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    The Pyrates
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    The Pyrates
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    The Pyrates
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Pyrates

    Written by George MacDonald Fraser

    Narrated by Mike Grady

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    Now available in ebook format, ‘The Pyrates’ is a swashbuckling romp of a novel.

    The Pyrates is all the swashbucklers that ever were, rolled into one great Technicoloured pantomime – tall ships and desert islands, impossibly gallant adventurers and glamorous heroines, buried treasure and Black Spots, devilish Dons and ghastly dungeons, plots, duels, escapes, savage rituals, tender romance and steaming passion, all to the accompaniment of ringing steel, thunderous broadsides, sweeping film music, and the sound of cursing extras falling in the water and exchanging period dialogue. Even Hollywood buccaneers were never like this.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 27, 2015
    ISBN9780008113216
    Unavailable
    The Pyrates
    Author

    George MacDonald Fraser

    The author of the famous ‘Flashman Papers’ and the ‘Private McAuslan’ stories, George MacDonald Fraser has worked on newspapers in Britain and Canada. In addition to his novels he has also written numeous films, most notably ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘The Four Musketeers’, and the James Bond film, ‘Octopussy’. George Macdonald Fraser died in January 2008 at the age of 82.

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    Reviews for The Pyrates

    3.5/5

    9 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A deliberately pseudo-historical novel -- set, as the blurb says, "in the seventeenth century sort of" --adventures intended as a broad parody of Sabatini's pirate novels and the like. The opening is wonderful but somehow the rest is not as much fun as I hoped.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Anyone who has read Fraser’s Flashman series can’t help but relish the prospect of his taking on the pirate genre. Nor does Fraser disappoint. Armed with a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge* of all things piratical – and I do mean all things: real pirate lore, Hollywood pirates, literary pirates, Disney pirates, etc. – Fraser concocts a frothy, hilarious parody of the whole pirate genre. (* By the way, “encyclopedic knowledge” isn’t a hyperbole in this case: Fraser helpfully includes an extensive bibliography at the end of the tale.)In this version, our impossibly perfect hero, Captain Avery*, finds himself pitted against not one but seven pirates, each a burlesque of one or more familiar/beloved pirate archetypes (Captain Blood = dashing but entirely untrustworthy rogue; Firebeard = William “Blackbeard” Teach; Calico Jack= Captain Blood, Happy Dan Pew=Captain Hook, etc.) . As the action plunges from England to Tortuga, from Octopus Island to Madagascar, Fraser stitches together a tale that includes all the prerequisites of the genre – sea battles, swordfights, beautiful damsels in distress, dastardly Spanish dons, deserted islands, rum, treasure, dungeons, torture, wenches, rum, mutinies, swashing, buckling, a plentitude of pirate patois … and did I mention rum? - the satire unashamedly broad and self-aware without ever lapsing into disrespect. (*”In short, Captain Avery was the young Errol Flynn, only more so, with a dash of Power and Redford thrown in; the answer to a maiden’s prayer, and between ourselves, rather a pain in the neck. For besides being gorgeous, he had a starred First from Oxford, could do the hundred in evens, played the guitar to admiration, helped old women across the street, kept his finger-nails clean, said his prayers, read Virgil and Aristophanes for fun, and generally made the Admirable Crichton look like an illiterate slob. However, he is vital if you are to get the customers in …” – a description that should give you an idea both of Captain Avery and Fraser’s narrative style.)Perhaps this ground has been trodden before (Pirates of the Caribbean comes to mind), but never – to my mind - so thoroughly or with so much wit. This is one of those lampoons that, rather than making you embarrassed for enjoying the somewhat dubious source material, invites you to celebrate every beloved caricature, hyperbole and extreme. A great read anytime but perfect for the beach: arm yourself with a tankard of ale, deploy your beach chair in a shady spot, and prepare to be thoroughly entertained!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      "The Pyrates" is a sassy and loving sendup of pretty much every old swashbuckling movie and novel ever made or written. The author clearly knows his background material and enjoys making fun of it, too. Aye, but don't worry, me hearties. There be as much buckling of swash and there be laughs and you may lay to that. So thrill with us now to the tale of Long Ben Avery, Lady Vanity, the dashing, but wicked Tom Blood, the pirate queen Black Sheba and a shipload of daring cutthroats as ever sailed the Seven Seas.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Wirklich lustige Hörbuch-Umsetzung des Buchs.
    • 2/5
      I really wanted to like this book. The idea of a humorous pirate story appeal to me. Sadly, the humor didn't lang and the actual story was too referential and the characters a little too on-the-nose for my tastes.
    • 4/5
      A rip-roaring pyratical romp. I enjoyed every minute of this book, daft as it was.Good escapist fun.
    • 2/5
      George MacDonald Fraser disappointed me with this effort. There just was no one to be appalled by, or root for. Sorry George, I agreed when you left this sub-genre and never returned.