★★★★☆ An excellent first act for a new series

Pinquickle's Folly

R.A. Salvatore

Pinquickle's Folly: The Buccaneers is the first novel in a new fantasy series by R.A. Salvatore. Therefore it has two jobs: introduce new interesting characters and their world and tell a story about them, and also solve the Act One problem for the series as a whole. I confess that before Pinquickle's Folly I had never read anything by Salvatore. But it was immediately apparent that this was not his first rodeo. Thus, for me, Pinquickle's Folly was an unusual combination of two pleasures: that of recognizing that I had put myself in safe, experienced hands, and that of a new (to me) voice. Pinquickle's Folly takes place in the world of Salvatore's DemonWars Saga -- a useful thing to know if you want to find maps.

The principal characters of Pinquickle's Folly, pictured on the cover, are the Xoconai sailor Quauh (pronounced Coo-wow or Coo-ah) and the powrie sailor Benny McBenoyt. The Xoconai, who consider themselves to be the Master Race or words to that effect, have recently conquered most of this world. They despise others and refer to lesser peoples as "sidhe" -- goblins. Xoconai control of the seas is not complete -- pirates and privateers prey on Xoconai shipping. As an officer in the Xoconai navy, Quauh is responsible for protecting shipping from the sidhe. The Xoconai are more-or-less ordinary humans, although their faces are brightly colored like those of Mandrills. Powrie are not human -- Benny is one of those whom the Xoconai would call a sidhe pirate.

You can already see from the cover that Quauh and Benny become colleagues. How that happens, and how they fight their enemies is the story of Pinquickle's Folly. It's a rousing sea adventure story. It is somewhat conventional, in that the usual elements of ship-handling and sail are there. However, the battles are fought with weapons very different from those you might be familiar with from Horatio Hornblower or Patrick O'Brian -- indeed, weapons technology is an important part of the story.

Pinquickle's Folly was my first R.A. Salvatore novel. It will not be my last.

I thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for an advance reader copy of Pinquickle's Folly: The Buccaneers. This review expresses my honest opinions.

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