, and while prepping for that, I learned that Stevenson wrote the first fifteen chapters in fifteen days.  My mind is properly boggled by that.  No wonder this book gallops along at a breathless pace!

And yet, it doesn't sacrifice character development for thrills.  Jim Hawkins starts out as a somewhat heedless teen boy who doesn't appreciate the stability and peace of his life at the inn he and his mother run.  By the end of the story, he's matured into a person who recognizes his mistakes and learns from them.  He's also changed from trustful and credulous to being able to see through the machinations of adults.  Most of the adult characters don't have much of a character arc, but it's not really their story, so that really doesn't matter.  To me, anyway.

I suppose there might be a few people here who don't know the basic plot of Treasure Island.  It involves a teen boy named Jim Hawkins and a bunch of adults, some honest and some pirates, all going to an island to try to find a fabulous treasure buried there by Captain Flint.  Long John Silver, the one-legged gentleman of fortune, is the prototype that almost all our modern notions of pirates are based on.  The book as a whole more than earns its reputation as a rip-roaring adventure yarn.

(My Bookstagram photo of my copy)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some piratical violence, including a boy being threatened and having to shoot guns to defend himself, plus lots of drunkenness and perilous situations.  I had no qualms about reading it aloud to my kids, the youngest of whom is 7, but kids younger than that might find it too tense.

This is my 26th book read and reviewed for my second Classics Club list.

"The Further Adventures of Zorro" by Johnston McCulley

As you might be able to tell from the cover, in Johnston McCulley's second serialized Zorro story, Zorro takes to the high seas.  Because what could possibly be more exciting than the first Zorro story?  Why, Zorro plus pirates, of course!

On the eve of Don Diego Vega's wedding to Senorita Lolita Pulido, a band of pirates attacks Los Angeles, looting and pillaging.  The presidio just happens to be empty of soldiers at the moment because Captain Ramon sent them on a fool's errand so the pirates could have free rein.  His reward?  They kidnap Lolita Pulido for him.  Back in the first Zorro story (originally titled The Curse of Capistrano), Captain Ramon had tried unsuccessfully to woo the senorita, but of course lost out to Diego/Zorro.  Now Ramon is determined to ruin his rival, claim the girl as his own, and make people think he's a hero.  If he has to make -- and break -- a few pacts with some pirates, oh well.

Naturally, Diego dons his Zorro persona once again and sets off to rescue his lady love.  If you're not used to reading serialized adventures like this (think the swashbucklers of Alexandre Dumas), then you might get a bit weary of the long string of escapes, captures, failed rescues, and so on.  I thought it was a very fun story, and I liked that the damsel in distress did some plotting of her own, involving several bids for freedom and a successful trick to free Zorro.

This is not great literature.  However, this is highly entertaining literature, and I'm so glad it's available in e-book form and not lost to the world.  I read this with the Kindle app on my phone, and while it had numerous typos, still... I'd rather have to decipher a word here and there than not get to read it at all!

Particularly Good Bits:

"If a thief, be a thief!  If a pirate, be a pirate!  But do not play at being an honest man and try to be a thief and pirate at the same time."

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for lots of swashbuckling violence and Captain Ramon intending to have his way with Senorita Pulido if she does not consent to marry him.

This is my 34th book read and reviewed for The Classics Club.

Ahoy!

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which means me Piratical Blogathon be in full swing on me other blog.  Click this button to find links to all fourteen swashbuckling entries:

Now start swabbin' the deck or I'll have ye walk the plank!  Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Do you like pirates?

I like pirates.  Love the fictional ones, am fascinated by the real ones... so much so that I'm throwing a Piratical Blogathon on my other blog, Hamlette's Soliloquy.  Click here or on the picture to learn more and sign up for the voyage!

"Pirate King" by Laurie R. King

Pirate King is the latest in a series of mysteries set in the early 20th century and starring a detective named Mary Russell and her husband. You may have heard of her husband — his name is Sherlock Holmes.

I’ve been a Holmes fan since I was thirteen, and I’ve read a lot of “non-canon” stories about him (written by someone other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), but none of them have presented the famous detective in all his complex allurement like these books by Laurie R. King. But unlike those other stories, these books don’t center on Sherlock Holmes — they center on his wife, Mary Russell. And before you throw arguments at me about Holmes being a lifelong bachelor, or a misogynist, or about Irene Adler being the only woman for him, let me assure you that these books deal with all those issues. Quite convincingly.

But anyway, I’d better tell you what this particular book is about instead of nattering on about the series as a whole. Pirate King finds Mary Russell going undercover as an assistant for a silent film production of a movie that shares the book’s title. Scotland Yard thinks someone in the film company is selling guns and drugs, and they want Russell to find out who. Things sail merrily along until the entire film crew gets kidnapped by pirates.

While Sherlock Holmes in absent from the first half of the book, he makes a welcome addition eventually. This is a bit of a departure from the usual tone of the series, being rather lighter than some of the more recent books, but it still has plenty of suspense and plot twists to keep a reader guessing. It’s also chock full of the period and location details Ms. King excels at, as well as lots of wonderful descriptions of making silent movies and traveling aboard a sailing ship.

If you’ve never read any of this series, but love either Sherlock Holmes or just mysteries set in the not-too-distant past, I highly recommend these books. Start with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and see what you think. Ms. King also has written a series about a modern-day detective, and several stand-alone novels, but I vastly prefer this series. In fact, it’s my favorite series by a living author!

The next Russell/Holmes adventure is due out later in 2012.  Woo!

(Originally posted on Novel Book Ratingson Jun 15, 2012.)

"Zorro" by Isabel Allende

I finished reading Zorro, by Isabel Allende, this week. It was amazing! As in, I wish I'd written it myself. I love books that make me feel that way, they keep me inspired to keep writing my own stuff. 

This has one of those plots where all sorts of little things that happen along the way keep coming in handy or becoming important later on. It's long and a little rambly, but in a good "what's gonna happen next?" way. Every time one adventure kind of winds down, another one starts up, so I kept wanting to read more and more and never stop. Plus, it's got pirates in it too, which I was not expecting. Unanticipated piratery is always good ;-) 

The voice of the novel is great too, like some friend of yours is telling you all the stuff that happened when they went on a vacation. Only they had a fun and fascinating vacation, not the kind where you spend most of the time in the car trying to get somewhere interesting. I think I might actually buy my own copy of this book, I liked it that well.

(Originally posted on Inscriptions on Jan 24, 2006.)