Corsair

by Richard Baker

Book Overview

Cross swords with pirates in New York Times best-selling author Richard Baker's latest adventure When pirates threaten his home, Geran is elected by the city council to track the blood-thirsty pirates... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786953071
• ISBN13: 9780786953073
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Corsair by Richard Baker

Corsair by Richard Baker- This is the second book in the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy. The first being Swordmage and the last book is called Avenger, which is due out in March of 2010. This trilogy is set in the Forgotten Realm universe. Richard Baker has written numerous novels for the Forgotten Realms and others. Some of his notable works in the Realms include; The Last Mythal trilogy (Forsaken House, Farthest Reach, and Final Gate), The Shadow Stone (part of The Adventures series), Easy Betrayals (a book in the Double Diamond Triangle Saga), The City of Ravens (part of The Cities series), and the third book in the War of the Spider Queen series called Condemnation. The story picks back up a few months after the events in Swordmage. We find Geran Hulmaster returning to Hulburg after a visiting his mother. During the journey back, Geran comes across two ships that are beached on the coast. While one ship, a merchant ship, is being searched through by the pirates that took it, Geran notices that they have captured a young woman from the merchant ship and takes the risk to save her. He does and finds out that she was traveling to Hulburg to take control of one of the merchant companies, which her family owns. After returning to Hulburg, the harmach decides to put a stop to the pirates attacking ships that are bond for Hulburg. Geran is to captain the ship to search out the pirates along side with his spellscarred cousin, Kara, the ghostwise halfling, Hamil, and the teifling mage, Sarth. After sailing around the Moonsea, Geran, Hamil, and Sarth find a pirate ship and become part of its crew. During their journey as being pirates, Geran finds out that the High Captain of the corsairs, or pirates, is his disgraced uncle, Kamoth, who tried to take the throne of Hulburg from Geran's other uncle. Slowly the trio finds out the plans the corsairs have with Hulburg and try to stop it. However, back in Hulburg, militia groups are terrorizing the town. But things aren't as they seem with the terrorizing gangs. Can Geran stop the corsairs in there plans and will Hulburg survive another tempt at usurping power? Negatives: 1) Pacing. While this story is better paced than Swordmage, it still feels a little slow at times and to fast at others. There were many chapters that just dragged on for one reason or another. It's really hard to pin down exactly why they felt like the dragged on, they just did. As for the fast paced chapters, they just didn't really flow too well. It felt rushed through, thus making it harder to follow. The scenes in which this is apparent are when the trio are corsairs in order to find out their plans. There were some chapters in which things just progressed to quickly and it felt like there was a lot of things left unsaid and undone. I do have to say that the pacing is still better than Swordmage, but there still was a lot of problems. 2) Sudden Appearances. Where did Sarth and Kara come from? There absolute sudden appearance aboard th

It has short its commings, but i couldn't put it down

I would recommend this book to anyone. It is the sequel to Sword Mage, so you need to read the first book in the trilogy. I will get straight to the point, there is some of the book's plot that makes the main character seemed forced in his emotions towards someone, but i will not say in case you have not read the book. But other than that, i have no criticism. This book reminds me why i love fantasy. It allows the author complete control and ability to weave a story around what makes us human. Of love, life, hatred, mistakes, just all the things that come along with living while allowing us to see briefly a world of incredibly beauty just with our imagination. So if anything i have said struck true to you, i would recommend you read this book.

Avast ye landlubbers!

Unlike most trilogies, Corsair easily stands alone, with several tantalizing hints of what's to come. Geran Hulmaster is faced with a many sided problem, finding his abducted ex-love, some question about that, and her daughter, who have been taken by Lord Kamoth and his son, who Geran drove out of power. Secretly behind the scene several dark elements strive to drive out the Hulmasters of Hulburg and take over control of the city. Thus begins a fast paced chase to strange and hidden places with lots of slam bang action. Geran is torn between the desire to save Mirya and Selsha, and protecting Hulburg. Character development is somewhat static in this book, and you are a bit confused as to Geran and Miryas relationship, but the story moves rapidly and is easily a one sitting read as you ride the waves of magic and good old fashioned sword clanging. I look forward to "Avenger" and expect a satisfying end to a very good story. Richard Baker is always a fun read.

Another solid addition to the Realms

Corsair by Richard Baker is the second novel in the Blades of the Moonsea. The first book is titled Swordmage: Blade of the Moonsea, Book I (Blades of Moonsea) and the third book, scheduled for release sometime in 2010, is titled Avenger. As with the first book this book takes place in the post-Spellplague era. The prologue takes place in the year 1466 with the rest of the novel taking place in the year 1479. As with the first book I was expecting, more hoping actually, to get a little more information on just what the Spellplague is but that never really surfaced. However, upon finishing the book, I think that the lack of Spellplague information was okay. I do find it slightly amusing that there was so much talk about the Spellplague and the new fourth edition rules, and so far I have not really seen that much difference in the novels. Here are my thoughts on this novel. The plot of this book has an almost completely different feel than the first novel. In the first novel the plot seemed rather clichéd and static. However, in this book the plot seemed much more fluid and natural. There were not those forced moments where it was blatantly obvious what was going to happen. Granted, some of the plot points are easily discernable, but not to the point where it is no longer interesting. The main plot revolves around a group of pirates terrorizing merchant ships from Hulberg. Geran Hulmaster is charged with assembling a group to seek out and eliminate the pirates. Of course, things are never as easy as they seem. Along the way there are several subplots that come into play such as; a person from Geran's past that wants nothing more than to see Geran suffer, a mysterious pirate cove, political subterfuge, and of course the requisite love interest. I enjoyed almost every aspect of this plot. It felt much more rich and substantial than the first book, and that's not to say that the first book was bad. This one just seemed to build on the good things of the first book and leave the less than good things behind. The characters in this book, being that it is book two of the series, are largely the same cast as the first book. Familiar characters such as; Geran, Hamil, Sarth, Sergen, Karoth, and several more. The characters were one of my favorite parts of the first novel, and that certainly holds true in this novel as well. Even the secondary characters added great depth to the story such as Narsk and Sorsil. I hated Narsk (in a good way), but I loved Sorsil. Most of the time secondary characters are present for one purpose and when they achieve that they fade away. In this book neither Narsk of Sorsil felt like secondary characters. They felt just as developed and interesting as the other characters, and as a reader I really appreciate that. I had a visceral reaction to both of them and I think that is one of the biggest compliments I can give an author. Almost all of the characters seem real, the dialogue flows well and the characters motives are genui