Corsair - Tim Severin

*** - With a name like Corsair and the cover image, I was expecting there to be more nautical adventure. The premise was interesting, but when it comes right down to it, I thought the characterization was pretty shallow.

In 1677, Hector Lynch is abducted from a small Irish village by Barbary pirates. He is taken back to the Barbary Coast where he is soon sold as a slave at auction. But intelligent young Hector is irrepressible - and lucky in his friends, including the Miskito Indian Dan. He soon becomes indispensable to his seafaring master Turgut Reis. After converting to Islam, the ship Hector is on is captured - and Hector once again enters a life of servitude onboard a French galley.

The novel reads more like an adventure novel than the historicals I usually read - something more along the lines of The Rosetta Key or maybe Louis L'Amour's The Walking Drum. But despite the more adventurous tone, there was remarkably little time spent in actual adventures. I just didn't ever feel like Hector was in peril.

This pretty much tracks with the rest of the novel. Although Hector goes through some difficult experiences - including the loss of his sister which is meant to drive the novel - there is never much emotional depth in the narrative. The entire story seems relatively superficial, and that combined with the lack of perilous action scenes means that Corsair isn't a very engrossing read. It wasn't boring, but it didn't have me reaching for it after I had put it down, either.

I liked the unusual setting - I haven't read much about the Barbary Coast, especially not during that period. There was some very interesting history (both events and different customs) in this novel, but I'm not sure I'll be reading the others in the series.

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