Helpful Score: 2
This collection of short stories took me a long time to read, which is to say parts of it I found a little tedious. Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette was a creative sci-fi take on the pirate tale, although I didn't love it. Rhys Hughes' very short story was clever. The late Kage Baker's "I begyn as I mean to go on" harkened to O. Henry, imo, and was good. I enjoyed Rachel Swirsky's pirates-as-rats tale. I think it may be the best written story in the volume. But the author who inspired me to pick up the book in the first place was Naomi Novik, whose Temeraire alternate history/dragon fantasy series I really love. Her story, "Araminta, Or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake," was one of the best in the anthology, including a little magic as well as derring-do. I also liked Garth Nix's "Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe." So, overall as an anthology, a bit uneven, but star-studded with top fantasy writers and definitely worth a read if you like a "yarn" about pirates.
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