Pathfinder Tales: "Pirate's Honor" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The "pirates" sub-genre of fantasy fiction isn't everyone's favourite, and it wasn't mine going into Pirate's Honor.  But consider me converted!  Chris Jackson writes one of the very best Pathfinder Tales novels I've read yet, and he does it by establishing a fully-characterised core crew, writing breathtaking action scenes, and showing off hard-earned nautical knowledge to add a dash of realism to the fantastic.  I learned a lot about an aspect of Golarion (its shipping lanes, sea battles, and port towns) that I never paid much attention to before, and I can see the appeal of a campaign involving those aspects of the setting.  This is definitely one to seek out.

SPOILERS

The novel is centered around the exploits of a pirate ship named the Stargazer.  Although its crew are definitely pirates and criminals, they're more of the roguish-scoundrel types than the bloodthirsty "walk the plank" type.  The main crew members are well-drawn and memorable.  Crew members include an inventive gnome quartermaster, a (more traditional) surly orc bosun, and a suspicious new elf first mate.  The core relationship is between Captain Torius, a rakish human, and his navigator/astrologer, a "lunar naga" named Celeste.  A major subplot running throughout the book is the ebb and flow of the pair's relationship, full of love, jealousy, mistrust, and (due the narcotic effects of naga venom) addiction!  It sounds weird, but trust me, it works.

Pirate's Honor isn't just a big episode of The Love Boat, however.  The action scenes are big, bloody, and page-turning exciting, whether they take place on sea or land.  The main plot involves the crew of the Stargazer executing a complicated ruse in order to get revenge on a crimelord named Benrahi Ekhan who set them up to get arrested by the authorities.  I admit I was a bit confused on exactly how the plan was supposed to work, but I didn't worry too much about it because the rest was so enjoyable.  The villain is suitably despicable but not one-dimensional.  Jackson paid close attention to the lore of Golarion, and probably added to it significantly with his description of several locales around the Inner Sea.

I definitely want to read more about the crew of the Stargazer.  Pirate's Honor is one of those fantasy novels that exceed the expectations of RPG-fiction, and become strong books in their own right.