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Pirate Freedom
As a young parish priest, Father Christopher has heard many confessions, but his own tale is more astounding than any revelation he has ever encountered in the confessional . . . for Chris was once a pirate captain, hundreds of years before his birth.
Fresh from the monastery, the former novice finds himself inexplicably transported back to the Golden Age of Piracy, where an unexpected new life awaits him. At first, he resists joining the notorious Brethren of the Coast, but he soon embraces the life of a buccaneer, even as he succumbs to the seductive charms of a beautiful and enigmatic senorita. As the captain of his own swift ship, which may or may not be cursed, he plunders the West Indies in search of Spanish gold. From Tortuga to Port Royal, from the stormy waters of the Caribbean to steamy tropical jungles, Captain Chris finds danger, passion, adventure, and treachery as he hoists the black flag and sets sail for the Spanish mainland.
Where he will finally come to port only God knows . . . .
Pirate Freedom is a captivating new masterpiece by the award-winning author of The Wizard Knight and Soldier of Sidon .
Fresh from the monastery, the former novice finds himself inexplicably transported back to the Golden Age of Piracy, where an unexpected new life awaits him. At first, he resists joining the notorious Brethren of the Coast, but he soon embraces the life of a buccaneer, even as he succumbs to the seductive charms of a beautiful and enigmatic senorita. As the captain of his own swift ship, which may or may not be cursed, he plunders the West Indies in search of Spanish gold. From Tortuga to Port Royal, from the stormy waters of the Caribbean to steamy tropical jungles, Captain Chris finds danger, passion, adventure, and treachery as he hoists the black flag and sets sail for the Spanish mainland.
Where he will finally come to port only God knows . . . .
Pirate Freedom is a captivating new masterpiece by the award-winning author of The Wizard Knight and Soldier of Sidon .
320 pages, Hardcover
First published November 13, 2007
About the author
Gene Wolfe
493 books3,146 followersGene Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying a Catholic. He was a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the field.
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.
While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.
While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 117 reviews
January 12, 2011
It’s hard not to approach a Gene Wolfe novel with high expectations. After all, the man is responsible for some of the most brilliantly mind-bending science fiction and fantasy written in the last few decades. Such high expectations can make it hard to write an objective review (if such a thing is even possible) when the new book in question is quite good but just doesn’t blow you away like, say, his Book of the New Sun or The Wizard Knight. Make no mistake: Pirate Freedom is a great piece of fiction, but in terms of Gene Wolfe’s body of work, it just doesn’t rank as high as I’d hoped.
Our narrator, Chris, is an American who, as a boy, moves to Cuba with his father and is enrolled in a religious boarding school. Eventually he becomes a novice in the monastery, but as time passes, he realizes that he is not cut out for the life of a monk. When he leaves the monastery, he gradually becomes aware that Havana looks quite different from when he last saw it: somehow, he has been transported to the 17th century. To earn some money, he signs on as a sailor, and before long, he becomes a pirate, prowling the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy...
As is often the case in Gene Wolfe novels, the protagonist narrates the main events from a later stage in life, and there are lots of interesting connections and contrasts between the framing story and the meat of the novel. In this case, adult Chris is now a Catholic priest, back in modern times and reminiscing about his time as a pirate. As a result, Pirate Freedom frequently deals with questions of morality. After all, Chris-the-pirate swings from being ruthless to compassionate: when he just exits the monastery, he feels bad about stealing some bread, but eventually he becomes a feared pirate, with all the raiding and stealing that entails. By the end of the novel, we’ve seen him risk himself to free slaves, but Chris also seems to feel that torturing someone for gold is more justified than torturing for sport. This tension, between Chris as a Catholic priest and Chris as a feared pirate, is the most interesting aspect of Pirate Freedom.
Most of the novel, however, focuses on the actual adventures of Chris and his band of pirates in the second half of the 17th century, looting and raiding their way across the Caribbean. Gene Wolfe is obviously very familiar with the historical period and with sailing terminology, resulting in a story that feels much more authentic than your average Pirates of the Caribbean-type yarn. However, it’s hard be to completely immersed in the (occasionally very exciting) pirate adventures because “modern Chris,” the Catholic priest, tells his story in the most straightforward, plain-spoken way possible, and frequently interrupts the story to relate events of his current life, e.g. his work at the church or the community center. While this highlights the moral ambiguity of the main character, it also takes away from the excitement of the pirate story — which takes up most of the novel.
As so often with Gene Wolfe, the narrator is writing the story for himself, not for the reader, and as a result he doesn’t always bother to explain those things that are obvious to him — such as his full name, his origins, his environment, or even his true emotions. As a result, the reader has to puzzle the picture together from details scattered throughout the text. There are a few almost casual references that seem to indicate that the framing story is set in the near future, or maybe even in a parallel dimension, on an Earth that’s slightly different from ours. For example, Chris briefly mentions that he was “genetically engineered” to be tall, and he occasionally refers to monorail transportation that doesn’t seem to fit into our current time — and that’s not even mentioning Cuba’s political situation in the book. It’s hard to shake the idea that the story of “modern Chris” might be just as interesting as his pirate adventures, but because Chris wants to talk about his time as a pirate, we’ll never know. As a matter of fact, this involuntary self-editing also pops up when Chris is relating his exploits as a pirate: some events are only hinted at, because he is embarrassed by them, or doesn’t feel like describing them, or because he just doesn’t think they need to be explained further. The occasional “That’s all I’m going to write about that” hides what could be some of the most gripping material in his story.
A final aspect of Pirate Freedom that needs to be highlighted is the religious one. One of the reasons why I’ve always admired Gene Wolfe tremendously is his ability to infuse his religious beliefs into his stories in a tasteful but highly meaningful way, without becoming preachy or offensive to non-religious readers. Because his main character is a Catholic priest, you’d expect religion as a theme to pop up again in Pirate Freedom — and you’d be correct, because there are many religious references and symbols to be found throughout the novel, some more obvious than others. One of the strongest themes running through the novel is that of absolution and forgiveness, with Chris reinstating the practice of taking confession in his church, occasionally rationalizing his own sins away, and dealing with the betrayals and mistakes of his companions. Taking things a step further, the entire novel could possibly be seen as a confession, with Chris seeking absolution by recounting his past misdeeds.
Related to these religious themes, there’s one brief section focusing on abuse by Catholic priests that may cross the line for many people: Chris seems to feel that boys should be able to fight so they can protect themselves from being molested by priests and so they can defend girls. Or as Chris writes: "The boys were the victims of those priests, I am not arguing they were not. But those priests were the victims of the people who had taught the boys that even a little bit of violence is the worst thing in the world. The priests had only one victim, or that is how it seems to me. Those people had two, because the priest was another." Whether this is Gene Wolfe’s opinion or just something Chris feels (which would be marginally more understandable, given his background and what happens to him early on in his sailing career), it still left a sour taste in my mouth.
In the end, Pirate Freedom is another solid and intriguing novel by Gene Wolfe, and a book you’re guaranteed to think about for a long time after turning the final page — especially because the end provides a mind-bending twist, which admittedly is almost par for the course with this author. While Wolfe deftly uses his narrator to add several meaningful layers to the story, making this much more than just another pirate novel, it’s a technique I found admirable more than enjoyable. Still, despite occasionally feeling annoyed while I was reading the book, I kept going back to it, pondering the many subtleties and their implications that only hit me days after I finished reading. When weighed against the rest of Gene Wolfe’s works, I doubt many people will consider this one of his strongest novels, but nevertheless it’s still a unique, thought-provoking and elegantly written story. Recommended for Gene Wolfe fans (and pirate enthusiasts of course), but if you’re new to this author, try The Book of the New Sun or The Wizard Knight.
(This review was also published at www.fantasyliterature.com on 1/12/2010)
Our narrator, Chris, is an American who, as a boy, moves to Cuba with his father and is enrolled in a religious boarding school. Eventually he becomes a novice in the monastery, but as time passes, he realizes that he is not cut out for the life of a monk. When he leaves the monastery, he gradually becomes aware that Havana looks quite different from when he last saw it: somehow, he has been transported to the 17th century. To earn some money, he signs on as a sailor, and before long, he becomes a pirate, prowling the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy...
As is often the case in Gene Wolfe novels, the protagonist narrates the main events from a later stage in life, and there are lots of interesting connections and contrasts between the framing story and the meat of the novel. In this case, adult Chris is now a Catholic priest, back in modern times and reminiscing about his time as a pirate. As a result, Pirate Freedom frequently deals with questions of morality. After all, Chris-the-pirate swings from being ruthless to compassionate: when he just exits the monastery, he feels bad about stealing some bread, but eventually he becomes a feared pirate, with all the raiding and stealing that entails. By the end of the novel, we’ve seen him risk himself to free slaves, but Chris also seems to feel that torturing someone for gold is more justified than torturing for sport. This tension, between Chris as a Catholic priest and Chris as a feared pirate, is the most interesting aspect of Pirate Freedom.
Most of the novel, however, focuses on the actual adventures of Chris and his band of pirates in the second half of the 17th century, looting and raiding their way across the Caribbean. Gene Wolfe is obviously very familiar with the historical period and with sailing terminology, resulting in a story that feels much more authentic than your average Pirates of the Caribbean-type yarn. However, it’s hard be to completely immersed in the (occasionally very exciting) pirate adventures because “modern Chris,” the Catholic priest, tells his story in the most straightforward, plain-spoken way possible, and frequently interrupts the story to relate events of his current life, e.g. his work at the church or the community center. While this highlights the moral ambiguity of the main character, it also takes away from the excitement of the pirate story — which takes up most of the novel.
As so often with Gene Wolfe, the narrator is writing the story for himself, not for the reader, and as a result he doesn’t always bother to explain those things that are obvious to him — such as his full name, his origins, his environment, or even his true emotions. As a result, the reader has to puzzle the picture together from details scattered throughout the text. There are a few almost casual references that seem to indicate that the framing story is set in the near future, or maybe even in a parallel dimension, on an Earth that’s slightly different from ours. For example, Chris briefly mentions that he was “genetically engineered” to be tall, and he occasionally refers to monorail transportation that doesn’t seem to fit into our current time — and that’s not even mentioning Cuba’s political situation in the book. It’s hard to shake the idea that the story of “modern Chris” might be just as interesting as his pirate adventures, but because Chris wants to talk about his time as a pirate, we’ll never know. As a matter of fact, this involuntary self-editing also pops up when Chris is relating his exploits as a pirate: some events are only hinted at, because he is embarrassed by them, or doesn’t feel like describing them, or because he just doesn’t think they need to be explained further. The occasional “That’s all I’m going to write about that” hides what could be some of the most gripping material in his story.
A final aspect of Pirate Freedom that needs to be highlighted is the religious one. One of the reasons why I’ve always admired Gene Wolfe tremendously is his ability to infuse his religious beliefs into his stories in a tasteful but highly meaningful way, without becoming preachy or offensive to non-religious readers. Because his main character is a Catholic priest, you’d expect religion as a theme to pop up again in Pirate Freedom — and you’d be correct, because there are many religious references and symbols to be found throughout the novel, some more obvious than others. One of the strongest themes running through the novel is that of absolution and forgiveness, with Chris reinstating the practice of taking confession in his church, occasionally rationalizing his own sins away, and dealing with the betrayals and mistakes of his companions. Taking things a step further, the entire novel could possibly be seen as a confession, with Chris seeking absolution by recounting his past misdeeds.
Related to these religious themes, there’s one brief section focusing on abuse by Catholic priests that may cross the line for many people: Chris seems to feel that boys should be able to fight so they can protect themselves from being molested by priests and so they can defend girls. Or as Chris writes: "The boys were the victims of those priests, I am not arguing they were not. But those priests were the victims of the people who had taught the boys that even a little bit of violence is the worst thing in the world. The priests had only one victim, or that is how it seems to me. Those people had two, because the priest was another." Whether this is Gene Wolfe’s opinion or just something Chris feels (which would be marginally more understandable, given his background and what happens to him early on in his sailing career), it still left a sour taste in my mouth.
In the end, Pirate Freedom is another solid and intriguing novel by Gene Wolfe, and a book you’re guaranteed to think about for a long time after turning the final page — especially because the end provides a mind-bending twist, which admittedly is almost par for the course with this author. While Wolfe deftly uses his narrator to add several meaningful layers to the story, making this much more than just another pirate novel, it’s a technique I found admirable more than enjoyable. Still, despite occasionally feeling annoyed while I was reading the book, I kept going back to it, pondering the many subtleties and their implications that only hit me days after I finished reading. When weighed against the rest of Gene Wolfe’s works, I doubt many people will consider this one of his strongest novels, but nevertheless it’s still a unique, thought-provoking and elegantly written story. Recommended for Gene Wolfe fans (and pirate enthusiasts of course), but if you’re new to this author, try The Book of the New Sun or The Wizard Knight.
(This review was also published at www.fantasyliterature.com on 1/12/2010)
March 6, 2017
Wonderful and heartbreaking.
No Gene Wolfe book is as it seems. What starts as a semi-straightforward pirate adventure novel becomes a wonderfully subtle examination of faith, love, and morality (or lack thereof).
Told in the form of a long confession, the story is told by Chris, as he leaves his present-day Cuban monastery and quickly discovers he has been inexplicably transported back to the Golden Age of Piracy (roughly the 17th century). He must quickly adapt to the era and therein begins the "pirate adventure" portion of the tale.
There, all the major beats work (naval battles, raids on Spanish forts, debauchery in Port Royal, etc). But the book becomes something far more in the quiet times between action pieces. When "Captain Crisoforo" is laying on the deck of his ship, staring at the stars the beauty of Wolfe's writing grabs a hold of your throat and forces you to pay attention and then knocks you on your ass.
While the action is brisk, Wolfe takes his time. This book BUILDS. As Crisoforo eventually becomes more comfortable in this world, he makes a name for himself, falls in love, you begin to feel that this is where he belongs. Despite being a man out of time, he has found his time.
It is here that the book becomes a tragedy. This is a short book (312 pages in my copy). And it's clear early on that Chris has been writing this confession in the modern world AFTER HE RETURNS TO IT. So this life that he has made for himself MUST come to some kind of end. I won't spoil it except to say that as I got closer and closer to the end and saw fewer and fewer pages remaining, I got a bit emotional worrying about these characters.
Suffice it say Wolfe ends the novel perfectly.
No Gene Wolfe book is as it seems. What starts as a semi-straightforward pirate adventure novel becomes a wonderfully subtle examination of faith, love, and morality (or lack thereof).
Told in the form of a long confession, the story is told by Chris, as he leaves his present-day Cuban monastery and quickly discovers he has been inexplicably transported back to the Golden Age of Piracy (roughly the 17th century). He must quickly adapt to the era and therein begins the "pirate adventure" portion of the tale.
There, all the major beats work (naval battles, raids on Spanish forts, debauchery in Port Royal, etc). But the book becomes something far more in the quiet times between action pieces. When "Captain Crisoforo" is laying on the deck of his ship, staring at the stars the beauty of Wolfe's writing grabs a hold of your throat and forces you to pay attention and then knocks you on your ass.
While the action is brisk, Wolfe takes his time. This book BUILDS. As Crisoforo eventually becomes more comfortable in this world, he makes a name for himself, falls in love, you begin to feel that this is where he belongs. Despite being a man out of time, he has found his time.
It is here that the book becomes a tragedy. This is a short book (312 pages in my copy). And it's clear early on that Chris has been writing this confession in the modern world AFTER HE RETURNS TO IT. So this life that he has made for himself MUST come to some kind of end. I won't spoil it except to say that as I got closer and closer to the end and saw fewer and fewer pages remaining, I got a bit emotional worrying about these characters.
Suffice it say Wolfe ends the novel perfectly.
July 22, 2013
I was passing through a "pirate" phase having had several discussions with my pirate obsessed nephew and picked up some books from Awesomebooks.com. This was one of those "blind" purchases as I like to discover books rather than read recommendations (which is an odd thing to write on a book recommendation site).
Anyhow, this one started off a little differently from others I had read. And it stayed different.
Oh yes, you'll get the swashbuckling and pirate stuff in here. And the characters are interesting.
But what made me go "Holy Cow" was the ending. The whole tale is so carefully crafted, and the ending so deliciously twisted that you cannot help but bow down before the storytelling talents of Wolfe. This is definitely a book that I can say "I wish I wrote that".
Anyhow, this one started off a little differently from others I had read. And it stayed different.
Oh yes, you'll get the swashbuckling and pirate stuff in here. And the characters are interesting.
But what made me go "Holy Cow" was the ending. The whole tale is so carefully crafted, and the ending so deliciously twisted that you cannot help but bow down before the storytelling talents of Wolfe. This is definitely a book that I can say "I wish I wrote that".
May 22, 2019
I don’t think it’s the case, but it’s possible I’ve read too much Wolfe. Pirate Freedom is a solid work, with an interesting premise and solid writing, but I can’t help but compare it to other Wolfe books I’ve read before, and it suffers by that comparison. Certainly if you are particularly interested in the subject matter of pirates, or are looking for a good entry point into Wolfe’s standalone novels, then this might be worth reading. But, Peace and The Fifth Head of Cerberus aside, standalone books aren’t Wolfe’s best, and with it being outshone by some of his other works I can only give Pirate Freedom a lukewarm recommendation.
Before getting into specific comparisons to Wolfe’s other books, let me say that Pirate Freedom has all the typical features of a piece by Gene Wolfe: it is an account written by the main character, an older man recounting an adventure from his younger days. Though the man is claiming to be writing an honest chronicle of those past events, it’s unclear if his depiction is entirely accurate or if he’s telling the whole truth. Thus, the story is ripe with ambiguity, sometimes the identity of individuals is confused, characters aren’t always who or what they appear to be, some key events might have been skipped or reframed so as to depict the narrator in a more positive light, and in general you can’t place your trust entirely in what you’re reading. This is not to mention the riddles that Wolfe bakes in to each of his books, though I think that if there are riddles in Pirate Freedom then they are either only lightly focused upon or largely inconsequential to the story (or both).
Without getting into major spoilers this book can most clearly be compared to Wolfe’s The Wizard Knight, published only a few years before Pirate Freedom, which similarly has a young man of the modern era going about his normal life when he is inexplicably transported into a completely different type of life. In The Wizard Knight, the young man is inexplicably transported to a world of knights, giants, and other fantastic elements and ends up becoming a knight himself. In Pirate Freedom, the young man is inexplicably sent to the golden age of piracy and becomes a pirate captain himself. The premises aren’t identical, but they are similar enough that I can’t help but compare the two works, and of the two I believe The Wizard Knight is better, both in its characters and the world that Wolfe crafts and presents.
Getting into spoilers,
On the positive side, Pirate Freedom avoids the pacing problem that some other Wolfe works have, with a steady forward momentum (even if many of the individual fights and pirate raids don’t feel particularly important). It’s also pretty accessible as far as Wolfe goes, if he’s hiding anything it isn’t key to understanding the story. On the negative side, Wolfe again fails to depict a romance that feels real between the main characters, it instead feels shallow thanks to the main female character (and all the female characters, really) not being depicted with depth. Further, the work as a whole is not as strong as other pieces by Wolfe, pieces that have similarities that invite comparison. Pirate Freedom isn’t bottom-of-the-barrel Wolfe, and even bottom-of-the-barrel Wolfe is enjoyable to me, but it’s certainly a lesser Wolfe work. I’d be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone over the similar work The Wizard Knight, unless the person was very fond of pirates. 3/5.
Before getting into specific comparisons to Wolfe’s other books, let me say that Pirate Freedom has all the typical features of a piece by Gene Wolfe: it is an account written by the main character, an older man recounting an adventure from his younger days. Though the man is claiming to be writing an honest chronicle of those past events, it’s unclear if his depiction is entirely accurate or if he’s telling the whole truth. Thus, the story is ripe with ambiguity, sometimes the identity of individuals is confused, characters aren’t always who or what they appear to be, some key events might have been skipped or reframed so as to depict the narrator in a more positive light, and in general you can’t place your trust entirely in what you’re reading. This is not to mention the riddles that Wolfe bakes in to each of his books, though I think that if there are riddles in Pirate Freedom then they are either only lightly focused upon or largely inconsequential to the story (or both).
Without getting into major spoilers this book can most clearly be compared to Wolfe’s The Wizard Knight, published only a few years before Pirate Freedom, which similarly has a young man of the modern era going about his normal life when he is inexplicably transported into a completely different type of life. In The Wizard Knight, the young man is inexplicably transported to a world of knights, giants, and other fantastic elements and ends up becoming a knight himself. In Pirate Freedom, the young man is inexplicably sent to the golden age of piracy and becomes a pirate captain himself. The premises aren’t identical, but they are similar enough that I can’t help but compare the two works, and of the two I believe The Wizard Knight is better, both in its characters and the world that Wolfe crafts and presents.
Getting into spoilers,
On the positive side, Pirate Freedom avoids the pacing problem that some other Wolfe works have, with a steady forward momentum (even if many of the individual fights and pirate raids don’t feel particularly important). It’s also pretty accessible as far as Wolfe goes, if he’s hiding anything it isn’t key to understanding the story. On the negative side, Wolfe again fails to depict a romance that feels real between the main characters, it instead feels shallow thanks to the main female character (and all the female characters, really) not being depicted with depth. Further, the work as a whole is not as strong as other pieces by Wolfe, pieces that have similarities that invite comparison. Pirate Freedom isn’t bottom-of-the-barrel Wolfe, and even bottom-of-the-barrel Wolfe is enjoyable to me, but it’s certainly a lesser Wolfe work. I’d be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone over the similar work The Wizard Knight, unless the person was very fond of pirates. 3/5.
July 8, 2013
(This review contains some spoilers, with a warning before the spoilery part)
Wow, where to even start with the reasons I didn't enjoy this book.
First off, let me say that I only very rarely abandon books without finishing them, but this one felt like such a spectacular waste of my time that I had to put it down.
The protagonist, Chris, narrates the book in first person with an incredibly dull voice that makes otherwise exciting events seem completely uninteresting. I was unable to relate to Chris or bring myself to care even a little bit about his story. But, to be honest, that had more to do with the fact that he's a complete misogynist than that he's a dull narrator.
Which brings me to the biggest reason I didn't like this book: it's sexist as heck. The handful of female characters all have practically the exact same personality, and they're all shallow and poorly developed characters. Each one is defined by how desperately she lusts after Chris, and how jealously she fights with other women for the chance to sleep with him.
[This next part is going to have spoilers]
For example: after he, gangly inexperienced young random sailor, serenades a woman at her window for a few days she decides to run away to sea to try and find him again so that she can be with him. Of course, then it turns out that this runaway woman wasn't actually the maid he'd fancied, but rather the lady of the house, who'd also fallen head over heels for him. And he doesn't even notice the difference.
Yes, that's right: one woman is pretty much the same as another to our hero, because all she has to do is say "hello I am that maid Estrellita", and he's like wow yeah great let's have sex!
Eventually he discovers the swap that was made, and winds up sitting in a cabin with both the actual maid and the runaway lady present, at which point this book reaches the height of irony without even realizing it when Chris has the nerve to say this: "Sure. To you [Estrellita], one man's just like another in the dark."
I very nearly literally threw the book across the room.
Oh, and extra dose of irony: earlier the book he literally mistook another woman for his partner when she came and started fondling him in the dark.
[End of spoilers]
So yes, I have many reasons that I didn't like this book: poor and repetitive writing, slow pacing, nothing to get me invested in the protagonist and his story, laughably cliched female characters, a very sexist narrative, and no redeeming quality remotely good enough to make up for all of those faults.
If there's one thing that really breaks my willing suspension of disbelief, it's two-dimensional women who are desperately in love with the protagonist for no apparent reason, and this book had them in abundance.
At this point, I actually literally don't understand how Gene Wolfe is such a famous/popular authour.
Wow, where to even start with the reasons I didn't enjoy this book.
First off, let me say that I only very rarely abandon books without finishing them, but this one felt like such a spectacular waste of my time that I had to put it down.
The protagonist, Chris, narrates the book in first person with an incredibly dull voice that makes otherwise exciting events seem completely uninteresting. I was unable to relate to Chris or bring myself to care even a little bit about his story. But, to be honest, that had more to do with the fact that he's a complete misogynist than that he's a dull narrator.
Which brings me to the biggest reason I didn't like this book: it's sexist as heck. The handful of female characters all have practically the exact same personality, and they're all shallow and poorly developed characters. Each one is defined by how desperately she lusts after Chris, and how jealously she fights with other women for the chance to sleep with him.
[This next part is going to have spoilers]
For example: after he, gangly inexperienced young random sailor, serenades a woman at her window for a few days she decides to run away to sea to try and find him again so that she can be with him. Of course, then it turns out that this runaway woman wasn't actually the maid he'd fancied, but rather the lady of the house, who'd also fallen head over heels for him. And he doesn't even notice the difference.
Yes, that's right: one woman is pretty much the same as another to our hero, because all she has to do is say "hello I am that maid Estrellita", and he's like wow yeah great let's have sex!
Eventually he discovers the swap that was made, and winds up sitting in a cabin with both the actual maid and the runaway lady present, at which point this book reaches the height of irony without even realizing it when Chris has the nerve to say this: "Sure. To you [Estrellita], one man's just like another in the dark."
I very nearly literally threw the book across the room.
Oh, and extra dose of irony: earlier the book he literally mistook another woman for his partner when she came and started fondling him in the dark.
[End of spoilers]
So yes, I have many reasons that I didn't like this book: poor and repetitive writing, slow pacing, nothing to get me invested in the protagonist and his story, laughably cliched female characters, a very sexist narrative, and no redeeming quality remotely good enough to make up for all of those faults.
If there's one thing that really breaks my willing suspension of disbelief, it's two-dimensional women who are desperately in love with the protagonist for no apparent reason, and this book had them in abundance.
At this point, I actually literally don't understand how Gene Wolfe is such a famous/popular authour.
March 18, 2008
The one where Chris is a novice in a 21st-century Cuban monastery until suddenly, in the night, he's thrown back to the age of piracy. The book takes the form of a memoir which a present-day Chris, now a priest, is writing as he plans how he can get back to the past and to the woman he loves.
Gene Wolfe or no Gene Wolfe, I didn't think much of this.
Chris's voice sounds really just like the writing voice of a person who doesn't write; it's straightforward to the point of being simpleminded, and it renders great adventures as boring as long waits.
Every woman in the book is the same person: beautiful, passionate, headstrong, violent, only semi-trustworthy. And every woman in the book throws herself at Chris, who says aw shucks and kisses her but doesn't do anything else with her, he swears.
There's an awful lot of folksy moralizing in the present-day comments that break up the pirate narrative, and this made me do something I wouldn't typically do in a pirate book: notice that pirates are, um, doing wrong. I kept waiting for the author to do something with the irony of Father Chris reprinting his Christmas sermon before he tells us more about how he and his men sacked a town -- or to acknowledge for a moment that when Chris was thrown back to the past, he could have made other choices than to murder, torture, and steal -- but he never did.
[good review from Locus]
Gene Wolfe or no Gene Wolfe, I didn't think much of this.
Chris's voice sounds really just like the writing voice of a person who doesn't write; it's straightforward to the point of being simpleminded, and it renders great adventures as boring as long waits.
Every woman in the book is the same person: beautiful, passionate, headstrong, violent, only semi-trustworthy. And every woman in the book throws herself at Chris, who says aw shucks and kisses her but doesn't do anything else with her, he swears.
There's an awful lot of folksy moralizing in the present-day comments that break up the pirate narrative, and this made me do something I wouldn't typically do in a pirate book: notice that pirates are, um, doing wrong. I kept waiting for the author to do something with the irony of Father Chris reprinting his Christmas sermon before he tells us more about how he and his men sacked a town -- or to acknowledge for a moment that when Chris was thrown back to the past, he could have made other choices than to murder, torture, and steal -- but he never did.
[good review from Locus]
September 17, 2010
Worthless. Top complaints:
1. Poorly written. Every couple of pages the narrator says things like "many other things happened that day, but it would take too much time to list them here now." Stop telling me about all the things you aren't telling me! It happens over and over again. Unbearable.
2. Misogynist drivel. The only two female characters are (of course) both madly in love with the main character. He tries to paint the main lady as a feisty she-pirate, a spirited adventuress. According tho this book, being a Spirited Adventuress involves being super sexy, sacrificing everything for the man you're totally in love with even though you met him only once, and letting him do things like chain you to the boat when he disagrees with you. But, it's okay because he felt really bad about it later.
3. Random stupidity. It isn't until the main character is ON A SAILING SHIP, having lived in a pirate seaport marketplace for weeks previously, that he starts to think, gosh, maybe I'm not in the present anymore. A character whose name should be Judas, pronounced the Spanish way, is written out in the text as "Hoodas." The main character/narrator makes an assertion that it's okay for girls to be sheep-like if they have boys to protect them, and there is a very seriously disturbing section regarding the narrator's viewpoints about the sexual abuse children in the Church, and who is to blame for it. This book is a train wreck.
1. Poorly written. Every couple of pages the narrator says things like "many other things happened that day, but it would take too much time to list them here now." Stop telling me about all the things you aren't telling me! It happens over and over again. Unbearable.
2. Misogynist drivel. The only two female characters are (of course) both madly in love with the main character. He tries to paint the main lady as a feisty she-pirate, a spirited adventuress. According tho this book, being a Spirited Adventuress involves being super sexy, sacrificing everything for the man you're totally in love with even though you met him only once, and letting him do things like chain you to the boat when he disagrees with you. But, it's okay because he felt really bad about it later.
3. Random stupidity. It isn't until the main character is ON A SAILING SHIP, having lived in a pirate seaport marketplace for weeks previously, that he starts to think, gosh, maybe I'm not in the present anymore. A character whose name should be Judas, pronounced the Spanish way, is written out in the text as "Hoodas." The main character/narrator makes an assertion that it's okay for girls to be sheep-like if they have boys to protect them, and there is a very seriously disturbing section regarding the narrator's viewpoints about the sexual abuse children in the Church, and who is to blame for it. This book is a train wreck.
May 20, 2013
I usually really love Gene Wolfe's writing style, but this was the first novel of his that I read where it really solidified for me that he just can't be bothered to make multidimensional female characters. Not only that, but his casual attitude towards rape doesn't sit well. I understand that his style is to breeze through tough things, but when it's happened multiple times over multiple books...well, honestly, this was the first book of his I just put down. The concept was interesting, the time travel should be fun, Christian concepts are considered and thrown away or accepted in a different was (the main character grew up in a monastary), but everything is very dull. And why does the main character never even concern himself with figuring out or wondering how/why he's been traveling through time?
March 23, 2008
Gene Wolfe is getting old. I hate to acknowledge it, but it is so. This book uses what is becoming an over-used plot, the same main character (basically) as The Wizard, The Knight and Soldier of Sidon, and puts him in the Golden Age of Piracy. Despite the opposing views of a priest and a pirate, he avoids most discussions of internal turmoil by the simple expedient of lying or "forgetfulness".
In the end, the excursions to the present distract from what could be a nice adventure romp, while adding very little in terms of character depth, theological consideration or ethical discussion.
As it happened with Soldier of Sidon, the general impression is that somebody has gone through rejected material and notes from twenty years ago, and decided to publish it, with some additional material tacked in.
Although I did not like it so much as some previous books, at least the Wizard Knight was a well rounded, complete work.
In the end, the excursions to the present distract from what could be a nice adventure romp, while adding very little in terms of character depth, theological consideration or ethical discussion.
As it happened with Soldier of Sidon, the general impression is that somebody has gone through rejected material and notes from twenty years ago, and decided to publish it, with some additional material tacked in.
Although I did not like it so much as some previous books, at least the Wizard Knight was a well rounded, complete work.
February 6, 2011
Gene Wolfe's reputation is overblown. I loved The Fifth Head of Cerberus and enjoyed the collection of short stories in The Death of Doctor Island. But his longer fantasy fiction always put me off, in the same sense that being invited to play Dungeons & Dragons with a pack of socially awkward teenagers might put one off. I threw Pirate Freedom across the room halfway through, when Wolfe abandoned the effort of storytelling and simply had his time-traveling priest/pirate sit on his ass and explain - over the course of 20 or more pages - a complicated turn of events that was at the center of the story. Wolfe is a charlatan; I'll read no more of him.
February 18, 2012
[Edit: You might want to check out my blog post about Gene Wolfe's Wizard-Knight duology. I mention this book there, and got some good comments about this book and the others from another fan. http://vikingsbooksetc.wordpress.com/... ]
Actually finished this over a month ago, along with a few other books, but with illness and teaching and other things I just haven't been able to get things posted on goodreads lately. Not much time now, but I will say that this book feels very similar to the Wizard-Knight duology. It is very difficult not to conflate the perceived innocent naïveté of the narrator with the author- or rather, the book just feels "clean" and straightforward b/c it is so easy to perceive the narrator in that way. Never mind that he confesses to many things that a not exactly shining examples of virtue, though I will also say that we seem to be invited to learn, with the narrator, to tolerate the sins and failings of others through our acceptance of our own fallenness. The plot is... Hard to describe. Straightforward first person pirate story, except in this wonderful voice , again comparable to that of the Wizard Knight, and except for the twist at the end which may be a bit abrupt for some people (like the end of a Miyazaki film), but which is also, in retrospect, that which undergirds the entire narration and so "fits" despite the abruptness of the revelation. Well, hope I articulated that alright. Hard to do this in a hurry. Overall, feels simple on one level, but open to various levels of reading and rereading. This and Wizard Knight are so different from the other Wolfe books I've read- well, there are strong points of contact, but Fifth Head of Cerberus is certainly a little more daunting from start to finish, however complex the deeper levels of each of these works.
Original review below.
Got this book for my pirate loving little sister, and decided to buy a copy for myself too (I almost kept her present, actually). I won't guarantee everyone will like it, but I'm a fan of Gene Wolfe and really wanted to read this. I haven't read too much of his-- most of the Book of the New Sun, the Wizard Knight duology, Fifth Head of Cerberus, and some of his short fiction. Out of all these, I feel like Wizard Knight has most in common with Pirate Freedom-- both have a first person narrator with a very plain, naive-feeling voice (not sure naive is the best way to put it-- and in any case, it at times feels like a duplicitous plainness, though maybe that's me being suspicious b/c of what I've heard about Wolfe's writing), writing a letter to explain what has happened to them to someone else. Wolfe is known for using unreliable narrators-- in these books, that seems to manifest itself in how things are told and what is told, rather than any far reaching duplicity-- at least that's in my reading so far, and I do feel like I'm probably missing something (Fifth Head of Cerberus has a much more extreme bit of duplicity, where one narrator is apparently a shapechanger who believes he is the human whose shape he has taken). Certain things which would take up a lot of room as action-oriented scenes are glossed over in this book, and the narrator often insists that he can't remember certain bits, but other bits are very clear-- whether these count as "unreliable narration" I don't know, but they certainly bring the perspective of the narrator, with all its limitations and biases, to the forefront, rather than taking the idea of the narrator as a barely acknowledged conceit to justify our access to the story-- in other words, the narrator is understood as a real character in the frame narrative. That said, the story doesn't drown in a reflexive focus on the one telling the story, and, with Wizard Knight, this is the Gene Wolfe book I would most recommend to more casual or escapist sci-fi/fantasy readers. Well, you may not like it still-- I think "good" or "productive" books (or "transformative") tend to subvert our escapist tendencies to some degree (see CS Lewis' -Experiment in Criticism- for one take on this phenomenon)-- but still, I think most people will enjoy this, even if Wolfe's books tend to take multiple readings to drain every last drop out of them.
One note about the title-- early in the book the narrator equates Freedom with Money/Gold, so that the title might be interpreted "Pirate Gold"-- a much more standard, swashbuckling title. Considering Wolfe's reputation as a subtle and thoughtful writer, I'm inclined to take this as intentional. At the very least, "Pirate Freedom" is a bit of an odd title, and I'm assuming that the topic/problem of "freedom" will be very pertinent in understanding the book.
I've got to say, this book feels like a perfect one to teach in a Reading and Composition course-- it is a good length, it is fairly accessible, but there is a lot going on and it provides a great opportunity to discuss narratological levels (at the very least the distinction author/narrator/character) etc. I'm always stuck teaching Medieval lit, b/c, oddly enough, it seems easier for the students to figure out what the conditions for an adequate thesis are when they are exploring multiple texts within a relatively alien culture. But if I were to teach the A level again, with no research requirement, I would be tempted to teach a broader range of texts, including this one-- maybe with the overall topic of "Adventure Stories", which would let me cover some sagas, maybe Bernard Foye's Third Castling, and some things by Astrid Lindgren, to cover the Scandinavian side of things, plus some non-Scandi books like... Pirate Freedom. And others-- maybe Treasure Island, to give an earlier pirate story (and of course, any saga that has a lot of Vikings would technically be about Pirates too). The Hobbit would fit this category too.
[Note-- this last part below is a bit of an unfair rant, due to some issues I was dealing with in the Reading and Comp class I was teaching-- if someone doesn't like how a narratological conceit is executed, then they have a perfect right to dislike a book. Ah well.]
I'm looking over other people's reviews of this book-- it seems like the bad reviews are upset over the "writing", meaning, the voice of the narrator-- I think the point would be that the awkward way in which the narrator narrates, or represents himself, is PART of the story. The narrator has his own agenda, and it is because of THAT that all the women are the same character (one person calls the book misogynist)-- b/c for him, they ARE. In other words, it feels like the critiques of the writing are conflating "real author" with "narrator" and blaming Gene Wolfe for what his character says. And I have to admit, this is the sort of problem students have in my R&C courses a lot-- for some reason I just could NOT get some of my students to understand that they were supposed to write about the characters in the story as representations of people, not as REAL people-- you don't treat Beowulf on his own terms as a real person, dammit, you treat him as part of a text with an agenda of its own. One student even talked about Beowulf as the author of the poem. Blegh. >:[
Actually finished this over a month ago, along with a few other books, but with illness and teaching and other things I just haven't been able to get things posted on goodreads lately. Not much time now, but I will say that this book feels very similar to the Wizard-Knight duology. It is very difficult not to conflate the perceived innocent naïveté of the narrator with the author- or rather, the book just feels "clean" and straightforward b/c it is so easy to perceive the narrator in that way. Never mind that he confesses to many things that a not exactly shining examples of virtue, though I will also say that we seem to be invited to learn, with the narrator, to tolerate the sins and failings of others through our acceptance of our own fallenness. The plot is... Hard to describe. Straightforward first person pirate story, except in this wonderful voice , again comparable to that of the Wizard Knight, and except for the twist at the end which may be a bit abrupt for some people (like the end of a Miyazaki film), but which is also, in retrospect, that which undergirds the entire narration and so "fits" despite the abruptness of the revelation. Well, hope I articulated that alright. Hard to do this in a hurry. Overall, feels simple on one level, but open to various levels of reading and rereading. This and Wizard Knight are so different from the other Wolfe books I've read- well, there are strong points of contact, but Fifth Head of Cerberus is certainly a little more daunting from start to finish, however complex the deeper levels of each of these works.
Original review below.
Got this book for my pirate loving little sister, and decided to buy a copy for myself too (I almost kept her present, actually). I won't guarantee everyone will like it, but I'm a fan of Gene Wolfe and really wanted to read this. I haven't read too much of his-- most of the Book of the New Sun, the Wizard Knight duology, Fifth Head of Cerberus, and some of his short fiction. Out of all these, I feel like Wizard Knight has most in common with Pirate Freedom-- both have a first person narrator with a very plain, naive-feeling voice (not sure naive is the best way to put it-- and in any case, it at times feels like a duplicitous plainness, though maybe that's me being suspicious b/c of what I've heard about Wolfe's writing), writing a letter to explain what has happened to them to someone else. Wolfe is known for using unreliable narrators-- in these books, that seems to manifest itself in how things are told and what is told, rather than any far reaching duplicity-- at least that's in my reading so far, and I do feel like I'm probably missing something (Fifth Head of Cerberus has a much more extreme bit of duplicity, where one narrator is apparently a shapechanger who believes he is the human whose shape he has taken). Certain things which would take up a lot of room as action-oriented scenes are glossed over in this book, and the narrator often insists that he can't remember certain bits, but other bits are very clear-- whether these count as "unreliable narration" I don't know, but they certainly bring the perspective of the narrator, with all its limitations and biases, to the forefront, rather than taking the idea of the narrator as a barely acknowledged conceit to justify our access to the story-- in other words, the narrator is understood as a real character in the frame narrative. That said, the story doesn't drown in a reflexive focus on the one telling the story, and, with Wizard Knight, this is the Gene Wolfe book I would most recommend to more casual or escapist sci-fi/fantasy readers. Well, you may not like it still-- I think "good" or "productive" books (or "transformative") tend to subvert our escapist tendencies to some degree (see CS Lewis' -Experiment in Criticism- for one take on this phenomenon)-- but still, I think most people will enjoy this, even if Wolfe's books tend to take multiple readings to drain every last drop out of them.
One note about the title-- early in the book the narrator equates Freedom with Money/Gold, so that the title might be interpreted "Pirate Gold"-- a much more standard, swashbuckling title. Considering Wolfe's reputation as a subtle and thoughtful writer, I'm inclined to take this as intentional. At the very least, "Pirate Freedom" is a bit of an odd title, and I'm assuming that the topic/problem of "freedom" will be very pertinent in understanding the book.
I've got to say, this book feels like a perfect one to teach in a Reading and Composition course-- it is a good length, it is fairly accessible, but there is a lot going on and it provides a great opportunity to discuss narratological levels (at the very least the distinction author/narrator/character) etc. I'm always stuck teaching Medieval lit, b/c, oddly enough, it seems easier for the students to figure out what the conditions for an adequate thesis are when they are exploring multiple texts within a relatively alien culture. But if I were to teach the A level again, with no research requirement, I would be tempted to teach a broader range of texts, including this one-- maybe with the overall topic of "Adventure Stories", which would let me cover some sagas, maybe Bernard Foye's Third Castling, and some things by Astrid Lindgren, to cover the Scandinavian side of things, plus some non-Scandi books like... Pirate Freedom. And others-- maybe Treasure Island, to give an earlier pirate story (and of course, any saga that has a lot of Vikings would technically be about Pirates too). The Hobbit would fit this category too.
[Note-- this last part below is a bit of an unfair rant, due to some issues I was dealing with in the Reading and Comp class I was teaching-- if someone doesn't like how a narratological conceit is executed, then they have a perfect right to dislike a book. Ah well.]
I'm looking over other people's reviews of this book-- it seems like the bad reviews are upset over the "writing", meaning, the voice of the narrator-- I think the point would be that the awkward way in which the narrator narrates, or represents himself, is PART of the story. The narrator has his own agenda, and it is because of THAT that all the women are the same character (one person calls the book misogynist)-- b/c for him, they ARE. In other words, it feels like the critiques of the writing are conflating "real author" with "narrator" and blaming Gene Wolfe for what his character says. And I have to admit, this is the sort of problem students have in my R&C courses a lot-- for some reason I just could NOT get some of my students to understand that they were supposed to write about the characters in the story as representations of people, not as REAL people-- you don't treat Beowulf on his own terms as a real person, dammit, you treat him as part of a text with an agenda of its own. One student even talked about Beowulf as the author of the poem. Blegh. >:[
August 20, 2017
An odd book, in the sense that it's pretty much a straight-up pirate tale, except that it's written by Gene Wolf! I would not have picked it up, without having seen his name on it.
So, a pirate tale. A very good one, which means it is more Stevenson than it is Hollywood. Very well researched and realistic, in that there isn't really much fighting.
Our hero, Christopher, goes from our near future back to 17th century Cuba. How? Who knows. He doesn't. What would you do, if it happened to you?
So, a pirate tale. A very good one, which means it is more Stevenson than it is Hollywood. Very well researched and realistic, in that there isn't really much fighting.
Our hero, Christopher, goes from our near future back to 17th century Cuba. How? Who knows. He doesn't. What would you do, if it happened to you?
September 24, 2018
I found myself enjoying this book more than I thought I might. It moves at a decent pace, overall. There are hints of an alternate future scattered throughout the narrative. The character development is so-so; some characters are developed more fully than others. It held my attention, despite a bit of a slow start. I do not know if that slow start is due to its being written more as a 'memoir' of sorts as opposed to being a historical piece for the time period it is set in, but it did take a chapter or so to build up steam.
The overall pace is decent, but it is broken up on a "regular" basis throughout the narrative.
It is a bit of a brutal book, in some respects. The author does not romanticize the era or lifestyle of the pirates; he does not necessarily make them out to be 'innocent heroes' as some of them truly are monsters.
It was also "interesting" in that Chris regularly wrestled with religious "issues" caused by his upbringing and how it conflicted with his lifestyle as a pirate. There did seem to be some "the ends justify the means" justification going on as he claimed it was a 'different era' and that you did what you had to do to survive in that violent era. At the same time, he still would grieve over "having to take lives" (depending on the situation). There were other 'religious issues' that were discussed in the narrative, and I guess it shows his humanness, how he 'wrestled' with some issues and ignored others . I did find it interesting that Chris supported some forms of violence and felt that some forms were necessary. It was an interesting approach and not one that one normally hears in today's society.
The artwork at the start of each chapter was a nice addition to the book (even if some of the pictures were reused). I am glad that I took a chance on it and read the book, as a copy of it was sitting in the sci-fi section of the used bookstore where I saw it and I was 'how can a book about pirates be considered sci-fi?' Now, I know.
The overall pace is decent, but it is broken up on a "regular" basis throughout the narrative.
It is a bit of a brutal book, in some respects. The author does not romanticize the era or lifestyle of the pirates; he does not necessarily make them out to be 'innocent heroes' as some of them truly are monsters.
It was also "interesting" in that Chris regularly wrestled with religious "issues" caused by his upbringing and how it conflicted with his lifestyle as a pirate. There did seem to be some "the ends justify the means" justification going on as he claimed it was a 'different era' and that you did what you had to do to survive in that violent era. At the same time, he still would grieve over "having to take lives" (depending on the situation). There were other 'religious issues' that were discussed in the narrative, and I guess it shows his humanness, how he 'wrestled' with some issues and ignored others . I did find it interesting that Chris supported some forms of violence and felt that some forms were necessary. It was an interesting approach and not one that one normally hears in today's society.
The artwork at the start of each chapter was a nice addition to the book (even if some of the pictures were reused). I am glad that I took a chance on it and read the book, as a copy of it was sitting in the sci-fi section of the used bookstore where I saw it and I was 'how can a book about pirates be considered sci-fi?' Now, I know.
September 14, 2019
Huyan de este libro. Run away.
September 15, 2014
Gene Wolfe is mainly known as a science fiction and fantasy writer, but his 2007 novel Pirate Freedom applies only a thin fantasy veneer over a rip-roaring adventure story that must have sprung from some intensive reading on 17th-century pirates in the Caribbean. The narrator is Fr. Christopher, a Roman Catholic priest in an American city who, we soon discover, has an unusual life story. Brought to a post-Communist Cuba as a boy (in some near future of ours), he was schooled at a monastery high school/seminary. Stepping out of this monastery upon reaching maturity, he finds himself cast back in time from the 21st century to the age of sail. Seeing how cruelly the Spanish treat the French and English with whom they vie for the Caribbean, Christopher decides to become a pirate and plunder the Spanish of the wealth they are extracting from the New World.
That setup will probably strike many readers as lame, and indeed the book is overall very lame. The strong aspect of the book is its depiction of Caribbean piracy and seafaring in general in an era that, on the basis of clues in the text, must be dated between 1671 (Henry Morgan's burning of Panama City) and 1792 (the Port Royal earthquake). There is all kinds of little trivia here that I wanted to follow up on the big online encyclopedia. The book acts as something to a corrective to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise that was so popular around the time of its publication.
All in all, however, Pirate Freedom is a poor effort. This book features the extremely tiresome adventure story trope where an ordinary American dropped into an unfamiliar environment is able to defeat adversaries in hand-to-hand combat with ease, even if they are warriors who have spent their whole lives training for battle, and of course he's a hit with the ladies and beds some. Christopher is an outsider to this entire world, but almost immediately everyone wants to elect him captain and serve him to their last breath.
Interspersed with Fr. Christopher's account of his past are his comments on his ministry in the America of our time. This strand of the narrative exists essentially for Wolfe to grumble about contemporary mores, especially the state of the Roman Catholic Church. When Fr. Christopher speaks of the scandals of priests molestating children, Wolfe puts "children" in quotation marks, claiming that the victims are mostly teenage males, and the sex abuse would stop if they were simply encouraged to fight as lads in the 17th century were (from his reading, Wolfe had noticed that many pirates were younger than is usually depicted today). Also, he gets in a few digs at language modernizers (priests who say "people" instead of "men") and clergy who discourage the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament ritual. Wolfe has often used Christian themes and symbolism in his books, but here his repeated mention of the Roman Catholic Church specifically is likely to turn a lot of readers off.
Finally, Pirate Freedom shares problems common to all of Wolfe's work since the 1990s. The prose is written at a grade-school level. In his early masterpieces (The Fifth Head of Cerberus, The Book of the New Sun), Wolfe wrote some of the most intricate and crafted prose in English, equal to Proust or Nabokov. but this book reads like a self-published effort by someone who has never written anything before. Wolfe wants to hint that Christopher's father has a mafia background, and he does this, inconsistently and in just a few spots in the narrative, by sprinkling Christopher's dialogue with Hollywood mafia stereotypes: "Hey, you goomba!", "Capeesh?", "Wiseguy". Also, there is a feeling that Wolfe can't fully concentrate on fleshing out the narrative, with many events simply skipped over and summarized later in a couple of lines. Wolfe was well into his 70s when writing this, and unfortunately it shows.
While young adult readers may find Pirate Freedom entertaining, anyone who has followed Wolfe's career is likely to be disappointed. When critics call Wolfe being one of the greatest writers alive, they are really talking about books published decades before post-millennial stinkers like this one.
That setup will probably strike many readers as lame, and indeed the book is overall very lame. The strong aspect of the book is its depiction of Caribbean piracy and seafaring in general in an era that, on the basis of clues in the text, must be dated between 1671 (Henry Morgan's burning of Panama City) and 1792 (the Port Royal earthquake). There is all kinds of little trivia here that I wanted to follow up on the big online encyclopedia. The book acts as something to a corrective to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise that was so popular around the time of its publication.
All in all, however, Pirate Freedom is a poor effort. This book features the extremely tiresome adventure story trope where an ordinary American dropped into an unfamiliar environment is able to defeat adversaries in hand-to-hand combat with ease, even if they are warriors who have spent their whole lives training for battle, and of course he's a hit with the ladies and beds some. Christopher is an outsider to this entire world, but almost immediately everyone wants to elect him captain and serve him to their last breath.
Interspersed with Fr. Christopher's account of his past are his comments on his ministry in the America of our time. This strand of the narrative exists essentially for Wolfe to grumble about contemporary mores, especially the state of the Roman Catholic Church. When Fr. Christopher speaks of the scandals of priests molestating children, Wolfe puts "children" in quotation marks, claiming that the victims are mostly teenage males, and the sex abuse would stop if they were simply encouraged to fight as lads in the 17th century were (from his reading, Wolfe had noticed that many pirates were younger than is usually depicted today). Also, he gets in a few digs at language modernizers (priests who say "people" instead of "men") and clergy who discourage the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament ritual. Wolfe has often used Christian themes and symbolism in his books, but here his repeated mention of the Roman Catholic Church specifically is likely to turn a lot of readers off.
Finally, Pirate Freedom shares problems common to all of Wolfe's work since the 1990s. The prose is written at a grade-school level. In his early masterpieces (The Fifth Head of Cerberus, The Book of the New Sun), Wolfe wrote some of the most intricate and crafted prose in English, equal to Proust or Nabokov. but this book reads like a self-published effort by someone who has never written anything before. Wolfe wants to hint that Christopher's father has a mafia background, and he does this, inconsistently and in just a few spots in the narrative, by sprinkling Christopher's dialogue with Hollywood mafia stereotypes: "Hey, you goomba!", "Capeesh?", "Wiseguy". Also, there is a feeling that Wolfe can't fully concentrate on fleshing out the narrative, with many events simply skipped over and summarized later in a couple of lines. Wolfe was well into his 70s when writing this, and unfortunately it shows.
While young adult readers may find Pirate Freedom entertaining, anyone who has followed Wolfe's career is likely to be disappointed. When critics call Wolfe being one of the greatest writers alive, they are really talking about books published decades before post-millennial stinkers like this one.
December 24, 2007
Gene Wolfe is my favorite sci-fi author, and this book has his distinctive voice. All of his protaganists are tall, handsome (but don't think they are handsome), skilled (but don't think they are skilled), successful in strange ways, and they all follow a rather unexpected & tortuous path through life, they have amazing memories, and in general the story is told as a memoir. I wonder how close or far this description is from the author himself. This was slow to start, and not quite as engrossing as some of his other books. I skimmed over the more detailed descriptions of masts & sails & rigging, and I could have used a map to help me figure out where they were going and where they had been. The story isn't particularly sci-fi at all, except for the fact that the hero is inexplicably sent back in time at the beginning of the story, from some time in the 21st century to back in the 18th century, and he becomes a pirate for lack of any better employment opportunities.
March 3, 2009
Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite authors. He is a genius of narrative structure. True to form, this book is a bit of mind-bender, time-warp, wrapped in a very authentic historical pirate story. As a fan of pirate history, I've never read anything that's made the history seem so real. I recommend this to anybody that wants a cutthroat, no frills pirate story or to anybody that likes to read clever novels.
January 25, 2021
This is my first reread on this and I'm hard pressed to figure out where to classify it.
It has all the standard Wolfeian aspects: there's an unreliable narrator who plays down his intelligence when he's clearly very smart. There's a couple of rounds of mystery that the clever reader can solve given the clues available. There's some playing with the narrative structure in terms of timeframes and expectations that again, can be figured out if you're paying attention.
It's also fairly brutal. Wolfe does nothing to play down or romanticize the actions of the pirates in this period. The narrator calls out his own violence and the tortures performed by his men, the cold realities of the slave trade and so on, and then finds ways to absolve himself of some of it - that Chris is the child of a Mafioso and is able to translate the pirate environment to the Mafia environment as a foundation of understanding works well in the text - and seeks Christ's mercy on the rest. This is very much Wolfe writing as Catholic, and the hardest parts of the book were the character trying to deal with the very obvious failures of the Catholic church in the period when Wolfe was writing it in terms of sheltering criminals and the social implications of that. It's hard to tell how much is Wolfe's own opinions and how much is Chris as raised Mafioso turned Pirate talking up the need for men to be tough.
That runs into the other issue with the book, which is like many of his other works this is a deceptively dense text with the veneer of Boys Own Adventure Story. Our hero is smart and tall and strong and fast and clever and humble and all the women love him. OK, fine, unreliable narrator, self deprecating text, there's a reason in story for why Chris is so physically powerful , I get it. But too much of the plot hinges on every woman he meets falling for him and fighting over one another for his attentions that it's not just unreliable narrator humblebragging but instead credulity-straining coincidences that snapped me out of the story.
It's not one of his best works, but I remember enjoying it more the first time i read it. Maybe it's that in 2021 I'm looking for a little more romanticism and less brutality in my fantasy, but at the same time I appreciate not softening the truth of the Pirate culture - like Vampires, they really should stay among the bad guys....
It has all the standard Wolfeian aspects: there's an unreliable narrator who plays down his intelligence when he's clearly very smart. There's a couple of rounds of mystery that the clever reader can solve given the clues available. There's some playing with the narrative structure in terms of timeframes and expectations that again, can be figured out if you're paying attention.
It's also fairly brutal. Wolfe does nothing to play down or romanticize the actions of the pirates in this period. The narrator calls out his own violence and the tortures performed by his men, the cold realities of the slave trade and so on, and then finds ways to absolve himself of some of it - that Chris is the child of a Mafioso and is able to translate the pirate environment to the Mafia environment as a foundation of understanding works well in the text - and seeks Christ's mercy on the rest. This is very much Wolfe writing as Catholic, and the hardest parts of the book were the character trying to deal with the very obvious failures of the Catholic church in the period when Wolfe was writing it in terms of sheltering criminals and the social implications of that. It's hard to tell how much is Wolfe's own opinions and how much is Chris as raised Mafioso turned Pirate talking up the need for men to be tough.
That runs into the other issue with the book, which is like many of his other works this is a deceptively dense text with the veneer of Boys Own Adventure Story. Our hero is smart and tall and strong and fast and clever and humble and all the women love him. OK, fine, unreliable narrator, self deprecating text, there's a reason in story for why Chris is so physically powerful , I get it. But too much of the plot hinges on every woman he meets falling for him and fighting over one another for his attentions that it's not just unreliable narrator humblebragging but instead credulity-straining coincidences that snapped me out of the story.
It's not one of his best works, but I remember enjoying it more the first time i read it. Maybe it's that in 2021 I'm looking for a little more romanticism and less brutality in my fantasy, but at the same time I appreciate not softening the truth of the Pirate culture - like Vampires, they really should stay among the bad guys....
August 15, 2019
This is a book that probably contains all you ever wanted to know about pirates and then more. Not quite a swashbuckling romp – it is too reflective for that, not shying from depicting the downsides of pirate life – it is always highly readable.
It is also a time travel story. Narrator Chris (Crisofóro) was handed over by his father to be brought up in Our Lady of Bethlehem monastery in a post-Communist Cuba. When he left there he somehow or other found himself back in the heyday of the Spanish Empire, got caught up in the piracy trade, eventually becoming adept at it and in charge of several ships. Interpolations into the narrative of his pirate times relate Chris’s thoughts in later life when he is back in the future but not as far as the time he left it. In these, interludes he is an ordained priest, given to musing on his past sins, and on God’s forgiveness.
One of his reflections is that, “money is just another way of saying freedom. If you have money you can do pretty much whatever you want to do. (If you do not believe me. Look at the people who have it.) ...That is not exactly how it is for pirates ... but it is close. And that is why they do it,” another on the ethics of obedience, “A boy who has been taught to be a sheep will not protect himself or anybody else. If he is molested and does not fight, the people who taught him to be a sheep are at least as much to blame as the molester.” In this he, and Wolfe as author, come dangerously close to condoning abuse.
Then we have, “I remembered that America had fought Spain once and freed Cuba.” Freed Cuba, eh? Swapping one empire for another is hardly freedom. That’ll be why they had a revolution sixty years later.
There are some bons mots. Of a man with whom he had dealings Chris says, “D’Ogeron was an honest politician – when you bought him, he stayed bought.” Another pirate captain says, “‘Not all beautiful things are treasures, but all treasures are beautiful.’”
Pirate Freedom is not one of Wolfe’s major works but it passes the time entertainingly enough and may correct some misconceptions about the pirate life.
It is also a time travel story. Narrator Chris (Crisofóro) was handed over by his father to be brought up in Our Lady of Bethlehem monastery in a post-Communist Cuba. When he left there he somehow or other found himself back in the heyday of the Spanish Empire, got caught up in the piracy trade, eventually becoming adept at it and in charge of several ships. Interpolations into the narrative of his pirate times relate Chris’s thoughts in later life when he is back in the future but not as far as the time he left it. In these, interludes he is an ordained priest, given to musing on his past sins, and on God’s forgiveness.
One of his reflections is that, “money is just another way of saying freedom. If you have money you can do pretty much whatever you want to do. (If you do not believe me. Look at the people who have it.) ...That is not exactly how it is for pirates ... but it is close. And that is why they do it,” another on the ethics of obedience, “A boy who has been taught to be a sheep will not protect himself or anybody else. If he is molested and does not fight, the people who taught him to be a sheep are at least as much to blame as the molester.” In this he, and Wolfe as author, come dangerously close to condoning abuse.
Then we have, “I remembered that America had fought Spain once and freed Cuba.” Freed Cuba, eh? Swapping one empire for another is hardly freedom. That’ll be why they had a revolution sixty years later.
There are some bons mots. Of a man with whom he had dealings Chris says, “D’Ogeron was an honest politician – when you bought him, he stayed bought.” Another pirate captain says, “‘Not all beautiful things are treasures, but all treasures are beautiful.’”
Pirate Freedom is not one of Wolfe’s major works but it passes the time entertainingly enough and may correct some misconceptions about the pirate life.
April 12, 2023
A-/A
I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would going into it. It’s super legible and mostly very easy to follow, although there were a few plot points that I found nebulous and confusing. I’m not an expert on the time period depicted in the novel but the book seemed like it entailed a good amount of research; everything felt accurate to my amateur mind.
The frame story depicting Chris as a priest in a near future or alternate Earth contained some of my favorite parts of the novel. The book’s rumination on faith and the highs and lows of organized religion felt thought out and drawn from Wolfe’s own life experiences as a faithful Catholic man. I do understand the criticisms of the novel that say it contains victim blaming but I also understand where Wolfe was coming from: if the victims of Catholic priests had defended themselves physically, then less damage would be done. That being said, that kind of trauma can be paralyzing in the moment, so I understand both sides. It seems like Wolfe, through Chris, seems to be lamenting the loss of the type of masculinity depicted in the book’s pirates.
The parts that confused me were the parts where Chris can’t seem to tell the difference between the woman he sells a parrot to early in the novel and her female servant. This could be explained by Chris’ spotty memory, I guess, but he’s supposedly in love with the servant, so mistaking the two did not really make sense, although it could be a puzzle that just went over my head.
I was also confused by how LeSage just happens to be in right place at the exact right time during the novel’s climax. Some parts of the sci-fi worldbuilding also blew right by me, like the mention of Chris being genetically engineered.
Overall this book is super fucking entertaining and held my interest throughout.
I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would going into it. It’s super legible and mostly very easy to follow, although there were a few plot points that I found nebulous and confusing. I’m not an expert on the time period depicted in the novel but the book seemed like it entailed a good amount of research; everything felt accurate to my amateur mind.
The frame story depicting Chris as a priest in a near future or alternate Earth contained some of my favorite parts of the novel. The book’s rumination on faith and the highs and lows of organized religion felt thought out and drawn from Wolfe’s own life experiences as a faithful Catholic man. I do understand the criticisms of the novel that say it contains victim blaming but I also understand where Wolfe was coming from: if the victims of Catholic priests had defended themselves physically, then less damage would be done. That being said, that kind of trauma can be paralyzing in the moment, so I understand both sides. It seems like Wolfe, through Chris, seems to be lamenting the loss of the type of masculinity depicted in the book’s pirates.
The parts that confused me were the parts where Chris can’t seem to tell the difference between the woman he sells a parrot to early in the novel and her female servant. This could be explained by Chris’ spotty memory, I guess, but he’s supposedly in love with the servant, so mistaking the two did not really make sense, although it could be a puzzle that just went over my head.
I was also confused by how LeSage just happens to be in right place at the exact right time during the novel’s climax. Some parts of the sci-fi worldbuilding also blew right by me, like the mention of Chris being genetically engineered.
Overall this book is super fucking entertaining and held my interest throughout.
November 28, 2017
Pirate Freedom (2007) by Gene Wolfe is a historical pirate book with just a touch of SF or Fantasy, depending on your opinion. In this first person narrative, a young man finds himself in the deep past, eventually falling in with pirate for fairly reliable pirate adventuring. The twist here is that the piratical adventures had a larger touch of historical accuracy, with ever-shifting crews busily seizing ships and cargo. The other main twist is that he's come back forward and time and become a priest reflecting on his time as a ruthless, murderous pirate.
Not too surprisingly, every woman throws herself at Chris, the protagonist. Every single one. There don't seem to be any issues with pregnancy in this historical continuity.
The story is all told in Gene's detached, almost emotionless style, which in many places is a shame as the drama depicted should have hit harder than it did.
All told, the book moved along well, always keeping up a peppy pace. You never wound up in any situation too long, which usually works for the work, but occasionally doesn't. Aside from a few characters who have depth, most just fade into names thrown across the page, little differentiating one from another. I cannot call them memorable. Even Chris, the protagonist, often doesn't feel very memorable.
The pirate life, however, is a character, and it's memorable.
As books by Gene go, this one is very approachable, readable, and doesn't leave you screaming profanities on confusion, which is saying a lot. Maybe Gene's mellowing in his old age? Who know? I certainly had more fun with this one than I've had in any of his for a long time.
Not too surprisingly, every woman throws herself at Chris, the protagonist. Every single one. There don't seem to be any issues with pregnancy in this historical continuity.
The story is all told in Gene's detached, almost emotionless style, which in many places is a shame as the drama depicted should have hit harder than it did.
All told, the book moved along well, always keeping up a peppy pace. You never wound up in any situation too long, which usually works for the work, but occasionally doesn't. Aside from a few characters who have depth, most just fade into names thrown across the page, little differentiating one from another. I cannot call them memorable. Even Chris, the protagonist, often doesn't feel very memorable.
The pirate life, however, is a character, and it's memorable.
As books by Gene go, this one is very approachable, readable, and doesn't leave you screaming profanities on confusion, which is saying a lot. Maybe Gene's mellowing in his old age? Who know? I certainly had more fun with this one than I've had in any of his for a long time.
June 6, 2020
I have, quite honestly, read better-written works in a high school writing club. I'd never heard of Gene Wolfe before, so it was quite a surprise to learn he was an accomplished, prolific author. The writing style read like a first draft. Mundane things were given detailed, repetitive descriptions, but important events were explained by saying, "you know what happened next." I actually. Don't know what happens next. That's why I'm reading the novel. I actually had to read the wiki to confirm somethings because the details were so sparce.
Perhaps this is my own biases, but I felt like it would have been a stronger story without the time travel. The main character didn't even notice he was time-traveling ANYWAY, so it would've made more sense if he'd started as a priest already in the Golden Age of Piracy and was coerced into joining a pirate ship.
The thing that turned me from bewildered to straight angry was the deal with the slave-ship. Yes, I thought Chris did a good job thinking through how actually screwed the slaves were in this situation. But? Then he just accepted there was nothing he could do? It just felt extremely uncomfortable to me, especially since he never touched on the horror a person with modern-day morals would feel when coming across a slave ship. It was a wasted opportunity to explore the time-traveler's dilemma, or even to show Chris grappling with his conscience beyond a a paragraph or two.
All-around disappointing - the ship details was the only thing bringing me through the chapters.
Perhaps this is my own biases, but I felt like it would have been a stronger story without the time travel. The main character didn't even notice he was time-traveling ANYWAY, so it would've made more sense if he'd started as a priest already in the Golden Age of Piracy and was coerced into joining a pirate ship.
The thing that turned me from bewildered to straight angry was the deal with the slave-ship. Yes, I thought Chris did a good job thinking through how actually screwed the slaves were in this situation. But? Then he just accepted there was nothing he could do? It just felt extremely uncomfortable to me, especially since he never touched on the horror a person with modern-day morals would feel when coming across a slave ship. It was a wasted opportunity to explore the time-traveler's dilemma, or even to show Chris grappling with his conscience beyond a a paragraph or two.
All-around disappointing - the ship details was the only thing bringing me through the chapters.
November 18, 2023
Relatively straightforward for Wolfe in how well it functions as a compulsively readable, swashbuckling pirate story. Classic Wolfe in the way it disguises its heady theological themes in the narrative voice and the readers expectations around genre fiction. Plenty of room for classic Gene Wolfe archaeological text speculation here as well, but because the themes are so clear, it feels less important.
A lot of what made this one work for me is that Chris is one of the all time great Wolfe narrators. As he shares his long (failed) confession we find ourselves rooting for him, even as we see that there's no moral stance that he won't subtly throw away out of self interest, no promise or contract, spiritual or social that he won't selfishly break, and no ends he won't go to to justify his moral and spiritual failings to us and to himself.
Most damning, as he repeatedly says, given the chance he'd do it all again.
Also this one gets points for making a character concept as stupid as and actually making it work
A lot of what made this one work for me is that Chris is one of the all time great Wolfe narrators. As he shares his long (failed) confession we find ourselves rooting for him, even as we see that there's no moral stance that he won't subtly throw away out of self interest, no promise or contract, spiritual or social that he won't selfishly break, and no ends he won't go to to justify his moral and spiritual failings to us and to himself.
Most damning, as he repeatedly says, given the chance he'd do it all again.
Also this one gets points for making a character concept as stupid as and actually making it work
February 26, 2021
As someone who was looking for a swashbuckling adventure, and as a big fan of Gene Wolfe, this book was a delight.
I'm an atheist by default, but I think Wolfe might be subtly turning me Catholic, LOL - and by that I mean that the themes of right and wrong, freedom and choice, confession and forgiveness, they are tackled head on and yet with incredible nuance, and always with empathy.
One thing I notice about Wolfe, and some few other writers, is that they leave room in the text for you to stand - well, in this book, the gaps between the lines are wide enough to fall into. And for some, this may be a bad thing, but I love it. It leaves room for you to project your own feelings, and gives the story infinite depth.
This book was as wide as an adventure across the high seas, and as deep as a life.
I'm an atheist by default, but I think Wolfe might be subtly turning me Catholic, LOL - and by that I mean that the themes of right and wrong, freedom and choice, confession and forgiveness, they are tackled head on and yet with incredible nuance, and always with empathy.
One thing I notice about Wolfe, and some few other writers, is that they leave room in the text for you to stand - well, in this book, the gaps between the lines are wide enough to fall into. And for some, this may be a bad thing, but I love it. It leaves room for you to project your own feelings, and gives the story infinite depth.
This book was as wide as an adventure across the high seas, and as deep as a life.
June 19, 2017
Interesting story, mostly because some weeks ago I watched 3 seasons of Black Sails. Don't look for science fiction or fantasy here, the fact that it has one element of scifi doesn't change this is a pirate novel. That said, the narrative is agile and the pages just don't stop, but it is not a thriller, the narrator uses to intercalate his moral uncertainties or omits to tell certain parts because he does not think it is necessary, but this does not feel weird as the text is structured as a recount of facts made previous to a journey and there's not enough time to tell it all. So, if you like pirate novels give it a try, or if you are a super Wolfe's fan, other way it may dissapoint you, a bit, maybe... I liked it, but it happened I read it with the right attitude in an appropiate moment.
December 11, 2017
As another Goodreads reviewer put it, "Pirate Freedom shares problems common to all of Wolfe's work since the 1990s. The prose is written at a grade-school level. In his early masterpieces Wolfe wrote some of the most intricate and crafted prose in English, equal to Proust or Nabokov. but this book reads like a self-published effort by someone who has never written anything before."
Quite right. I'm simply in disbelief that Gene Wolfe's later work (literally all of it) could be this bad. It's as if Joyce wrote The Da Vinci Code in his fifties.
Quite right. I'm simply in disbelief that Gene Wolfe's later work (literally all of it) could be this bad. It's as if Joyce wrote The Da Vinci Code in his fifties.
June 3, 2018
Gene Wolfe can do anything. His scope and reach are masterful. Ornate, sophisticated science fiction with depths of conscience and spiritual hunger. My latest encounter involves time travel and pirates and the confession of a priest who loves God, a woman, and a far-fetched life of adventure. Pirates? Yes. Pirates. In the grand tradition of Robert Louis Stephenson, a ribald tale that carries you along into the bootstrap and musketry of buccaneers and corsairs. Consistent with Wolfe's formidable catalog, the tale is immersive. It provides the texture and incident of a vicarious existence that is as convincing and cunning as it is fantastical and fabulous. Essential reading!
February 2, 2021
This is my first Wolfe novel, after some considerable hype, and I'm more than a little disappointed. The slowly revealed complications of plot are not interesting enough to make up for the bland uninspired characters and plodding limp narration. And even though I expect a lot of overt manliness in a book with such a title, the women in the story don't have much agency besides positioning themselves to bed the main character. I could see this being a hit with poorly raised teenage boys, but as an adult--YAWN. Quit halfway through. Probably won't read another by this author. Hard pass.
March 6, 2018
2.5? Definitely not one of my favorites by Gene Wolfe. While the story was decent and I liked the ending, the writing style felt very forced and artificial. The pacing was also a little off, and interesting or helpful details were often skipped over unnecessarily. Characters (even the main ones) never felt fully formed. If you are new to Gene Wolfe I would strongly recommend starting with some of his older works!
October 8, 2017
A pirate book with a bit of time travel and moralization thrown in. It wasn't bad I'm just not a fan of the first person memoir style books in sci-fi/fantasy novels with some rare exceptions. This book isn't bad its just not great. Gene Wolfe is an amazing author but this was not one of his best works.
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