I wanted to love Stokes’ and Herman’s Galveston. I am a die-hard Texan, so a Texas-set graphic novel based on the real life meeting of legendary Alamo defender Jim Bowie and pirate Jean LaFitte seemed like a definite winner. Unfortunately, the story just didn’t work for me. The wise-cracking, sassy characters seemed pretty one dimensional (or Jack Sparrow-y), weird misspellings took me out of the book (“Commanches” and “Comanches”, its vs. it’s), and not a lot seemed to happen in the story. Additionally, in real […]
A dark and witty novel about teenage alienation, strained relationships and the allure of the outlaw life.
Piracy used to conjure up visions of rabid men roaming the dark seas, festooned with tattoos and covered in facial hair. Now it’s more likely to bring up images of overweight young men sitting in basements in front of glowing computer screens. From Blackbeard to Neckbeard, if you will. Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler throws the older, vicious idea of the roving corsair into the modern day in this strange look at teenage angst and the life of an outsider. 14-year-old Gwen is angry. Angry […]
The Pirates’ Life is Not For Me
Under the Black Flag has been on my radar since way back in 2012. It may have even been on it before, but that’s when I joined Goodreads and am now able to track when I put things on the to read list. While certainly a comprehensive look at the actual history of pirates and not just the lore, the book unfortunately takes a topic which should be highly entertaining (there’s a reason I wanted to read it after all) and makes it a bit […]
Swashbuckling Bastards!
After two books, I think the thing I find most fun and exciting about Lynch’s stories is that he doesn’t have extra-ordinary characters. None of his characters, (aside from the bondsmagi) possess latent super-powers or even an unnatural bend towards some kind of skill. They’re just ordinary humans who get where they are by hard work and tenacity. And even when they’ve done their best, they still face very real and dangerous failure, and it’s that possible failure and its consequence that keeps me picking […]