The Brethren Prince

The only thing tragic about this book is it isn't part of a series! I purchased The Brethren Prince to accompany me on my Caribbean Cruise, because I wanted to read about the history of Hispaniola and Jamaica during the age of the buccaneers while I travelled through these exotic locals. It turns out The Brethren Prince was the best part of the cruise!

I began reading right as we were passing through The Windward Passage, which, amazingly, is where the novel begins (well, almost). And from that first scene, I was stuck on it. Yes, I angered my wife by not attending Kareoki night, staying up late on the balcony to read, bringing back junk food so I could keep reading, etc. The Brethren Prince is a long book, but I finished it very quickly, which was a good thing, because everytime we passed by an island upon which James Ketcham had his adventures, I felt like if I stated hard enough, I could see him back through the centuries. That's how vivid this book was in my mind.

So convincing was it, with all of the historical events and historical figures, that I honestly couldn't tell whether James Ketcham was a real historical figure or not. I was sad to learn that he was not, but fascinated to find out that just about everything else in the novel did! There are so many amazing things in this book about piracy in the Caribbean. So many things that all of the Hollywood piracy stories completely miss. The extreme hardships. Their bloodthirst. Their immense religiosity.

Anyway, I highly recommend this novel!

The Bretheren Prince was fun and well paced. I recommend it to anyone that likes history and adventure.

I'll tell you right off the bat, I have an ax to grind. Every time I see pirates depicted in popular movies and literature, I roll my eyes. It's always the same silly, immensely ahistorical trope. All we ever see is a bunch of fun loving adventurers that go "arrr!" Yet I always thought that the history behind pirates in the Caribbean must be so much richer than that. I remember watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and, while Dep was always entertaining, I couldn't help but notice that there was one really important aspect that was missing from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies: actual piracy.

However, The Brethren Prince corrects everything about all the cheesy pirate movies and pirate novels that exist on the market today. The novel takes place during the era of piracy that CREATED our modern day piracy pop culture. Tortuga and Bucanneers and Spanish gold: The Brethren Prince shows you how it all really happened. This novel does not romanticize the barbarity and grueling conditions of life in the Caribbean, though. I even did some rather exhaustive research after I got done reading the novel and it was pretty much dead on. Believe me, piracy in the Caribbean was far messier and nastier than you can imagine. By today's standards, there were no "good guys" back then, neither the pirates nor the Spanish whom they attacked and robbed. There was only shades of villainy. The Brethren Prince captures this reality very well and isn't afraid to show us the ugly side of human nature.

The author does a really good job of integrating history with plot, too. He doesn't linger too long on tedeous descriptions, but feeds it to us as we go. The story follows a young boy, James Ketchem, who is stolen away from England and sold into slavery in the Caribbean. He ends up in the hands of the original Bucanneers, back when they were humble hunters on the island of Hispaniola. When the Bucanneers resort to piracy, we get to see these historical events unfold through the eyes of James Ketchem. We get to see the daring raids, battles at sea, historical figures like Henry Morgan, etc. We even get to see a lot of the things that went on with the Spanish side, like the Spanish inquisition in the Caribbean. We also get a close glimpse of all the details about pirates of the day that popular literature rarely examines. We get to see their violent dispositions. Their peculiar democracy. Their profound religiosness.

I'm really looking forward to reading this book again one day. I hope the author has another on the way. If you are looking at a great historical fiction, adventure novel about pirates, The Brethren Prince is the real deal.