Fast Ships, Black Sails - Softcover

Jeffrey Scott VanderMeer is an American writer, editor and publisher. He is best known for his contributions to the New Weird and his stories about the city of Ambergris, in books like City of Saints and Madmen.

The VanderMeers impressed some high-quality scribes into contributing, and, whether comic or dramatic, almost every one of this pirate-themed anthology’s 18 stories is well worth reading. Naomi Novik’s “Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake” is a beaut of a variation on the theme of the (disguised) lady who outwits pirates and receives her heart’s desire. Rachel Swirsky’s “Adventures of Captain Blackheart Wentworth” is a wonderfully funny tale of pirate rats. Carrie Vaughn’s “Nymph’s Child” tells the bittersweet story of what happens after a female pirate is spared because of pregnancy. Howard Waldrop’s “Avast, Abaft!” takes off on Gilbert and Sullivan, while Rhys Hughes’ “Castor on Troubled Waters” is a complex, comic story of pirates and gambling debts. Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette’s “Boojum,” while referencing another deucedly clever Victorian’s work, is the scary tale of a semi-sentient pirate spaceship. The other 12 are mostly up to snuff with those half-dozen. By the way, the editors’ preface includes various references that those interested in piracy may find very interesting. --Frieda Murray