SET THE SEAS ON FIRE
Publisher: Solaris
Release Date: 2007
1808. While Europe burns and the Napoleonic
Wars set the world aflame, the HMS Fortitude patrols the sea
lanes of the South Pacific, harrying the enemies of the British Crown.
The Fortitude’s captain has set his sights on a Spanish galleon
weighted down with a fortune in gold and spices, but Lieutenant
Hieronymus Bonaventure thinks the prize not worth the risk.
When the ship is smashed by storms and driven far into unknown seas, the
galleon and her treasure lost in the tempest, Bonaventure and the rest
of the Fortitude’s crew find themselves aground on an island in
uncharted waters. They soon discover that beneath the island’s veneer of
beauty lurks a dark secret: an ancient evil buried at the living heart
of a volcano.
Sample Chapters available
online.
Praise
When the HMS
Fortitude suffers damage after attacking a Spanish galleon in the
South Pacific, the Captain elects to head south into uncharted
waters in search of habitable land. They come across paradise in the
form of an island inhabited by hospitable natives, but not before
locating the survivors of the Spanish galleon who tell a horrific
tale of another island further south inhabited by monsters. First
Lieutenant Heironymus Bonaventure has always sought a life of
adventure, and his dreams and nightmares are fulfilled in the south
seas. He falls in love with a native woman, and then faces the
demons of the southern island as the Fortitude leaves in search of
the Spanish gold hidden there. Bonaventure, wry and humorous, is an
engaging character, torn between his love for the islander and his
duty to the flag. The novel is an informed discourse on navy life
circa 1800, swordsmanship and the relative qualities of Christianity
and island deism. For much of its length it's a slow-burning
historical novel, with dark undertones, which towards the end
suddenly bursts into understated though effective horror.
Eric Brown, The Guardian
Set the Seas
on Fire is a thoughtful but rip-roaring adventure, combining
Hornblower and Lovecraft with a subtlety certainly not seen in the
‘New Weird’ or other naval stories. The other writing of Roberson’s
that I have read has left me astounded at his control of silences
and muted responses amidst terrifying situations, and Set the Seas
on Fire is certainly in that class. I cannot recommend this book too
highly as an intelligent, readable novel.
Iain Emsley, Interzone
The realistic
detail in setting and character makes it all the easier to suspend
disbelief once the supernatural elements start showing up; you
really care what happens to these people, which is quite a feat. So
if you like fast-paced adventure stories that don't sacrifice
characters on the altar of plot, then you really should be reading
Chris Roberson.
Peggy Hailey,
RevolutionSF
