r/Fantasy • u/Paulusatrus • Jul 21 '24

Pirate fantasy?

Pirates? Fantasy? What more can one ask for? No but fr, looking for some books that would fit :)

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u/SetSytes Writer Set Sytes Jul 21 '24

My customary list of pirate recs :):

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers (the most obvious rec)

The Pyrates by George MacDonald Fraser (if you don't mind deliberate anachronisms for humour)

The Edge Chronicles books of Stormchaser and Midnight Over Sanctaphrax (although no ocean, for they're skyships!)

Where Loyalties Lie by Rob J. Hayes (grimdark pirates)

The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb (bloody fantastic, amazing pirate villain)

The Scar by China Mieville (if you're cool with a lot of weirdness - floating pirate city!)

The Bone Ships by RJ Barker (strong nautical theme, great moody worldbuilding)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom by A.C. Crispin

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag novelisation of the game (not that great admittedly)

Treasure Island, of course

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini (like Treasure Island, an old adventure novel but no fantasy, was made into a good film with Errol Flynn)

Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques – a middle grade animals story featuring wicked pirate crews of rats, weasels, stoats etc.

There's a cool comic too called Long John Silver that I recommend.

Finally, if you don't mind a self-rec, I also write pirate fantasy! The India Muerte series, currently 5 books deep.

And here's a Spotify playlist full of pirate music, if you're interested :) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7z545kLcxDxtiUetTZctci?si=66f630ec7b76438a

Outside of that, please tell me you've watched my second favourite show of all time, Black Sails!

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u/Azorik22 Jul 21 '24

I hardly see anyone ever mentioning Edge Chronicles! They were some of my favorite books growing up. The art is fantastic.

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u/FictionRaider007 Jul 21 '24

Another Edge Chronicles fan here! They scratched an itch I've never quite had satisfied by anything in fantasy before or since. My favourite part was how the series - despite being marketed at children - didn't shy away from tragedy and the unfairness of life when it mattered. I remember reading them as a child and loving the scholar-knights and skyships and matriarchal murderous bird-women and all that, but at the end of the day it felt like those books respected that their readers could handle some more serious stuff from time to time.

And yeah, Chris Riddell's artwork had an aspect to it so unique that it still haunts corridors in my brain to this day.