The Pirate's Scourge

Blood Sea Tales #1

by Chris A. Jackson

Nothing is more dangerous than a warrior enslaved.

Upon the lawless Blood Sea, mariners survive by wits, cunning, and skill. Pirate captain Kevril Longbright is a survivor. With his own ship, a faithful crew, and an ambitious partner handing him fat merchant prizes, he is truly the scourge of the sea, free and beholden to none.

Or is he?

Accepting jobs from Jhavika Keshmir is far easier than scouring the sea for his own targets. But when Kevril captures a mystical truthsayer, Preel, he learns that the truth can be both a blessing and a curse.

Preel reveals the foul enchantment behind Jhavika’s uncanny ability to convince others to do her bidding. Far from being his own master, Kevril is a slave to Jhavika’s every command. Enraged by her lies and manipulations, the pirate captain embarks upon a perilous quest for freedom. But enslavement can take many forms, and Kevril finds himself increasingly drawn to Preel and her mysterious talent.

Who knew the truth could be so damning, so freeing, and so seductive…

Genres: Fantasy

356 pages, Paperback

Published July 22, 2018

About the author

From the sea to the stars, Chris A. Jackson’s stories take you to the far reaches of the imagination. Raised on the back deck of a fishing boat and trained as a marine biologist, he became sidetracked by a career in biomedical research, but regained his heart and soul in 2009 when he and his wife Anne left the dock aboard the 45-foot sailboat Mr Mac to cruise the Caribbean and write fulltime.
With his nautical background, writing sea stories seemed inevitable for Chris. His acclaimed Scimitar Seas nautical fantasies won three consecutive Gold Medals in the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards. His Pathfinders Tales from Paizo Publishing combine high-seas combat and romance set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Not to be outdone, Privateer Press released Blood & Iron, a swashbuckling novella set in the Iron Kingdoms.
Chris’ repertoire also includes the award-winning and Kindle best-selling Weapon of Flesh Series, the contemporary urban fantasy Dragon Dreams, as well as additional fantasy novels, the humorous sci fi Cheese Runners trilogy of novellas, and numerous short stories.
To learn more, please visit jaxbooks.com.

Reviews

[Space Cowgirl]

Bathed In the Blood💪👊🔪of Dragons🐉
ADULT Historical Style Fantasy and Paranormal Romance💕 and Pirate🔪⛵ Adventure.
This is a fantasy 🌎world set in a historical time period similar to before 1400 on earth. It's where bold Pirates💪👊🔪 sail⛵ the Blood Sea🌊. It's a 🌎world where some people are slaves, some people have paranormal powers, and other people are controlled by those with the powers.

Pirate⛵ Captain Kevril Longbright🐺🍆⛲💪👊🔪 finally figures out he is one of those being controlled by an evil woman💃 with the power. Figuring out how to get out from under her cruel and extremely depraved paranormal influence without losing his life, his crew, or his ship, the Scourge⛵, is the subject of this book.

Luckily, Kevril🐺🍆⛲💪🔪 has the help and trust of Preel💃💋, a truthsayer. Will it be enough? Can he trade Preel💃💋 and his love💘 for her for his own freedom?

ARC Provided by Hidden 💎Gems
This ebook was $4.99 on Amazon📚 at the time of this review.
Opinions Expressed here are entirely my own.

Great book! Very unique, interesting and intense, as well as gory at times! It takes place in a dog 🐕 eat 🐕dog world 🌎filled with humans, strange creatures👺, magic, fantasy, and Paranormal events . One of the very best🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟books out of the over 500 I've read this year! ADULTS only!

The story seems to be open-ended, with the promise of more adventures for Captain Kervil🐺🍆⛲💪🔪 and his crew of the Scourge⛵!

Will I read Author📚 Jackson's next book? H*'ll yeah!

[Tracy Akers]

The Pirate’s Scourge by Chris A. Jackson is a high-fantasy tale set in a realm of criminal strongholds, magical artifacts, and intriguing characters. At the core of the story is Captain Kevril Longbright, a seasoned pirate with monetary goals and a conflicted heart. Believing himself a free man, Longbright’s ambitions are tested when Preel, a beautiful Truthsayer kidnapped to his ship, reveals that he is under the spell of another, his will not his own. Woven with themes of power and slavery, this pirate’s tale also explores questions of loyalty, love, and what it means to be free. The Pirate’s Scourge is the first book in Mr. Jackson’s Blood Sea Tales trilogy, and it definitely left me wanting more. I look forward to seeing what happens next for the cast of characters, but especially Preel, the gifted former slave, who is definitely ready to come into her own. I highly recommend this book!

[NoNo JoJo]

Preface: I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review
TW: Sexual assault/rape is a major theme, with assaults happening on- and off-page.
Actual rating: 4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this novel! That's actually a weird running theme through a lot of the stories I rate highly - a ton of them are pirate-related in some way, even though I wouldn't call myself a fan of the genre. But this was genuinely good. The prose was vivid and descriptive without being overwrought. The characters were varied and likable (even our main villain has a touch of humanity). There's a sprinkle of LGBT rep. The little doses of magic scattered throughout the book were intriguing, especially the Serpent's Children. It was overall just a very satisfying read.

My biggest complaint would be the pacing - once our big twist is revealed and our heroes understand the trouble they're in, the story sort of takes a weird turn. Instead of capitalizing on the suspense and intrigue of the revelation, the characters just kinda...leave? They wander off to try and find a solution to the problem. Because of the nature of Preel's abilities, it takes a long time for them to narrow down what they're looking for, which means we end up spending a solid little chunk of the novel just sitting around. Then, the solution we get is pretty underwhelming, and we end up without any real climax. I guess the battle with a certain character is supposed to be our climax, but we aren't really invested in hating that character, and the conflict with the actual villain ends in a grand whimper (so the author can set up more books). I think this would have been way more interesting if the villain was actually dealt with in a meaningful way, so our crew can go on to have more adventures. As it is, this just felt kinda hollow at the end, as the characters haven't really won any meaningful victory.

Overall, though, this was still a solid fantasy/action read, with a surprising amount of romance and heart. I'm definitely interesting in continuing the rest of the series and seeing where these characters go from here.

[Nathan Woll]

Pretty good, the ending was not great. The tension between the two main characters seemed ridiculously contrived and fake. There was really no reason the captain couldn't have explained the plan to Preel. I hate when movies or stories pretend that the leader can't explain the plan for bullshit reasons when it's really just to keep the audience in suspense. It's transparent and takes me out of the story.

[Helena Cuttino]

Pretty good

I didn't think I would like this book or should I say that the subject of it being a story about a pirate, glad to see I was pleasantly surprised. I was glad that this was not a predictable story lots of surprises and all the nautical terms made it interesting. Waiting for the next book.

[Janice Drake]

I enjoyed this pirate tale. The main characters were likable and the story kept up a good pace. I really didn't want to put it down till I finished. The nautical terms and feel of the ship gave the story an extra edge. I look forward to the next book to see just what fate has in store for Kevril, Preel and the rest of the crew.

I received this book for free and wished to leave a review.

[M Beal]

I had the pleasure of meeting the author at Dragon Con and picked up this book. Now I regret not grabbing a couple of others. I love pirates and this series is great. Definitely going to be reading more from this series.

[Wayne D Kramer]

Great prose, imaginative, a heck of a lot of fun. I've genuinely enjoyed the Blood Sea Tales books. They are very much ADULT pirate fantasy books, but I enjoyed the story enough to get through the aspects not really to my taste.

[Catherine Fitzsimmons]

Rollicking good fun.

[Nino di Angelo of Mr. Quincy]

Pirates ahoy! A very different genre to me; I’m not much into pirate tales (I kind of liked the first Pirates of Caribbean-movie, but that’s about it), but as I am friends with the author and know he writes well, I decided to give it a try.

The story is fast and captivating; I read it in one sitting. The characters are likable (as much as pirates can be!), and I enjoyed their character arcs. The world-building leans strongly in high fantasy (gnomes, dragons and trolls).

A word of warning-the book contains one very explicit sexual scene.

Tightly written and likable antihero. A nice, quick read.