Winds of Marque Bennett R. Coles (HarperCollins Publishers 9780062820358, $16.99 pb. 368 pp) April 2019.
Bennett R. Coles
is known for his brutally realistic military science fiction. In his Virtues
of War trilogy and a short story in the same universe in the Infinite
Stars anthology, he describes not only hurtling through atmospheric entry
and small group tactics, but also needless intragroup conflict and questionable
civilian casualties.
In Winds of
Marque Cole throws all that aside and just has fun. The ship use sails
whose masts are often in danger of breaking. They use the solar winds to
travel—faster than the speed of light? The main weapons are cannons that use
gunpowder in the vacuum of space. How does the physics of all this work? It
doesn’t. This is a fantasy world in space.
Subcommander Liam
Blackwood is a fearless officer. One might even say he is dashing. He accepts a
commission from the Lords of his empire to be the executive officer on a ship
sent without any support to a distant sector of space. Their mission is to
clear out the pirates who are cutting off supply lines. If they fail, they will be
denounced as mad rogues. But if they succeed, they will be granted prize money
from the cargo they seize from the pirates—enough to make each crew member
rich. He is aided by the hyper-efficient Quartermaster Amelia Virtue. She
happens to fall into his arms when a ship is shaken in an early adventure. We
definitely see where this is going.
Their society is
highly structured. Pampered royals often wreak havoc when in command of ships in
the Imperial Navy. Fortunately Blackwood and Virtue have a competent captain for
their pirate raids, though she is enigmatic and never explains her perplexing
orders to Blackwood. That is her prerogative, but eventually the crew loses
confidence in her. They’re also saddled with a spoiled brat of a royal cadet,
whose sheer obstinacy almost ruins the mission.
The battles are
savage when they board pirate ships. Many of the crew on both sides get cut
down by swordplay. (Blackwood has the only pistol, which only fires four
shots.) Virtue, although a quartermaster, is right there in the swordfights. An
interesting alien race are reptiles that can wield swords with their prehensile
tales, which ends up being a problem for Blackwood.
Fantasy aside,
Coles includes enough pragmatic elements to give the story a realistic feel.
Bottlenecks in the loading of cargo threatens the ship’s ability to leave
incognito, so even Blackwood and the ship’s doctor lend a hand. When asked if
the boarding party is ready, Virtue delays answering while doing a calculation
in her head for rigging the boats for assault and equipping fifteen sailors in
armor and weapons. She says it will take over an hour. With only enough water
left for a one-way trip to a pirate base, the captain gambles that they will
win and find the water to return home. (They don't recycle water. Fantasy, y'know?)
Although Blackwood
is a royal himself, he does not fully understand his society’s unwritten rules.
He and Virtue have a growing affection for each other. Then he gets furious
when he sees her and the royal cadet kissing. Later, Virtue explains
angrily that she had to play along. A royal could rape her and not be punished
for it. This does make their society less likable, but it is somewhat akin to
preferring the British Empire to the pirates they fight.
Fraternization is
frowned on, so Blackwood’s inner conflict is to not let his growing love for
Virtue adversely influence his decisions concerning her and the rest of the
ship. Virtue really doesn’t have much inner turmoil to work through—she mainly
reacts to what happens.
Overall, Winds
of Marque has good tension and intense fight scenes. If one can accept
old-style ship action set in space, the story flows nicely.
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