Blackshore

Tales of the Dragon's Bard #2

by Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman

… is where adventure makes port.

Percival Taylor ran away from Eventide. Some say it was because his father threw him out of the house. Others say it was because he was made of fool of by Vestia Cooper. Whatever the reasons, Percival — a young man who by all accounts never did an honest days work in his entire life — has made his way down from the little town of Eventide and to the port of Blackshore to seek his fortune at sea and become the man everyone thinks him incapable of becoming.

Unfortunately, no one will allow him anywhere near a ship — even the impress gangs consistently pass him by — and it looks as though he shall have to find other means to make his name.

His heart is plundered however, by the beautiful — if rather sheltered — Bellisia McQuary. She has mistaken him for a pirate rogue out of one of the Dragon’s Bard tales and is entirely willing to swoon into his arms if he can prove his buccaneer soul.

Percival hires a down-on-their-luck pirate band to help him prove his swash-and-buckle to the girl by faking her abduction and sailing her around the local waters for a while before giving up piracy forever on behalf of her love.

Blackshore is the story of Percival Taylor, his attempts to learn a manly trade at sea and his adventures in a fantasy seaport.

[Description and coverart posted by permission; taken from dragonsbard.com, 28 May 2010.]

Genres: Fantasy

Hardcover

First published April 9, 2013

About the author

NYT Best-selling fantasy authors Tracy Hickman, with his wife Laura, began their journey across the 'Sea of Possibilities' as the creators of 'Dragonlance' and their voyage continues into new areas with the 'Drakis' trilogy, 'Wayne of Gotham', a Batman novel for DC Comics and his 'Dragon's Bard' collector's series . Tracy has over fifty books currently in print in most languages around the world. A record of both Tracy and Laura's DNA currently orbits on the international space station and he is the writer and editor of the first science-fiction movie actually filmed in space. Follow us on Facebook or, of course, right here!

Reviews

[Monnie Biloney · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Swept Up by the Sea: A Romantic Fairy Tale" is this books official name for some strange reason.
A great Sequel to Eventide! DO NOT READ THIS BOOK WITHOUT READING EVENTIDE. This book contains spoilers and many references to Eventide and takes place 3 months after the events of eventide.

THIS is also NOT a romantic Fantasy (Thank God, I was actually a little scared to pick this up).
This is a comedy adventure first and foremost. Romance may be the motivation behind most of the characters actions, but it has nothing to do with the plot.

This is a story about a young man whose like 14 and wants to be a pirate, a bard who wants to get payed for matchmaking, a girl whoes pride is scorned after her fiance diches town, a con-woman trying to make a quick buck and mess around with their ex boyfriend, a man searching for his lover who is a djinni, a woodsman in a toxic relationship with a dryad, and a rich girl who wants a baby boy for a boyfriend.

Did I just list a bunch of characters? yes, yes I did. As the plot of this book is "what are these characters Doing!!?!?"

If you want something similar, I would recommend Durarara, (and Baccano to a lesser extent), a series about characters doing crazy things for love.

[Henning Rothkegel]

Very amusing take on fairytales on the sea.
Everything seems well known, but isn't.

I enjoyed it very much.

[Mark Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thisnisnthe second book in a series. The first was Dragon's Bard and I truly liked it. A gentle book, adventurous but without the usual killing of many books. I expected the same from this. While there was no death again, it was a slower start and build. By the end I was enthralled but had to struggle for the first part. Hence the only three stars

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a fun book but suffers from a scattered beginning and weaker characterization than the previous novel in the series. It rescues itself with a good second half and fun ending, but I still was wishing it was as great as Eventide the entire time I was reading it.