After a long month on land, all the Pilot Sylbrac wants is to receive his new assignment and take his place on board a ship for the season. As one of the only people with the ability to navigate the treacherous waters of the Inland Sea, he believes himself indispensable, no matter what sort of political enemies he’s made in the Pilots’ Guild. Those beliefs are shattered when he’s blacklisted by a ruthless opponent and left jobless, and purposeless. Things take a bizarre turn for the worse when he’s subsequently kidnapped and pressed into service on board the Eidolon, an unmarked, unregistered, illegal ship crewed by malcontents and the dregs of the taverns. The captain himself is a madman, and the ship supposedly cursed. Their mission is to deliver a mysterious cargo, and it’s almost immediately clear that there are forces who will stop at nothing to prevent the Eidolon from completing its journey.
Sylbrac, now using the name Thorn, undergoes a series of dangerous, even suicidal tasks to help unite a mutinous crew and an insane captain, even as the Eidolon itself escapes destruction time and again. As the journey continues, the mystery of their cargo, of their unknown benefactor and their ruthless enemies, continues to deepen and unfold. A curse threatens to strike down Thorn, even as the Eidolon encounters a ship crewed by renegade Jutras fleeing their own homeland. Can the Crosspointe-loyal sailors of the Eidolon work together with their traditional enemies against an even greater foe? And what amazing, and bizarre secret lies at the heart of Thorn’s experiences?
The Black Ship is nominally a sequel to Diana Pharaoh Francis’ previous book in the Crosspointe saga, The Cipher. However, it features an almost entirely new cast, focusing upon Thorn, a talented, unorthodox Pilot with a dark background and a lot to prove to everyone, including himself. Just as fascinating a newcomer is the Eidolon’s captain, Leighton Plusby, who in an Ahab-like fashion, sails the seas searching for his lost wife even as his sanity and reason slip away steadily. The two men, upon whom an entire crew relies for safety and survival, clash immediately, with their early enmity growing to foolish levels, making for a powerful dynamic. Fleshing out the cast are Blot, Halford, Crabbel and Wragg, a tight-knit group of sailors “lucky” enough to have survived three previous wrecks, earning themselves the title of “charmers.” The nautical version of pariahs, they’re both untouchable and undesirable, bad luck to harm and bad luck to have on board. And in keeping with the nature of the Eidolon, they’re the best crew available, even though their presence brings up all sorts of tension and conflict . . . conflict which could tear the crew apart before the ship even sets sail.
This is a high seas adventure from the get-go, full of adventure and mystery. Francis does an excellent job of setting up a tense, stormy atmosphere and keeping it going for most of the book, as the Eidolon battles curses, sea monsters, deadly storms, pirates, traitors, internal strife, and other such dangers. Francis certainly doesn’t shy away from putting her characters through the ringer; not only is Thorn beat all to Hell and back several times over, but no one else escapes unscathed from this journey. Certainly, the shipboard life is not a safe or cozy one, and Francis balances out that hazardous nature with a sea-spray mystique. The end result is that rare thing: a nautical, semi-piratical fantasy story that really brings the setting to life.
If I had any complaints about The Black Ship, it would be the sheer torture Francis puts Thorn through. One scene is particularly squirm-inducing, and it’s no wonder the character has nightmares afterwards. Thorn pretty much gets the rough end of things from the first page, and it’s a wonder he survives at all, much less with his sanity relatively intact. Nevertheless, he’s a fun character to follow, as are the other crew of the Eidolon and the more peripheral characters that turn up now and again throughout the course of the book. We get to see an explanation of some events from The Cipher from a different viewpoint, and we get to catch up a little with the protagonists of that book, helping to make it clear that while the two books are fairly unconnected, and can be read separately, there’s a much larger story being told. I’m hooked by the Crosspointe saga, and can hardly wait to see just where Diana Pharaoh Francis takes things from here, and who she’ll focus on next. One thing’s certain: it’s bound to be an excellent read.
(Roc, 2008)
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