Pirate's Honor

By: Chris A. Jackson

Narrated by: John Pruden

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

A pirate captain of the Inner Sea, Torius Vin makes a living raiding wealthy merchant ships with his crew of loyal buccaneers. Few things matter more to Captain Torius than ill-gotten gold-but one of those is Celeste, his beautiful snake-bodied navigator. When a crafty courtesan offers the pirate crew a chance at the heist of a lifetime, it's time for both man and naga to hoist the black flag and lead the Stargazer's crew to fame and fortune. But will stealing the legendary Star of Thumen chart the corsairs a course to untold riches-or send them all to a watery grave?

©2013 Paizo Publishing, LLC (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Fine story, terrible narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes there is. I only got about 2 chapters through the book before I have to stop and delete it. The one thing I would change about this book is that SOMEONE WITH MORE LIFE NEEDS TO NARRATE IT.

Would you be willing to try another one of John Pruden’s performances?

NEVER. This man gave such a soulless, mono toned, grammar stunted performance. The worst I have heard so far from audible. He didn't take any pauses where he should, like at a comma or at the end of a sentence. There was no LIFE to his narration, and there was very little to any difference in character voices.

Any additional comments?

I'm pretty sure any random person off the street could do a better job at narration

Good listen!

Make sure to read Stargazer first, of you like me and want the full story.

A Rich Tapestry fo Adventure

Any additional comments?

Pirate's Honor is a Pathfinder book, based in the world and lore of the tabletop RPG game. As a player of Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons, it felt like coming home. I have to be honest, even as a tabletop gamer, I never really found much drive to read books set in the gaming worlds. It wasn't until meeting Chris that I decided to give a game book a whirl.

I am glad I did. I was always afraid that reading gaming books would make me cringe, that it would be stunted, just a clear attempt of a writer to narrate their own game campaign. WOW, was I wrong. I should have known better.

Pirate's Honor had adventure, dialogue, well-fleshed-out characters, and was just plain a joy to read (or have read to me, as I listened through Audible). Sure, I sort of expected fights to be awkward... but I was wrong about how that would go, too. This book was ridiculously exciting, and was nothing like reading, watching, or playing Pathfinder itself. It was a novel first, a gaming world second. THAT was a winning move for me.

I love how Jackson really thinks of his readers. He's a subtle writer, giving the reader hints of insight into future events and conflicts with just enough advance notice for you to guess at what's going to happen. He encourages the reader to think, to try and figure out things, before you realize what's really happening. Sometimes, I was even right. But he manages to keep me surprised along with his characters, and that is just plain brilliant. And he gives an ending that satisfies. I am ready to dig into the next one!

Great Twist on a Pirate Romance Novel

Originally read this in high school and recently wanted to listen to it again while at work. The narration is great and flows smoothly 99% of the time between characters in conversation. Happy to spend a credit to enjoy one of my favorite high school books.

Uninspiring and nonsensical caper

This novel tells the story of a pirate captain, his naga girlfriend, and their plan to rob a rich merchant. This isn’t a terrible set-up for a fun yarn, but it is poorly executed here for several reasons.

First, the planned caper is utterly incoherent. The best theft caper stories provide seemingly unrelated details which come together in surprising ways when revealed. Poor examples of this genre rely instead of deus ex machinas. This story is filled with such utterly implausible and cheap solutions to get our protagonists out of even the most obvious problems related to their plan.

But even the most threadbare story can be saved with interesting characters. Sadly, there is no such salvation here. A pirate captain and his Naga girlfriend should provide lots of interesting opportunities for meaningful character development and growth, but none happens here. The protagonists remain nearly identical from beginning to end; never showing any life-changing epiphanies or understandable slides into dubious ethical choices from past traumas.

Speaking of ethics, the author’s take on moral ambiguity comes in only two colors: black and white. All the good characters spend plenty of time telling each other how bad slavery is, and how evil it is to take away someone’s autonomy. All the evil characters just can’t get enough of slavery and controlling people. And fair enough, I guess, except there was a real missed opportunity here to explore the moral grey areas. These are pirates after all, and robbing people on the high seas using violence and deceit could have shown the tension with their professed love of freedom and hatred of anything that abridges it. Or the rich merchant could have been shown to be a genuinely good person instead of the relentless jerk he is so no one feels bad about bad things happening to him.

The narrator did a good job. It is a pity he wasn’t given something more interesting to read.

pleasantly surprised

I've been playing pathfinder for years. I recently needed something to keep me awake and company while working overnight and figured I'd give it a shot. I really was not expecting intrigue in a pirate tale but it played really well and was easy to listen to. cheers to the narrator as well great voices and pace I never once felt annoyed, but always felt like I was right there.

Terrible Performance

Didn't even finish the first chapter. Terrible performance ruined a good book.

Do yourselves a favor and skip this one.

Bookworm Speaks!- Pirate's Honor

Pirates have been a mainstay of fiction for nearly as long as there have been pirates in the real world. Long John Silver and Captain Blackbeard are practically part of modern day mythology and eye-patched, peg legged figures have been staples of books, toys, video games, movies and much more. The downside to this, is that it can take a bit more effort for prospective creators

The best thing about this book is how it takes many familiar aspects of pirate lore and yet give them a distinctive level of detail that sets it apart from many other ‘traditional’ tales of the Seven Seas. It is refreshingly diverse tale in its story as well as characterization and settings.

People of Color Characters: Check.

Strong Female Characters: Check!

A Non-traditional Romance: Check!

A culture that is not based entirely on Western Culture: Check!

This book hits all the right marks and makes into a clear step in the right direction for writers of fiction while maintaining enough familiar threads to engage long time readers. There is plenty of swashbuckling, high seas action to sate any reader familiar with pirate lore but it takes itself in its own direction that makes it unique. This book takes place in a region of Golarian, the world that Pathfinder takes place in, called the Inner Seas. Unlike a lot of other pirate fiction which is more or less inspired by the pirates of the Caribbean, this book takes a great amount of inspiration from Arabic culture. Torias and other characters are often described as wearing turbans and kaftans and other such garbs and the main antagonist of the final third is described as having dark skin along with other inhabitants of his realm. The importance of diversity in literature cannot be understated.

One of the best aspects of the entire novel is the relationship between Celeste and Torias Vin. For starters, while interspecies relationships are not exactly new territory for speculative fiction writers, this one is one of the first where Bookworm one where it was explicitly between a human and distinctly non human character. In this case, a lunar naga in the form of Celeste. For those unfamiliar with the world of Pathfinder, Lunar nagas do not have arms and manipulate objects with magic. They are nocturnal, venemous and can shape shift for brief periods of time. As one could expect, this would create some sharp divisions in a relationship. Celeste is very strong and memorable as a character who possess a certain innocence about her alongside her badass magical skills.

Other memorable female characters are the courtesan Vreva Jhafae and the gnome Snick. These and other characters really make this story and each one had a distinctive voice that could be recognized regardless of the context. Just hearing these characters talk to each other was entertaining on its own.

This book is not afraid to tackle some important issues that readers can take with them into the real world. What constitutes a healthy relationship is one of them. Without giving too much away…there is a real crisis in the relationship between Torias and Celeste that can leave the reader on the edge of their seats. It doesn’t feel like the forced contrivance that so often plaques fictional romances, it actually feels like something that would crop over the course of such a relationship. While Bookworm did enjoy such a plot thread, they can see how some readers would not be so enthusiastic. Indeed, at times Bookworm did want to get back to the action and not awkward conversations between the pirate and the snake lady. We came here for swords and magic not relationship drama. Thankfully, it is only a single part of a very wide ranging story with plenty of action.

The theme of addiction and its devastating consequences is a central theme to this novel. Drugs crop up fairly frequently in speculative fiction but rarely does addiction. The text is not afraid to confront such things in manner that feels realistic rather than preachy. Major kudos to the author for daring to touch upon such a sensitive issue.

The plot as whole suffers from perhaps a few too many character perspective and plot threads that really makes the story a bit of mess. The author may have a little trouble making up their mind about what kind of story they were meaning to tell. It comes together by the end of the first act but it all comes out as a bit wobbly on its feet. The narrative was struggling to balance the various plot points. While it succeeds in the end, it did not come off as particularly graceful. The characters and action create enough suspense to keep Bookworm engage but at the same time, Bookworm was telling the story to get on with it and wrap up

The Final Verdict: The best part in reading this novel is that it does not require intimate knowledge of the Pathfinder Universe. This novel can stand on its own as action-packed seafaring adventure with colorful characters that anyone can enjoy.

Rating: Four Cutlasses out of Five

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#Pirates #Adventure #HighFantasy # #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

a jaunty pirate tale

this is a wonderful pirate tale. a long con, swashbuckling and dealing with love and betrayal. who could ask for more from.an adventure story.

good characters and world but annoying story

I listened to this based on liking "Pirate's Promise" by the same author set chronologically after this one. If you want an easy to listen to pirate adventure set in the Pathfinder universe I would start there. It summarizes this book neatly before getting it's own story going and you do not have to slog through listening to this.

This one was a struggle. The plot is that this pirate crew is going to pull off an elaborate heist and manipulate their way into a bunch of money. It hinges on the naga character Celeste being able to transform into a human often enough and for long enough to convincingly pretend to be an oppressed slave concubine in the presence of their target and seduce him to the point he is malleable to the pirate crew's ends.
So there is much to do about whether Celeste can convincingly seduce a man, and how she feels about it, and whether or not their target "really" likes her or or is just responding to all the seducing and charm magic and drugs they slip him, and is he truly a good man or not?, and since Celeste's true love is supposed to be Captain Torius Vin how does HE feel about all the seducing and manipulating?

For all that this is a book about pirates it feels more like a cheap romance. The focus was almost totally on the romance with very little action to break things up. Romance is fine when it is done well but for me it was not here. The whole premise of Celeste feeling doubts about seducing the slaver man because maybe he's actually a good guy is infuriating. From the reader perspective the slaver man is obviously a bad dude and Celeste thinking maybe he isn't comes off as extremely naive on her part and completely out of character, especially given what we know of her backstory.

The next book, "Pirate's Promise", manages some of these themes and dynamics far better and in a way that is actually compelling and does not detract from the story. At least the ending of this book wraps everything up in a satisfying way and keeps the experience from being a total annoyance. I would not listen to it more then once though.

John Pruden does a good job narrating again. He adds a little bit of campiness but in an entertaining way.

Great book, just one voice breaking immersion

Loved revisiting this book after a few years.
Although most of voices were well done, the narrator's voice for Captain Vin was less than stellar, making the main character sound unconvincing and forced.
I'm looking forward to check the sequels in Audible.