Review – Fast Ships, Black Sails by Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Anthology
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: October 1, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1597800945
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Do you love the sound of a peg leg stomping across a quarterdeck? Or maybe you prefer a parrot on your arm, a strong wind at your back? Adventure, treasure, intrigue, humor, romance, danger — and, yes, plunder! Oh, the Devil does love a pirate — and so do readers everywhere!

Swashbuckling from the past into the future and space itself, Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, presents an incredibly entertaining volume of original stories guaranteed to make you walk and talk like a pirate.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge