Fabulous reads – Feminist pirate novel fails to impress

Seafire, Natalie C. Parker, Penguin Random House, ISBN: 9780451481290

CALEDONIA Styx’s entire family was murdered by a bloodthirsty pirate warlord, Aric Athair and his army of soldiers, known as Bullets (all of whom he keeps loyal with an extremely addictive drug called silt).

In search of revenge, she forms an all-female crew whose families were also butchered and/or kidnapped by Aric’s men. Her plan is to hunt him down and kill him, even if that means torching his ships one at a time.

I was so ready for an amazing all-female swashbuckling adventure. However, Seafire, was an all-round disappointment. There were some exciting fighting scenes towards the end but even though Natalie captured a few elements of “girl power” and sisterhood, those were the only boxes the book was barely able to tick.

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I struggled to get into the book. I fell asleep several times while reading it and had to force myself to complete it. I found the writing style bland with very little character development and even less world building. Most of it was guess work.

I assumed, based on the repeated use of hi-tech gear, that the novel was set in a post-apocalyptic era. But Parker never explains any of it. I loved the space pirate feel of it, but felt it needed to be fleshed out.

As for the characters, some were completely unnecessary, while other good characters were simply killed off.

I struggled to connect with Caledonia. For most of the book we are subjected to her guilt and insecurities and, while it is an important part of her character and motivation, it just becomes too much. She comes across as weak, selfish and annoying. A few of her crew members, however, were incredibly endearing, strong, kind, smart and unwaveringly brave and are the sort of characters young women can look up to.

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So much time was wasted building a stereotypical heterosexual love triangle which, in the end, still felt forced. Even more disappointing is that the author only hints at same-sex relationships between the all-female crew members. As if the LGBTG+ community needs any more censoring in the media.

I was also uncomfortable with the overwhelming theme of misandry within the story, and how, at the same time, the male characters were the catalysts to all the events and character development in the story. Seafire had such tremendous potential but it failed to deliver on every aspect that could have made the book great.  

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