The other unusual element of the Sallee Rovers is the protagonist himself. Kei is a tall ship sailor himself, having served aboard the Kalmar Nyckel and on skipjacks in the Chesapeake, so the descriptions pf the sailing feels fresh and real. The term seems to have largely fallen out of use by around 1650 and sounds rather strange to a modern reader’s ear. Kei refers to the latteen spar as an “antenna” from Medieval Latin for a sail yard. One minor quibble I had was in terminology. The ability of the galleys and galiots to row straight into the wind must have maddened all the captains of square rigged ships, which decidedly could not do the same. Likewise the chase and battle scenes between square rigged ships, galleys and galiots was also entertaining. The glimpse at these exotic craft and rigs, at least to Western eyes, was lots of fun.

For ship wonks like myself, the scenes onboard lateen rigged galleys, galiots, and xebecks are a delight. The action at sea is set aboard a British frigate, a captured Spanish slave galley and a Spanish galiot, which is similar to a galley, but slightly larger. It is good to have new ship types and new antagonists from time to time. If every fictional commander who fought at the Battle of the Nile, in one novel or another, actually showed up, there would have been serious danger of collision. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Georgian naval fiction but at times it does seems that the literary waters can get awfully crowded. Peter Thorton, who for a range of reasons, both logistical and personal, gets caught up with the corsairs and eventually joins them.

The main character is a young, British officer, Lt. The corsairs are the somewhat more heroic of the novel’s contending forces. In this novel the Spanish are the villains while British are not necessarily the heroes. The novel is not set during the Napoleonic wars and features, as the title suggests, Sallee Rovers, Barbary Coast corsairs, sailing from the Atlantic coast of what is now Morocco. Kei is well written nautical adventure fiction with a twist or two, or perhaps three. Pirates of the Narrow Sea, Book 1 – Sallee Rovers by M.

Originally published on the The Old Salt Blog

The Sallee Rovers by M. Kei