Wizards, pirates, monsters, and gold --- oh my!

With CORSAIR, international best-selling author Chris Bunch departs
from his usual sci-fi themes to revive the pirate adventure genre.
He also skillfully weaves some real human emotion into this action
packed, coming of age tale.

The hero of CORSAIR, Gareth Radnor, has always been something of a
dreamer, longing for adventure. His fantasies are stifled, however,
by the reality of his situation: Gareth is the son of a poor
fisherman in a tiny village of no import. By the time he is a
teen-ager, he has gleaned enough from his father's existence to be
resigned to a life of fishing and going to the alehouse, sure that
he will never even leave his village. And then one terrible day,
everything in Gareth's life is torn to shreds.

The Linyati slavers --- scavengers who wreak havoc amongst the
defenseless --- have been making forays into Gareth's home country
of Ticao, trapping and enslaving any who cross their path. The
Ticao nobility are weak, terrified and refuse to do anything to
aide the country people. Of course, no one in Gareth's village gave
two thoughts to the war. They were so isolated that the villagers
assumed the Linyati would not even bother raiding them. Then on
that fateful day, returning home from fishing, Gareth is faced with
chaos, destruction, and the stench of blood. The Linyati had raided
his village and murdered many villagers, his parents among them.
Gareth's once playful dreams of adventure become true, and he sets
off to The Capital City, seeking vengeance, his uncle, and the
start of a new life.    

Gareth cannot help being a teenager, however, and his uncle is not
happy with his unruliness. A particularly devious prank leaves
Gareth in deep trouble and on the bad side of one of the lords of
Ticao. The boy must flee his home for the second time, this time
for good, stowing away on a merchant ship. In short order, due to
his fishing and sailing experience with his father, Gareth works
his way from being a mere deck hand to a purser.

When Gareth discovers he is working for a ship that surreptitiously
aids the Linyati slavers, he finally sees a chance for revenge.
Gareth enlists his boyhood friends Knoll, Thom, and novice sorcerer
Labala to take control of the ship, raise the black flag and sail
on to the open sea. And so as commander of the sturdy Steadfast,
Gareth carves a reputation as the most noble and assiduous of
pirates, with a motley crew of other witty captains, gold-thirsty
sailors, and vengeful ex-slaves. Never losing his thirst for
Linyati blood, seeking vengeance for the death of his family,
Gareth's adventures at sea are only beginning...

Chris Bunch's CORSAIR, a novel full of easy to love protagonists
and fast paced writing is a must read for fans of Terry Brooks and
J. R. R. Tolkien. Bunch's tireless pace creates a novel so thrill
packed it is hard to put down. The action sequences are full of fun
and adventure; the anticipation held by the characters is equally
felt by the reader. It is definitely a mystical sensation. With
CORSAIR, Bunch has opened an exciting world for fantasy novices and
created an engrossing world for those more familiar with the
genre.

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