The Buccaneer Coast (Blood, Steel, and Empire Book 1) by James L. Nelson

The Buccaneer Coast (Blood, Steel, and Empire Book 1) Reviews

• 
  Sharon Osburn

  Compelled to be Read
  
  Of course this is a 5 star book as it is written by James L. Nelson and after reading all of the Norseman Saga I can say with no doubt he is genius with his writing skills. I only read this book because I worn down waiting for the next issue of Thorgrim. And I am glad to have read this other creation of his. They are not much different than the Norseman character wise they live only to see more failure and devastation. The main character thinks in his head in both of the sagas I have read and I do like that. As far as this particular book goes I know zero about any boat ship or pirates the West Indies and surrounding lands. So the terminology used regarding ships and places was difficult for me but the cunning liars thieves corrupt government and playing games of powerful men and those struggling for power are easily followed and makes a great story. To the point James L. Nelson's books are addictive. And they are fantastic books!
• 
  Helen Hollick

  As a long-term devotee of James L Nelson (I started with his Biddlecomb and Brethren of the Coast books years ago) I leapt at this new title – and enjoyed the exciting adventure. The characters are believable because they are complex and not predictable. They act, do, think and say things that we as real life people act, do, think and say, (albeit we are not traitors, semi-feral buccaneers or hard-hearted pirates!)
  
  I was immersed into the story from the first paragraph, turning pages on my Kindle into the early hours of the morning needing to turn the light out and go to sleep, but too engrossed to stop.
  
  Chapters take you to different characters and locations, where different things along the same timeline are happening, so from the brewing hurricane about to hit the wild men buccaneer hunters of Hispaniola we are then in the awful confines of below deck aboard a Spanish ship, then ashore after the storm has blown itself out. From there we're aboard a privateer being chased by a Spaniard (only it's more complicated than that...) I didn't find this change of perspective or character POV at all jarring, such is the excitement of Mr Nelson's vivid writing and my absorption into the narrative, although some readers will find it confusing at first - just go with it.
  
  The scenes of the hurricane were awesome (although that seems such a trite word, I cannot think of one more suitable). We get gales and strong winds here in the UK (they can be scary enough, thank you!) but I have never experienced a Caribbean hurricane. The immaculate writing and description on those pages brought the force of such a storm truly alive. The wind tearing up trees or the crew and the ship battling to remain afloat...? Oh my goodness, this was fictional reality as powerful as watching any movie. I’d go as far as saying if you are susceptible to seasickness - keep a bowl handy! And then we were taken to a slightly different area of the Caribbean where there came a sea chase by ships and crews who had weathered the storm. No spoilers but, if you want to know how to handle a ship in a tight spot, and don't particularly care about breathing while reading...
  
  As the reader you are there while the characters are hunting wild pigs, there, reloading your musket as the Spanish prepare to ride you down... there aboard ship, clinging to a stay for dear life... there with the ship flying up into the wind with the crew preparing to tack or wear ship... And that’s only the first few chapters!
  
  As with all Mr Nelson’s books the detail and accuracy is meticulous. I write my own nautical adventure series, but how I wish I could produce an end result as superbly engrossing as Mr Nelson so apparently effortlessly does. (Although unlike me, he does have the advantage of being a real seaman! Mr Nelson sailed aboard the replica HMS Rose – now better known as Surprise, so he knows his ropes. Literally. I've never sailed in anything larger than a small pleasure dinghy.)
  
  I do have one criticism, which many readers/writers, even editors, do not always pick up on. Eyes running around! 'He ran his eyes over the deck' or 'he ran his eyes over her face''... We say this all the time, but written down it conjures a picture of uncontrollable eyeballs. (Ditto 'dropped' his/her head/leg/arm). To use these expressions very occasionally is ignorable, but when they crop up too often it can get noticeable. There were also a few typos, mostly words that would have been easily overlooked. These two things did not spoil the story, but I did notice them.
  
  Aside from that, this novel is how buccaneers, privateers and pirates really were; how life in the West Indies in the 1600s really was. There is violence, treachery, greed and suspense in this novel, as you would expect for such a turbulent period, the years when Spain, England, Portugal, France and the Netherlands were determined to hold the wealth of the Americas and the Caribbean for themselves (and fought each other in order to do so). This was the era preceding the 'Golden' age of piracy, when the world began to change for these wild, rough buccaneer men.
  Mr Nelson recreates it very well indeed.
  
  Originally reviewed for Discovering Diamonds
• 
  Steven Toby

  Author Nelson has written a number of excellent maritime adventures and this is another one deserving of your attention. I think his Viking series is his best work, but he's certainly playing to his strengths in the 17th century as well. He gives us enough information at the beginning that readers understand the strategic situation that has created the Spanish Main as a fertile ground for piracy, and provides us with a cast of characters that's interesting and believable (with the possible exception of the woman who claims to have been Louis XIII's mistress, which is improbable but you never know). The story has all the familiar elements of pirate novels, the democratic structure of the pirate crew, the treasure, a hurricane that sweeps through the Caribbean leaving destruction behind it, the Spanish colonial effort to suppress the foreign interlopers. There is bloodshed of course, mostly hand to hand but sea battles too, and a scary description of shipwreck. There is smuggling, another way to make a living for seamen with a flexible moral sense. But Nelson breathes a freshness into the well trod material. It's much different from "Captain Blood" or "Treasure Island." The action is happening around 1630 and I'm not as familiar with the spritsail topsail and lateen mizzen period as I am with Nelsonian times. So I can't be positive all the naval action is perfectly authentic -- in particular it struck me as improbable that ships of this period could tack so readily -- and it often seemed hard to visualize which tack a ship was on and where the enemy was, but the action was admirably fast and exciting.
  The one sour note in the book is that the author tried to be "politically correct" by, for instance, capitalizing "black" when he meant a man of African extraction. This was a problem because, of course, you couldn't say "African American" of a black person in this period since he was very likely African born, and the black race would never have been capitalized in the period. As late as the 1930's "Negro" wasn't even capitalized in Howard Chappelle's books on sailing ships. There were contemporary terms not only for Africans but for "mixed-race" people -- there were special terms for that in English as late as the 19th century but I'm pretty sure Spanish words would have been used by 17th century pirates. While this is admittedly a thorny issue, on one hand a modern author mustn't use words that are considered racial slurs now, but on the other, capitalizing "Black" brings in divisive modern issues that don't belong in a book about the 17th century, especially one that uses "larboard" instead of "port". Not consistent.
• 
  Alan

  Mr. Nelson has done it again. A great story and great writing. I hated for book to end. I can't wait for the next installment.
• 
  Cindy Vallar

  As far as Spain is concerned, the New World belongs to it, not interlopers from France, the Dutch Republic, or England. To take back what is theirs, a Spanish force attacks the islands of Saint Christopher and Nevis and lanceros hunt boucaniers on the northwest coast of Hispaniola. LeBoeuf and his partner are stalking wild pigs when lanceros pursue them. Le Rongeur, a thief and abhorrent man whose only good qualities are his swiftness and his aim, flees. LeBoeuf expects this to be his last day, yet still he stands his ground and lashes out against his attackers.
  
  A fleet of Spanish galleons and warships near their destination, Santo Domingo. Among their passengers is the new lieutenant governor of Hispaniola, Don Alonso Menéndez de Aviles, and his wife. Her father has the money and power, but Don Alonso knows this will not be for long. Traveling among the other vessels is a French ship laden with a surreptitious cargo and secret papers that will allow him to acquire the wealth and influence that he so desperately craves.
  
  Benjamin Graves is either lucky or unlucky. It has always been so and now seems to be a mix of the two. He has lost the cargo that he stole from his employer, Señor Corregidor, because the Spanish attack Nevis, but being aboard his appropriated vessel, he has eluded the invaders. However, he fails to elude Maja, Corregidor’s henchman, and is now on his way back to Santo Domingo to await a fate worse than death . . . unless he can change his luck, which often happens if given the time to talk his way out of a hopeless situation. Two such opportunities present themselves – Spanish ships in pursuit and, later, pirates – and Benjamin has a plan, if he can get Maja to listen.
  
  Maja is a brute of mixed blood, who keeps his own counsel and follows orders. Like capturing Graves and returning him, the ship, and its cargo to Santo Domingo. The problem is he has two of the three and Señor Corregidor will not be happy. But Maja is also savvy and waits for opportunities to present themselves. Like Graves’s risky schemes to elude their Spanish pursuers and to trick the pirates into making a fatal mistake. He knows that sooner or later he will no longer be just property. He will be free and more powerful than the man who owns him.
  
  The Caribbean is a dangerous place, not only because of the various factions claiming ownership, but also because Mother Nature is an unpredictable force that unleashes her fury when it suits her. A hurricane obliterates LeBoeuf’s way of life, yet leaves behind hope for a new life. The same tempest wreaks havoc on Don Alonso’s plans, almost as much as those who are far more experienced in the ways of the New World do. The storm is the catalyst that propels these four men onto pathways that will eventually collide in wrathful ways that promise to be just as life-altering as the devastating effects of the hurricano.
  
  This is the first book in a new series that brings to life the men who hunted wild pigs, but were forced to become the bane of Spain’s colonial empire. Nelson precisely sets the stage for the titles that follow and he does so in a way that makes the reader antsy for their next rendezvous with the characters. He provides maps and a glossary to assist those unfamiliar with Hispaniola and nautical terms. Adept readers may notice some sentences with missing and wrong words, as well as a few misspellings, but the action and character depth easily overcome these. There are a few words, like prithee, that may catch the reader by surprise, but they help recreate the time period. The constant use of Don Alonso’s full name, or even those of a few other Spaniards, may become tiresome to some readers, but they help establish the necessary pompousness of a character, as well as the strict formality of Spanish society.
  
  The Buccaneer Coast is a tale of hope, betrayal, and the brutal reality of life where the best lessons learned may involve unlikely allies and the best way to survive is to trust no one. Nelson vividly depicts life as boucaniers and skillfully demonstrates a plausible way in which these men became buccaneers. A masterful storyteller, he takes simple scenes and crafts them into spellbinding events that transport readers from the present back to the seventeenth century where they experience individual lives as if they stand side by side with the characters.
  
• 
  William Boyle

  The Buccaneer Coast by James Nelson is a “pirate” story set mostly on the island of Hispaniola, both in Santo Domingo and on the Buccaneer coast in the 17th century. The story is told from the perspective of three major characters whose stories all intertwine at the end, although not all of them ever meet each other. While the three main characters gets a little annoying sometimes, as it messes with the pace and tone of the book in certain sports, I still think that it works.
  
  The three major characters are all very different, with different occupations and backgrounds, as well as nationalities. Lebouf, the principal protagonist is a former French privateer and captain, although his backstory is still relatively untold. Through poor luck and potentially bad choices he became stranded with the other buccaneers on the coast, stuck hunting pigs and smoking their meat. The Spanish lieutenant governor Alvarez is the secondary protagonist, an opportunist trying to build his fortune in the new world, but is unaware of the larger forces at play. And finally Captain Graves, who only comes into the book in the second half, but is an English privateer who has crossed a shadowy figure in Santo Domingo and has been captured for it.
  
  The event that brings all these people together is a terrible hurricane, which upends all of their lives and plans and sets them on a course to collide in the climax of the story, although the climax is not that eventful because there are supposedly more of this series coming out. All three of the protagonists are well written enough, although Graves is by far the worst written and least developed, but he also only had half the page time of the other two.
  
  The plot is fine in my opinion, although the pacing feels of in some parts, with some chapters found a t breakneck speed, with others spending the entire chapter on one afternoon on a beach. The author sets up a lot of things, but only some of them are really built upon, although like I said a sequel is said to be coming.
  
  My favorite part of the book by far is the setting, which is set in the first act of the Golden Age of Piracy, the time of the Buccaneers. But this turned out to only be the second best setting, for I found colonial Santo Domingo with its corrupt government officials and shadowy underworld figures was wonderfully written, making the city feel alive. I feel that it was a missed opportunity not setting the entire story in Santo Domingo, because it was definitely the best written and most interesting setting in the book.
  
  Overall, for fans of adventure and historical novels I would recommend this book, for it is a good story with interesting characters and cool settings, so why not?
• 
  John Popa

  What James Nelson does best in his pirate novels is work with the moral ambiguity of the era to create characters you invest in, yet never completely trust or follow as heroes. The three interlocking stories here all feature characters of dubious character who only follow their own codes of honor. At the same time, though, one can't help but invest in his protagonists and the possibilities that fall into their laps, or, in this case, wash up on shore for them.
  
  Yes, Nelson's passion is nautical fiction and there are certainly moments here where you might come close to drowning in that, but he does keep things moving and the sags are slight. Also, you'll never question what's going on, you just may not need every detail Nelson is willing to provide.
  
  Bring on Book 2!
• 
  Denny Howard

  I hope there’s a book 2 out there or in the process of coming. I enjoyed the read. Great adventures, lots of silliness, cheating husbands, liars galore and all the thieves and pirates you can stomach. Take a large 25-year old man, toss him in as your go-to hero and things get fun, fast especially when you take a deep dive into his head to read his thoughts. Nice twist. His Lady-friend is a gas! She is part-wife, part-lover, part-whatever and all French. Ok, she’s beautiful! Oh yeah this is definitely a swash-buckle of an adventure. Spanish steel included!
• 
  James Gault

  A Ripping Yarn
  
  Taking the reader back in time to the age of freebooters and pirates, this is a nautical yarn I thoroughly enjoyed. If the Caribbean setting, the engaging characters, mainly rogues of one sort or another, and shipboard theme are not enough to fire the blood, then the clever twists and turns of the plot itself should keep one engaged to the end.
• 
  Antón

  I don't regret reading it, but I prefered the "Brethren of the Coast" trilogy and "The only life that mattered" by the same author.
  
  The whole novel works at a sluggish pace, taking much more time than it deserves in making the plot move. In fact I prefered the "Graves and Maja" subplot instead of the main story of the french buccaneer.
  
  I guess I'll read the next one since it promises a very interesting scenario, but this one felt like an over-extended introduction for a better story. All in all, it was original and I enjoyed it.
  
  PD: I liked how the author delves into something that's been barely talked about such as the smuggling and corruption in the spanish colonies, even when the spanish characters are a bit one dimensional. He'd need some assistance when writing in spanish from a native reader. I mean, you can't say "Cristóforo Colombo" (ugh) and then mention the "Plaza de Colón" in the same page.
• 
  Phillip Mclaughlin

  A good Pirate read
  
  Early on in the timeline of Spanish colonization in the Caribbean, English, French, native versus the Dons.
  A good solid read