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Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune
Long ago, at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy, the infamous pirate Ramsey and his shipmates sacrificed everything to embark on an impossible journey into the Sea of Thieves. In the present day, Larinna, an ambitious stowaway determined to leave her mark on history, joins forces with a wild and adventurous captain seeking the greatest treasure ever buried. Separated by time but united by their drive to uncover the secrets of the Sea of Thieves, both crews will face tricks, traps, and malevolent horrors unleashed from the depths of the sea as each draws nearer to Athena’s Fortune. Take a deep breath and dive into an epic story based on Rare's thrilling shared-world adventure game Sea of Thieves, where aspiring pirates can set sail on exciting voyages. Discover the tales of famously fearsome pirates whose legends endure and whose plunder still lies buried, ready for the taking.
265 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 23, 2018
166 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 7, 2022
Buddy read with my forever favorite captain 😌💖
Sea of Thieves has been one of my most-played games of the past few years, and my favorite aspects of the game have always been the lore and world, so I was excited to read this and learn more about a few characters I was already in love with from the game, Ramsey and Larinna. I think having the story alternate between their perspectives was really clever, especially since the stories weren't exactly linear.
While the writing didn't blow me away and a lot of what happens might feel downright goofy to some readers, I had so much fun spending time in this world and getting to learn more about the history of it! It was fascinating, learning the origins behind so many in-game things, like the gold curse or Athena's loot.
I don't necessarily expect this book to hold much value for anyone who hasn't played the game unless you just really like silly, action-packed books about pirates, but if you're a Sea of Thieves player, I can't recommend this book highly enough and I think any fan of the game will really enjoy Athena's Fortune!
✨ Representation: casual BIPOC and queer representation
✨ Content warnings for:
———
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Sea of Thieves has been one of my most-played games of the past few years, and my favorite aspects of the game have always been the lore and world, so I was excited to read this and learn more about a few characters I was already in love with from the game, Ramsey and Larinna. I think having the story alternate between their perspectives was really clever, especially since the stories weren't exactly linear.
While the writing didn't blow me away and a lot of what happens might feel downright goofy to some readers, I had so much fun spending time in this world and getting to learn more about the history of it! It was fascinating, learning the origins behind so many in-game things, like the gold curse or Athena's loot.
I don't necessarily expect this book to hold much value for anyone who hasn't played the game unless you just really like silly, action-packed books about pirates, but if you're a Sea of Thieves player, I can't recommend this book highly enough and I think any fan of the game will really enjoy Athena's Fortune!
✨ Representation: casual BIPOC and queer representation
✨ Content warnings for:
———
twitter | booktok | bookstagram | blog
December 23, 2021
There is very little to recommend about Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune. The plot was never the strong suit of Sea of Thieves, and instead of usefully expanding the world in exciting directions, it almost serves as a novelization of the poorly-told tale of the game.
The good news is that Athena's Fortune at least fits with what established story there is in the game reasonably well. Alternating chapters between the perspectives of Ramsey and Larinna, characters players could potentially be familiar with, we get to learn the tale of Ramsey's founding of Athena's Fortune and the early history of the Sea of Thieves. We also get Larinna's perspective as a new denizen of the Sea of Thieves with an arc more reminiscent of what players experience.
Ramsey's story is the highlight -- while avoiding spoilers, I'll just note that he becomes important and his story ties in to the comic book series as well. The only good additional lore between the comics and Athena's Fortune is the look at how people journey to the Sea of Thieves and what those first few moments once they arrive are like. We get more of that here, as Ramsey actually starts in the world outside the Sea of Thieves, makes his journey over, and witnesses the birth of the Pirate Lord, Gold Hoarder, and the Sea of Thieves as we know it today. Game mechanics are explained in-universe, and my understanding of the world is a bit richer for having read it. However, I'd wager the story is so insubstantial and poorly told in Sea of Thieves that most players don't know or care who the Pirate Lord and Gold Hoarder are in the game. So your enjoyment will depend on if you've somehow convinced yourself to care about the story.
Unfortunately, Ramsey's story is but half the novel. By itself a 3/5 stars, Larinna's story drags the book down by adding absolutely nothing and making me wonder how she got the sorry lot of standing outside the taverns in the game. She's quite heroic here, and basically speed-runs the Sea of Thieves experience by joining a crew, doing a minor voyage, sparring with some other pirates, and completing the final story mission in the game. Of course, that means you'll get the story spoiled if you read the book first -- and her tale adds nothing if you've already completed the story either.
Outside Ramsey and Larinna (and the Pirate Lord and the Gold Hoarder), no character is even in the slightest bit remarkable. Our two heroes don't do much to endear themselves to the reader either. You just sort of root for them because they're the characters in the game. Nothing especially exciting happens either if you've played the game (you'll have seen and experienced more excitement yourself in your first couple sessions).
In short, Athena's Fortune contains some interesting nuggets of lore and looks at the origins of the Sea of Thieves. But between boring characters and story retreads, there's a general sense that the stories the developers are telling just cannot even come close to comparing with the emergent stories you make yourself with your friends and random other players. It's an impressive physical construction -- the pages are bright and thick and high-quality, notably a step above the typical quality of paperbacks I find -- but that's about the strongest recommendation I can give. If you really care about the story for some reason, I guess you could do worse than Athena's Fortune. But in general, I'd focus on playing the game and having fun messing around rather than getting bogged down in a novel like this.
The good news is that Athena's Fortune at least fits with what established story there is in the game reasonably well. Alternating chapters between the perspectives of Ramsey and Larinna, characters players could potentially be familiar with, we get to learn the tale of Ramsey's founding of Athena's Fortune and the early history of the Sea of Thieves. We also get Larinna's perspective as a new denizen of the Sea of Thieves with an arc more reminiscent of what players experience.
Ramsey's story is the highlight -- while avoiding spoilers, I'll just note that he becomes important and his story ties in to the comic book series as well. The only good additional lore between the comics and Athena's Fortune is the look at how people journey to the Sea of Thieves and what those first few moments once they arrive are like. We get more of that here, as Ramsey actually starts in the world outside the Sea of Thieves, makes his journey over, and witnesses the birth of the Pirate Lord, Gold Hoarder, and the Sea of Thieves as we know it today. Game mechanics are explained in-universe, and my understanding of the world is a bit richer for having read it. However, I'd wager the story is so insubstantial and poorly told in Sea of Thieves that most players don't know or care who the Pirate Lord and Gold Hoarder are in the game. So your enjoyment will depend on if you've somehow convinced yourself to care about the story.
Unfortunately, Ramsey's story is but half the novel. By itself a 3/5 stars, Larinna's story drags the book down by adding absolutely nothing and making me wonder how she got the sorry lot of standing outside the taverns in the game. She's quite heroic here, and basically speed-runs the Sea of Thieves experience by joining a crew, doing a minor voyage, sparring with some other pirates, and completing the final story mission in the game. Of course, that means you'll get the story spoiled if you read the book first -- and her tale adds nothing if you've already completed the story either.
Outside Ramsey and Larinna (and the Pirate Lord and the Gold Hoarder), no character is even in the slightest bit remarkable. Our two heroes don't do much to endear themselves to the reader either. You just sort of root for them because they're the characters in the game. Nothing especially exciting happens either if you've played the game (you'll have seen and experienced more excitement yourself in your first couple sessions).
In short, Athena's Fortune contains some interesting nuggets of lore and looks at the origins of the Sea of Thieves. But between boring characters and story retreads, there's a general sense that the stories the developers are telling just cannot even come close to comparing with the emergent stories you make yourself with your friends and random other players. It's an impressive physical construction -- the pages are bright and thick and high-quality, notably a step above the typical quality of paperbacks I find -- but that's about the strongest recommendation I can give. If you really care about the story for some reason, I guess you could do worse than Athena's Fortune. But in general, I'd focus on playing the game and having fun messing around rather than getting bogged down in a novel like this.
July 5, 2024
Leuk achtergrond verhaal van het spel. Ik denk dat boek wat vaag zou zijn als je het spel nooit gespeeld hebt. Ik heb ervan genoten
April 5, 2022
If your a sea of thieves fan with a high tolerance for cheese and too much spare time this book is for you !
May 31, 2021
2.5 stars. Wasn't aware this was based of a game, just saw it was about pirates and picked it up. Not sure if it was because I'm in a bad mood right now but I didn't enjoy the story. Maybe if I had played the game I would have been more invested in it. Wasn't terrible though, just not my cup of tea.
August 25, 2024
This was a fantastic book filled with lore about the game. I've spent hundreds of hours on the seas, and after reading this, am looking forward to hundreds more. What a tale about the origins of the Sea of Thieves!
June 1, 2023
This book is amazing. Very lore friendly and sets up the universe for when you play the game!
January 29, 2019
Because I have been so much having run playing Sea of Thieves for almost a year now, I enjoyed this book a lot. The game itself doesn't readily present a lot of story but has a vast amount of lore beneath the surface. While this was not the best book ever written by any means, and I don't think anyone that hasn't played the game would really get into it very much, as an avid fan of the game I had a great time diving into the history of the Sea of Thieves world!
December 31, 2022
Eh, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is not a Sea of Thieves fan (like beyond your casual player). Felt like a basic lore retelling, but the writing wasn't intriguing enough for me to care about 90% of the huge cast of characters. It's kind of all over the place as it tries to cover too many aspects of the game at once. It's also insanely cheesy at times, distractingly/laughably so. Probably would not have finished, or at least struggled thoroughly, if it wasn't for the audiobook. Read by Toby Stephens (which for a video game book is pretty cool), who honestly did such a fantastic job that I hope they bring him into a Tall Tale or something in the future. But ngl, his performance felt stronger than the source material, unfortunately.
TL, DR: Best for hardcore SoT people. If you want a pirate book, just go read Treasure Island, it'll be far more satisfying.
TL, DR: Best for hardcore SoT people. If you want a pirate book, just go read Treasure Island, it'll be far more satisfying.
January 23, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. The additional lore that it provides for the game is awesome. I loved learning about The Pirate Lord and his history. Larinna's story was also really cool, because it included a lot of things that happen in game. This made it feel like the character was more similar to a player. At first, I didn't understand why the chapters alternated and contemplated reading each character's story separately, but the ending had a satisfying payoff that made me grateful that I read it in its intended order. I would recommend this book to any one that is a fan of the game, pirates, or adventure stories in general.
March 11, 2022
I loved it so much! I love the game Sea of Thieves. And this gives such insight on some NPC's, on the world and on the basis tall tales. I recomment this to everyone who played the game. Also it's oa. on Spotify where it's read out loud. And there are some comics who are not totally connected to this book but still there are some hints to this book. It starts outside the Sea of Thieves, just as the comics. And gives the feeling of discovering the Sea of Thieves for the first time. And yet, you also already know a lot of it (if you played the game ofcourse).
I really really recomment this book if you played the game!
I really really recomment this book if you played the game!
July 11, 2025
I really wanted to like this one. I liked the sound effects in the audiobook, they were not distracting at all. I even liked the narrator and all their different voices. voices. but after several hours I just didn't care about anything happening in the story. The conflict wasn't clear, their ambition wasn't clear, no one had even mentioned Athena's Fortune thus far in the story. They were just pirates, living their life and thinking about treasure. No major conflict, no motivation. I just couldn't keep going. I guess it's worth mentioning that I never played the game, so maybe that ended up being a bigger deal. It seems like so many other people who did play the games enjoyed this book.
April 26, 2020
I play the game a lot and wanted to know more about the lore of the game. It's mostly open-world, so there are more clues around the islands than actual playable lore parts. Or there were, but now they have tall tale quests you can do that contain lore. A lot of those characters are in this book. Not too bad a story. Not the most eloquent read and seems mostly informative. Some questions were answered and I have a better understanding of just a little bit of the foundation of the Sea of Thieves game.
October 20, 2020
After playing the game it was great to find out more about the lore. However, I felt the last five chapters felt really rushed with a lot going on. If the pace has slowed down slightly out would have been better to explore those areas in greater detail. It felt like it was trying to fit in all the key lore points into a few small chapters.
I would be keen to read more in the series, particularly around the newly chatted areas and more lore around the mer folk.
I would be keen to read more in the series, particularly around the newly chatted areas and more lore around the mer folk.
October 16, 2022
This is a cool pirate story and video game tie-in. It's interesting to learn some history about the "Sea of Thieves," and it's fun to see how certain game elements are included in the story. For example, one of the characters wakes up in a tavern and has a map and note pinned to the seat nearby with a knife. Although the narrator's regular reading voice sometimes had out-of-place pauses and stuff, his character voices were fantastic.
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June 26, 2023Full disclosure: (1) The author is a friend. (2) I haven’t played the game this is based on. Assuming the latter at least partially cancels out the former, I declare this a ripping yarn.
Chris Allcock writes with the relish of a campfire storyteller. Or, in this case, an old captain with a mug of grog and a tale to tell. Every detail is shared with a sailor’s sense of embellishment and a real twinkle in the eye.
Chris Allcock writes with the relish of a campfire storyteller. Or, in this case, an old captain with a mug of grog and a tale to tell. Every detail is shared with a sailor’s sense of embellishment and a real twinkle in the eye.
February 10, 2024
A strange read in 2024, the world painted by the book is no longer the world of the game.
The book came out the same year as the game, and tries to do a few things, it firstly tries to expound the lore of the sea of thieves, but also tell a narrative through a typical Sea of Thieves gameplay session. It succeeds at both of these, by separating the two stories. I must say the Ramsey sections worked far better for me. Still a good read if you’re new to the world though.
The book came out the same year as the game, and tries to do a few things, it firstly tries to expound the lore of the sea of thieves, but also tell a narrative through a typical Sea of Thieves gameplay session. It succeeds at both of these, by separating the two stories. I must say the Ramsey sections worked far better for me. Still a good read if you’re new to the world though.
August 31, 2022
If you play Sea of Thieves this book is worthy of a read for more detail into the back story of some of the main characters you deal with in the game.
Particularly if you are just setting out on your SoT adventure then this gives you a good background of the lore around the area and the history of some of the stories.
Particularly if you are just setting out on your SoT adventure then this gives you a good background of the lore around the area and the history of some of the stories.
September 10, 2023
I don’t usually go for this type of book, but I’ll definitely have to start finding more like it. I got completely engrossed in this story. Every little detail came full circle by the end of the story. It really feels like you’re there with the characters experiencing everything with them. 10/10 would recommend
April 11, 2020
Really nice to be able to know more about the lore of a fantastic game :)
I enjoyed reading the book a lot and after having finished it I went ingame to check all the locations first thing
Recommended to all pirates for sure!
I enjoyed reading the book a lot and after having finished it I went ingame to check all the locations first thing
Recommended to all pirates for sure!
July 7, 2021
As an avid Sea of Thieves player, it was amazing to be able to learn more about the lore and the characters that I see every time I log into the game. After this book, I have a better appreciation for the world and design choices that Rare has made for their game.
September 28, 2022
It was ok. It felt mostly like a book trying to explain the video game mechanics than a true novel set in the Sea of Thieves setting. I was hoping for more of a narrative and less of explaining the game.
January 11, 2023
More of a 2 1/2 rating. Loved the story idea but it was way to confusing with how they did perspective and I wish I could say more but would give away spoilers. Would be better if they split it in two books and gave each of the lead characters their own spotlight
January 25, 2023
I would recommend to read it if you have extra time or new to the game . The book provides a general knowledge on the game lore that you can learn as you play . But it was interesting to read more about some NPC’s and their back stories .
October 3, 2022
Pretty impressive for a fan of the game, but I don't believe this will have much weight for those who have not played.
October 7, 2022
Really good novel about the past and present Sea of Thieves. Set around two pirate crews as they venture into the Sea of Thieves.
March 4, 2023
Very fun book, love the story in it. Based on the characters in the game, with the amazing story behind them en why they ended up there.
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March 27, 2025Audiobook read - loves the sound effects
January 10, 2023
Good easy read, would definitely recommend to anyone who is interested in the backstory of Sea of Thieves.
October 26, 2022
It was written for a game so can be cheesy at times. It does not take a full advantage of the medium it's in. It's still a great read even if you have never heard or played Sea of Thieves
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews