There’s something comforting about standing in the surf on a beach when your feet sink ankle-deep in the sand and the waves roll in and the saltwater splashes up to your knees. There’s something mysterious about the vast unknown of the sea, how terrifyingly deep it is, and the strange things that lurk beneath the surface. There’s something thrilling about the waves, how they can softly lap against the shore or violently crash against it, how they can gently rock a boat or toss it about depending on their mood.
I grew up in the Tidewater area of Virginia six miles from Jamestown where replicas of three tall ships—The Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan Constant—remain docked and after a short bike ride, I could see their masts scraping against the sky. I spent my summers on the North Carolina barrier islands, visiting the pirate museum on Ocracoke, climbing lighthouses, mapping the Graveyard of the Atlantic, fishing the Gulf Stream, and swimming in both the Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic.
The Outer Banks and the Tidewater are steeped in seafaring mythology including pirates, diamond shoals, superstitions about the tides, and the creatures that make their home beneath the rolling waves. It’s no wonder that I wrote a book with ships, pirates, and the thrill of adventure mixed with the underlying trepidation of being out in open water. When writing In Deeper Waters, I hoped to show my love of the water, but I also wanted to show the dangerous side, the inherent power of the currents, and the knowledge of how small one person is compared to the enormity of the ocean.
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In Deeper Waters
This is a list of five books that embody those same feelings and experiences involving mythology of the deep, pirates and their exploits, action and adventure, and sailing across the wide deep blue sea.
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
The sea herself is a character in this magical book that weaves mythology, romance, and self-discovery into a compelling sea-faring pirate narrative. In several interludes throughout the book, the sea becomes a point-of-view character with her own emotions, motives, and actions and the mermaids hold the sea’s memories. “But one is missing. And though she cannot say what memory she no longer holds, she knows something is gone. What pain it is, to know a memory is gone but not what it is. She reaches out her infinite fingers, grappling in the dark for what she has lost. She howls.” The book does not shy away from the brutal life of pirates with an opening scene where one of the main characters slits a man’s throat to solidify their place within the pirate crew. Flora, living as Florian, is working on the pirate ship to earn enough money to leave and start a new life. Evelyn is a girl on her way to an arranged marriage, her own casket in tow. Unbeknownst to her, she is sailing on a ship of pirates and is about to be captured by the crew. Together, Flora and Evelyn mount a daring escape, saving a mermaid in the process and in turn are saved by the sea herself, which leads them on an adventure including magic, witches, the Pirate Supreme, and a sweet blossoming romance.
The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
The story follows a crew of a ship that not only can traverse the seven seas, but also can travel through time. Sixteen-year-old Nix has grown up on the Temptation, her father’s time traveling pirate ship, and has traveled the globe and throughout history via magic Navigation. Navigation is dependent on maps and there are rules—such as not being able to use the same map twice. Her father’s obsession with finding an 1868 map to Honolulu to save his lost love, Nix’s mother, strains the relationship between Nix and her father as visiting that time and place could erase Nix’s very existence. What really stands out in this novel are the lush descriptions of the different locations where the ship travels, especially 1800’s Hawaii, which bring a sense of wonder and excitement. From the very first pages, the book transports the reader: “Once on deck, I shaded my eyes from the tropical sun as I peered off the stern. The island of Oahu floated in the distance, a blossom atop the blue mirror of the sea. Between us and the faraway shore, a coal steamer purled black smoke from her funnel.” There is also an eerie scene early in the novel that describes traveling on the edges of a map which highlights the danger and mysteriousness of the sea. Plus, the story includes a unique magic system and a great cast of characters.
A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee
On September 7th it will be time to adventure to the South China Sea during the golden age of piracy. A Treasure Island remix, the reader can expect pirates, treasure maps, fabled riches and the thrill of adventure. The story follows Xiang, a girl who was left a gold pendant by her father who died at sea. When Anh steals the ordinary looking pendant, the girls discover a tiny map scroll inside which when decoded may lead them to the fabled last treasure of the Head of the Dragon, leader of the Dragon Fleet. Embarking on their journey, the girls discover that the sea is more dangerous than they thought. Written by the amazing CB Lee, who wrote the Sidekick Squad series, readers can expect queer representation, action and adventure, and of course a strong romance.
The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember
A queer, Norse retelling of “The Little Mermaid,” this novel follows Ersel, a mermaid who longs for a different life outside of the patriarchal mermaid society. Ersel meets Ragna, a shipwrecked Viking shield-maiden who is stranded on the mermaids’ glacier. From Ragna, Ersel learns of the life she wants and strikes a bargain with Loki, the trickster god. Of course, the bargain goes awry. To save herself, Ersel and Ragna must embark on an adventure that involves breaking their societal barriers, trying to outsmart Loki, while falling for each other. This story has lush worldbuilding, and action-adventure and there is a companion novel that tells Ragna’s story, The Navigator’s Touch which has a revenge arc and pirates!
The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova
While not a pirate adventure, this book still has plenty of action and is a lighthearted take on what may lurk in the depths of the ocean. Told from the hilarious point of view of Tristan Hart, an average teenager who works as a lifeguard, the story plays on the tropes of hidden royalty and family secrets. During a sudden tidal wave on the beach, Tristan is sucked out to sea. Three days later, he is spit back on land with no memory of where he was except dreams of a terrifying mermaid. Tristan then finds out he is a merman, the son of a mermaid and a human, and has his own tail and fins. Oh, and he’s related to the Sea King and is a candidate to rule when the king’s reign ends. This is a fun and funny adventure of Tristan discovering a whole supernatural world and navigating his abilities, life expectations, while figuring out a romance with his best friend.
F.T. Lukens is the author of four young adult novels published through Interlude Press, and her book Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic was a 2017 Cybils Award finalist in YA Speculative Fiction, won the ForeWord INDIES Book of the Year Gold Award for YA Fiction, and the Bisexual Book Award for Speculative Fiction, and it was also recently named to ALA’s 2019 Rainbow List. F.T. lives in North Carolina with her husband, three kids, three dogs, and three cats. Visit her at her website.
A Wizard of Earthsea leaps to mind at once; but I grant you, that’s a gimme :)
I expected to see The Bone Ships by RJ Barker. Very fun fantasy novel that mostly takes place on the ocean. The Tide Child, a black ship being manned by a crew of the condemned. When a sea dragon, a creature thought to have been extinct, makes a return to the oceans, the Tide Child makes a break from tradition to save rather than hunt the creature.
Robin Hobbs’ Liveship Trader series, anyone? Ditto for some portions of her Fitz books as well, especially Fool’s Fate.
Stephen Donaldson’s The One Tree largely takes place aboard Starfair’s Gem and was my first great seagoing adventure read.
China Miéville’s The Scar.
Large parts of Scott Lynch’s Red Seas Under Red Skies.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
The Jack Shaftoe thread of The Confusion.
Sailing with a twist, the Icerigger trilogy by Alan Dean Foster
A. M. Dellamonica’s “Hidden Seas” trilogy: how to (mostly) prevent a sea-based civilization from reverting to mutual piracy, done in personal terms rather than as political theory.
There’s Tim Power’s On Stranger Tides which bears no resemblance to the Pirates of the Caribbean film of the same title save that both feature Blackbeard. In the book a puppeteer names Jacques Chandagnac finds himself transformed into the pirate Jack Shandy. It mixed pirates and the supernatural long before the Pirates… franchise did and is good fun.
On Stranger Tides and The Scar are great, great books! I also enjoyed one that I hadn’t heard a lot about before picking up a used copy: Robert V.S. Redick’s The Red Wolf Conspiracy. I haven’t read the rest of that series yet, but it got off to a promising start. It has some fun concepts, including a universe-hopping wizard who can only operate as a mink when he crosses over and a main character who can occasionally briefly understand any language but suffers horribly whenever it happens.
Michael Scott Rohan’s Spiral trilogy; Chase the Morning, The Gates of Noon, Cloud Castles.
It involves setting sail, though it’s not clear into what. Some liminal space where heroes and gods and legends live.
Poul Anderson’s Witch of the Demon Seas.
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“I won’t drag out the business for you, Corun,” said Khroman. “Your men will have to be given to the games, of course, but you can be decently and privately beheaded.”
“Thanks,” said the pirate, “but I’ll stay with my men.”
Khroman stared at him in puzzlement. “But why did you ever do it?” he asked finally. “With your strength and skill and cunning, you could have gone far in Achaera. We take mercenaries from conquered provinces, you know. You could have gotten Achaeran citizenship in time.”
“I was a prince of Conahur,” said Corun slowly. “I saw my land invaded and my folk taken off as slaves. I saw my brothers hacked down at the battle of Lyrr, my sister taken as concubine by your admiral, my father hanged, my mother burned alive when they fired the old castle. They offered me amnesty because I was young and they wanted a figurehead. So I swore an oath of fealty to Achaera, and broke it the first chance I got. It was the only oath I ever broke, and still I am proud of it. I sailed with pirates until I was big enough to master my own ships. That is enough of an answer.”
“It may be,” said Khroman slowly. “You realize, of course, that the conquest of Conahur took place before I came to the throne? And that I certainly couldn’t negate it, in view of the Thalassocrat’s duty to his own country, and had to punish its incessant rebelliousness?”
“I don’t hold anything against you yourself, Khroman,” said Corun with a tired smile. “But I’d give my soul to the nether fires for the chance to pull your damned palace down around your ears!”
“I’m sorry it has to end this way,” said the king. “You were a brave man. I’d like to drain many beakers of wine with you on the other side of death.” He signed to the guards. “Take him away.”
Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver has some pretty great sailing passages. There’s a game of cat and mouse with pursuing pirates off Cape Cod that reads like an America’s Cup race
Catchalot by Alan Dean Foster is a great SF sailing novel. Okay, it’s not exactly on a sailing ship, but…
There are whales, and their intellect is acknowledged, and human moved them to the titular planet of Catchalot after nearly wiping them out on Earth. There is a positive mother-daughter relationship. There is older adult romance. There are mind-controlling aliens.
Kage Baker’s The Anvil of the World takes place on a caravan ship, and is such a fun and original book. I only wish she would have been able to write more before she passed away. This book was three linked novellas, and are among the more unique fantasy stories I’ve read.
“Troon, the golden city, sat within high walls on a plain a thousand miles wide. The plain was golden with barley.
The granaries of Troon were immense, towering over the city like giants, taller even than its endlessly revolving windmills. Dust sifted down into its streets and filled its air in the Month of the Red Moon and in every other month, for that matter, but most especially in that month, when the harvest was brought in from the plain in long lines of creaking carts, raising more dust, which lay like a fine powder of gold on every dome and spire and harvester’s hut.
All the people of Troon suffered from chronic emphysema.
Priding itself as it did, however, on being the world’s breadbasket, Troon put up with the emphysema. Wheezing was considered refined, and the social event of the year was the Festival of Respiratory Masks.”
-The Anvil of the World, Kage Baker
…and there’s Natalie C. Parker’s Seafire triolgy: Seafire, Steel Tide, and Stormbreak.
Michael Crichton’s “PIRATE LATITUDES” springs to mind. A more realistic take on Caribbean pirates.
The INDA series by Sherwood Smith has some killer sailing–literally, there are some cool sea battles with innovations that I wish I could steal for my own work.
Also, RED SEAS, RED SKIES by Scott Lynch features Locke Lamora and Jean at sea, with um, Double Plus Ungood results at times.
David Weber’s Safehold series revolves around Charis, an island kingdom that expands through the series to an ocean-empire encompassing, through conquest or alliance, much of Safehold. Weber weaves an interesting compression of Earth’s ocean-going history into his stories, and the battle strategy and tactics are first-rate throughout.