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As usual when I read an historical novel I try to judge it more for the feeling it left me than for the details accuracy. Truth, if the author did a lot of mistakes, I really can’t enjoy it. I think M. Kei is pretty accurate in his description even if, in my historical ignorance, I really am not able to put a precise date for the events: it’s a period in which France and England are not at war between each other, it’s a period when the Sallee Republic was at war with Spain (I for example had to check where and when the Sallee Republic existed). Regardless the period, sodomy is still a hanging crime in the British naval army and Lieutenant Peter Thornton well knows it. Why he chose to enlist is still a mystery to me, since he ran away from home right for that reason, he was found out groping a fellow boy; before that, he was supposed to follow his stepfather’s trails as a preacher, after that, he has no family and home. He said that enlist was his only chance, but still I think that it was a poor chance due to his preferences in matter of sex.
Other than the obviously trouble he is facing, there is also the little factor that Peter is not exactly a “hero”. He is a good officer, but he is maybe a little to stick to the book. He is good to follow order, but I don’t see him much in the role of captain. Peter has too much of a kind soul, he will forgive everything and everyone.
At the beginning of the novel, he is pining over his fellow lieutenant Roger Perry, who is actually a good guy, but also as straight as it comes. It’s quite an unrequited love, even if Roger loves him as a brother; he would never consider being something more for Peter. When Peter has the chance to leave the English ship to join a corsair crew at the order of a Sallee captain, there is nothing that bound Peter to his home country, no family or love. More, where Roger refused his love, Tangle, the corsair, is instead courting him like no one else did before.
Most of the novel is spent at sail, attacking one ship or the other, mostly Spanish ships, and meanwhile Peter learns to loose a bit of his English contempt to the Moroccan custom. But still, in his heart, he remains a Christian, and at the moment, he is not really ready to change his beliefs; the strange thing is that, even if Peter prefers the company of men, he is totally inhibited when it arrives to sexual relationship. He still considers sodomy a sin, and so he tries to bend “things” to his own comfort level: if he doesn’t perform sodomy, maybe he is not a sinner. I think there is for sure a very negative experience in Peter’s past, when he was a young boy recently enlisted, something he hints at but never goes further in describe, something that still conditions him.
Peter is for sure a complex and deep character, and he is the protagonist of the novel; Tangle, the corsair, is someone who grows in the like of the reader, but, for a reason or the other, I never felt like he was the right man for Peter. He is not bad, au contraire, he is really caring with Peter, he helps him, and, as Peter said, he is probably a better Captain that others Peter served, but still, I felt him more like a pater familiae than a lover for Peter. Probably the reason is that Tangle is too much for Peter, Peter needs someone different to be happy, someone who doesn’t shadow him, someone more at his level, in few words, an average man like Peter is.http://www.bcpinepress.com/catalogDetail.php?bookCode=0036
Amazon: Pirates of the Narrow Seas 1: The Sallee Rovers
Amazon Kindle: Pirates of the Narrow Seas 1: The Sallee Rovers
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
As usual when I read an historical novel I try to judge it more for the feeling it left me than for the details accuracy. Truth, if the author did a lot of mistakes, I really can’t enjoy it. I think M. Kei is pretty accurate in his description even if, in my historical ignorance, I really am not able to put a precise date for the events: it’s a period in which France and England are not at war between each other, it’s a period when the Sallee Republic was at war with Spain (I for example had to check where and when the Sallee Republic existed). 
Peter is for sure a complex and deep character, and he is the protagonist of the novel; Tangle, the corsair, is someone who grows in the like of the reader, but, for a reason or the other, I never felt like he was the right man for Peter. He is not bad, au contraire, he is really caring with Peter, he helps him, and, as Peter said, he is probably a better Captain that others Peter served, but still, I felt him more like a pater familiae than a lover for Peter. Probably the reason is that Tangle is too much for Peter, Peter needs someone different to be happy, someone who doesn’t shadow him, someone more at his level, in few words, an average man like Peter is.
Purple Hearts is only a short story, less than 20 pages, but it surprised me. Not since it’s good, I’m used to that from MacLeod & Valentine, but since it’s more romantic than sexy, dry but not cold, and above all “balanced”. 
If I have to be true, I didn’t like so much Peter Thorton, the English office that in the previous book converted to the Muslim religion and the Sallee republic; I was actually not sure if the conversion happened for a real belief or more for convenience. Plus Peter was first in love with fellow officer Perry, then fell in lust (not love) with Captain Tangle, the Sallee captain who half kidnapped, half saved Peter by his sure tragic fate in the English Army. From what I gathered, Peter is not exactly subtle in hiding his passion for trousers, and I’m not referring to a dress choice. 
I spent a lot of time talking about the “personal” side of the story, the relationships among the men, love and friendship, and not so much on the setting and the history; as before, after (and while) reading this book, I searched for info on Henrique, Duke of Coimbra, claimant to the throne of Portugal, the man Shakil and Peter help in this novel; or I didn’t search on the right source, or this is a fictional character. But as before, the author gave enough info to make the “history” believable without being boring. Atop of that, considering that M. Kei is a sea man, the marine part of the story, aboard and around, is probably more than perfect. 
If I have to be true, I didn’t like so much Peter Thorton, the English office that in the previous book converted to the Muslim religion and the Sallee republic; I was actually not sure if the conversion happened for a real belief or more for convenience. Plus Peter was first in love with fellow officer Perry, then fell in lust (not love) with Captain Tangle, the Sallee captain who half kidnapped, half saved Peter by his sure tragic fate in the English Army. From what I gathered, Peter is not exactly subtle in hiding his passion for trousers, and I’m not referring to a dress choice. 
I spent a lot of time talking about the “personal” side of the story, the relationships among the men, love and friendship, and not so much on the setting and the history; as before, after (and while) reading this book, I searched for info on Henrique, Duke of Coimbra, claimant to the throne of Portugal, the man Shakil and Peter help in this novel; or I didn’t search on the right source, or this is a fictional character. But as before, the author gave enough info to make the “history” believable without being boring. Atop of that, considering that M. Kei is a sea man, the marine part of the story, aboard and around, is probably more than perfect. 
I'm sure I will not be able to read all these books in a month, but at least you have a good idea of what I will try to read ;-)
I'm sure I will not be able to read all these books in a month, but at least you have a good idea of what I will try to read ;-)
Life on the List is probably one of the best gay erotica tales book I have ever read. Well, despite what you can think, I haven’t read many of them, since usually, after a page or two, I’m bored by all the sex, and well, an erotica without sex is pretty much non-sense. So, first Jeffrey Essmann managed to catch me for more than two pages; the secret? He quoted Dante’s Inferno. All right, it’s a dirty trick to do with an Italian, you “have” to study Dante at school, and so he is like your nightmare, probably like Shakespeare for the Englishmen, but poor Dante is also a very good writer, at least in the Inferno part of his opera (and if Jeffrey Essmann was not feigning the lack of memory, they were Paolo and Francesca who that day read no further…). 
Life on the List is probably one of the best gay erotica tales book I have ever read. Well, despite what you can think, I haven’t read many of them, since usually, after a page or two, I’m bored by all the sex, and well, an erotica without sex is pretty much non-sense. So, first Jeffrey Essmann managed to catch me for more than two pages; the secret? He quoted Dante’s Inferno. All right, it’s a dirty trick to do with an Italian, you “have” to study Dante at school, and so he is like your nightmare, probably like Shakespeare for the Englishmen, but poor Dante is also a very good writer, at least in the Inferno part of his opera (and if Jeffrey Essmann was not feigning the lack of memory, they were Paolo and Francesca who that day read no further…).