Sea WitchHelen Hollick
Sea Witch Chronicles, Vol. 1
If you like Jack Sparrow, you will love Jesamiah Acorne. Jesamiah is the hero of the "Sea Witch" series by author Helen Hollick, including the first volume, Sea Witch. It is a combination of adventure, fantasy and thoughtful historical fiction. I will say right now that I thoroughly enjoyed this pirate story with a healthy dose of romance with a "white' witch. Hollick knew when she sent it to me that I don't care much for fantasy novels, but there is enough good sense to her witchy character, Tiola, to make me happy. Hollick knows her Pagan traditions, as do I, so I am pleased with how it s amplified in Sea Witch.
Jesamiah Acorne is a pirate who wears blue ribbons in his hair and an acorn earring. He is dashing, courageous, funny, sexy as hell, and all that good stuff. Since he was a young boy he's known without entirely knowing it that there was someone out there that was protecting and comforting him through abuse from an older brother and life on the edge as a pirate. That person is Tiola, a hereditary white witch of the pagan variety who is growing into her craft. Jesssamiah is her soul mate and she is his. They finally meet, fall in love, and then are ill-used by those who are supposed to care for them and separate, told that each no longer wants the other. In the meantime, those supposed loved ones, his brother and her husband, decide Jesamiah needs to dance with Jack Catch, i.e. hang for being a pirate. It is only Tiola who can prevent it.
One thing I respected about this charming novel is that although the pirate and the healer are aware of the disconnect between their core values, it never disintegrates into the sory of preachy modern sensibilities that have infested historical fiction. The two come to accept each other as they are, the only way they really can be together. Sometimes you just have to choose whether your principles or that other precious soul is more important to you. Together this loving and passionate couple make a great team, he being a terrific seaman and she being able to call up the wind. Underlying it all, quite literally, is the spirit of the sea who wants Jesamiah. hey, who doesn't?
Child sexual abuse is a theme here, and that is part of why Jesamiah is so much a better character than other well known rollicking piracy committing rogues. He has depth. he has terrible memories, loneliness, a desire to be free and yet loved, and a real zest for life that is entirely credible. Tiola is the pwerful woman in a world where women cannot be powerful, who breaks free of those limitations to be with her beloved. They are each other's healer from childhood betrayal, and Hollick handles it all with sensitivity and respect.
The history is there, along with historical gifures as characters, but there is no pretense that honorable, happy, bathed pirates were commonplace. Hollick conscientiously cites any deviations from Eeal History in an author's note.
The author sent me a digital copy of the novel for my review and because she wanted me to meet Jesamiah. It is only available in paperback, but I know Hollick is working on finding a way to make it accessible.
Sea Witch is a wondrful caper, a delightful boyage that you hope will never end.
Thank you Nan, I feel honoured to receive such a thoughtful and intelligent review. I primarily wrote Sea Witch for fun, it was meant to have been a one-off amusement, but Jesamiah (and Tiola) came so vividly to life that I had no choice but to carry on and write a series. What is so compelling (and awesome) is that both of them, even here at the start of writing Voyage Four, are still revealing themselves to me.
ReplyDeleteA good friend of mine said she thought Sea Witch was my best novel. I asked her why.
"Because you wrote it with 100% love for your two main characters."
I can't argue with that.
That's an aspect of writing fiction that has captivated me utterly. I had more idea than some of how characters take on a life of their own, since my own first novel is based on characters I have written and known since I was 12. I want to write about this strange and wonderful dimension they settle and reside in where they are in, in fact, alive. Look for this on http://nanhawthorne.blogspot.com soon.
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