A Spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither
I finished The Raider today while riding on the ferry to see my grandmother for Thanksgiving. It was pretty good.
The story in this case follows Favian Markham, son of Jehu Markham, who is the brother of Malachi and Joshia Markham. As a recap, that makes him the nephew of Malachi, the hero of the first book, and the cousin of Gabriel, protagonist of the second book. His character lives in the middle ground between Malachi’s brilliance and disdain for societal norms and Gabriel’s fervent faith and great courage — he is a well-adjusted man, serving in the US Navy during the War of 1812. Note that he’s not a privateer this time, which allows the author to go a lot more into the politics and philosophy of the Navy and steer more away from the basic issues of the sailing and privateering that were discussed previously.
I won’ go into the details too much because they’re not incredibly interesting. One reason I enjoy these books is because they’re very realistic — for the most part he describes actual events, merely inserting his fictional characters into them. For example, the book opens with Favian as First Mate to Captain Decatur on the USS United States during its historic battle with the British ship HMS Macedonian. Other parts of the story are more fictionalized, but still utterly realistic — Favian, having been promoted to Captain after the successful battle, is given a small boat to command and sails it into the “Narrow Seas” around England, sinking tens of merchant ships and greatly injuring the British economy. If this really happened or not I don’t know, but it is entirely plausible and thus quite compelling.
I’ve really enjoyed these books and I’d very much recommend them.
I am now reading Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Out of the House of Life, which is about a vampire in ancient Egypt. I do not have high hopes, but it does seem OK so far.