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Latest Books
How Life Of Pi Teaches You A Life Lesson
Sometimes life is complex. When everything you undertake seems to be failing, it can seem as though your life is failing as well, which leads you to feel quite depressed. In these struggling situations, a book can be your guide to success. A Sea adventure novel, Life of Pi will help you to feel more inspired and prepares to face and handle difficult circumstances.
History of the novel- Life of Pi
Canadian author Yann Martel wrote Life of Pi, which was launched in 2001. It was turned into a feature picture in 2012, under the direction of Ang Lee. The book has 352 pages and belongs to the philosophical fiction category. The book Life of Pi by Yann Martel has three parts and one hundred chapters. The chief characters of the novel are Piscine Molitor Patel (called ‘pi’) and the tiger Richard Parker. The majority of the narrative is devoted to the boy’s adventure in the Pacific Ocean, which he managed to survive with the help of a Bengal tiger.
A short note of the novel
Pi Patel, a zookeeper’s son, is keen on storytelling and has a deep knowledge of animal behavior. When Pi is at the age of sixteen, his family departs India for America on a container ship, together with the zoo animals that will become part of their growing family. The ship got hit by a sudden and violent storm and the ship unfortunately sinks. A hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan, and Richard Parker, a majestic Bengal tiger are Pi’s sole company in the lifeboat. All except Pi had been killed by the tiger by this point, but Pi’s intelligence, cunning, and dread enable him to survive with Richard Parker as a companion for 227 days while they are stranded at sea. When they finally get to the Mexican coast, Richard Parker runs off into the bush and is never seen again.
When Pi is questioned by the higher authorities, they push him to confess the truth because they don’t believe what he claims. After hours of pushing, Pi offers a second narrative that is less magical and more regular, which appears to satisfy the interrogators’ doubts. However, the officers later concede to Pi that his narrative of surviving throughout the lifeboat with the terrific tiger is a better tale.
Message to its readers
The essence of Martel’s novel Life of Pi is the value of personal faith and consciousness in letting up material or worldly ambitions in a rapidly developing global society. The capacity and legal right to envision a better environment for oneself belong to humans. The story is more than just a lesson in imagination, though which states that it should never give up hope and should persevere.
Five Maritime Novels That Will Leave You Speechless
Maritime fictions are always thrilling narratives with a setting on or near the ocean or sea that concentrates on how people interact with the sea, explores sea journeys, and emphasizes seafaring culture. Here are some mind-blowing maritime novels that improve your understanding and empathy on sea adventures.
The North Water
McGuire’s violent and very inventive story published on 2016, grabs like a thriller which sets sail towards the Arctic on a 19th century whaling ship with a killer embarked. Henry drake who is featured as a foul-smelling, and cruel man who is Volunteering, a Yorkshire whaler headed towards the abundant hunting grounds of the arctic region. Patrick Sumner, a former physician with a reputational damage, no funds, and no better choice but to travel as the ship’s doctor on this violent, and unfortunate expedition, is also on deck for the first time.
The Perfect Storm
Junger writes about storm-related heroic rescue in his book The Perfect Storm. Junger conducts interviews with captains of other warships, Coast Guard employees, and the relatives of the deceased in an effort to learn what exactly did happen to the Andrea Gail. In contrast to the grandeur and might of the ocean, the seventy-to-eighty-foot swordfish sailboats appear to be little. Junger talks about gusts that are more than 100 miles per hour and waves that are over hundred feet high. According to him, storms are the most potent occurrence on earth.
Shogun
The Japanese trade monopoly is overthrown by five Dutch ships under the command of an English aircraft piolet named John Blackthorne in the novel. Instead, Lord Toranaga Yoshi uses the pilot as his secret weapon, drawing him into Japanese politics. Shogun keeps readers spellbound as they put themselves in the shoes of the English aircraft piolet by using simple narrative techniques. By the conclusion, the reader has acquired knowledge of Japan while assisting Blackthorne in his struggle for survival.
Deadly straits
The enthralling novel Deadly Straits which was crafted by McDermott is a complex account of terrorist schemes and bad guys. Given that much of the action takes place at sea, there are many technical aspects that will please nautical enthusiasts. The reader feels immersed in the action regardless of where it is taking place thanks to the story’s constant switching between settings and points of view.
Hornblower Series
In a series of engaging ten novels, the author of the novel C.S. Forester fictionalizes the sea war during the Napoleonic era. The books describe Horatio Hornblower’s life existence as a second lieutenant seaman during the treacherous seas of the Battle of France. The exceptional details that occur in these novels serve as a doorway into history for readers. According to observers and critics, C.S. Forrester brought his own distinctiveness to the blending of reality and fiction through this unique series.
Best-Selling Seafaring Adventure Books, You Should Never Miss
The likelihood is that you enjoy the sea or ocean if you are reading this. Or, to put it another way, you adore the ocean and consider yourself a thalassophile. If you identify yourself as a sea lover, you can utilize these novels to deepen your connection to the ocean and increase your appreciation of its beauty and experience.
Pirate Latitudes
Michael Crichton’s Pirate Latitudes, which was rediscovered after the author’s passing, merges pirate conflicts with a 17th-century treasure hunt! The Governor of Jamaica hires Captain Charles Hunter to look for the shipwreck of a galleon that is rumored to be a treasure trove of gold and diamonds. Before returning to Port Royal, Hunter’s crew must cross enemy ships, terrifying cyclones, and even the inevitable Kraken. There, the pirates must still face their greatest obstacle with one another. Will the Captain succeed, or will a slew of betrayals deprive him of his reward?
The Liveship Traders
The ships in this trilogy are built of mystical wood that gives them sentience, elevating the maritime theme to a whole new level. Typically, they pass down through families for several generations, almost ensuring their owners’ prosperity. Althea Vestrit’s liveship, however, is traded off as a cargo vessel for the dreaded slave trade when she reaches adulthood. As she discovers that the Liveships might have independent fates, Althea must assemble a crew to save her ship and battle sea snakes, baby dinosaurs, and slave uprisings.
To the Ends of the Earth
William Golding wrote a trilogy, around the theme of cruelty being common and people spending most of the sea adventure reverting to their most terrible selves. A miniseries based on the trilogy debuted in 2006 and starred Benedict Cumberbatch as the snobbish topmost imbecile Edmund Talbot. Throughout the journey from Britain to Australia, Young Edmund’s novel progressively takes shape as the ship starts to break into pieces and the members of the crew are all shown to be more than they first appear to be. Our hero finally starts to experience the first signs of affection in various parts of his body, including the heart, after much sickness and debate of social mores.
The Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat is based on his real experiences serving in Royal warfare during World War II. This 1951 novel centers on the experiences of the sailors of the HMS Compass Rose, an escorting ship engaged in the Battle of the Atlantic. The book’s chapters each represent a year of warfare, during which the seamen had to carry out their duties while maintaining their spirits despite the constant threat of being torpedoed to pieces by U-boats. More of a harrowing account of brave sacrifice than a nice sailing journey.
Astonishing Nautical Fiction Books of All Time
Nautical fictions are always a thrilling experience for the readers because they interact with the senses differently. These are a few of the greatest historical sailing books ever produced if you appreciate ocean liners and the era of sail.
Captain Blood
The dashing adventure novel Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini is acknowledged to be one of the best written. In this work of classic maritime fiction, the story of Peter Blood, an Irish doctor and former soldier who was falsely imprisoned for treason, is told by the author Sabatini. Blood becomes the most dreaded pirate captain on the Spanish Sea after escaping from the hangman’s noose. This is a wonderful page-turner since it combines Blood’s adventures with an enthralling romance. As a follow-up to this book, the author has written fifteen more stories that are set throughout Blood’s pirate career. The book was adapted into a film featuring the same name by Michael Curtiz in 1935.
Moby Dick
Herman Melville, an American novelist, wrote Moby Dick in the middle of the 19th century. It is recognized as the finest story about the sea ever written. The story of Captain Ahab of the whaler Pequod’s compulsive desire for revenge on Moby Dick, the white sperm whale who sunk his ship and bit off his leg at the knee on a previous whaling trip, is told in the book Moby Dick or The Whale. The book’s first-person narrator, Ishmael, is later revealed to be more of a whaler. The plot of the book has aspects of orthodoxy, retaliation, and the customary activity of ambergris hunting. This masterpiece by Herman Melville shows a struggle between good and evil in addition to being an adventure story.
The Shadow- Line
Joseph Conrad, a Polish-British author, released his brief autobiographical book The Shadow-Line in 1915. One of Conrad’s classics, the book depicts the story of a young, inexperienced sea captain who is at a turning point. The dramatized description of the owner’s experience as a teenage captain is famous for its dual story structure in a mystically haunted ship and provides readers with a subtly suspenseful manner of narration.
The Old Man and the Sea
Legendary American author Ernest Hemingway’s book The Old Man and the Sea describes the long, painful struggle of elderly Cuban fishermen with a massive marlin way out in the Southern Ocean. The author describes the perseverance and resolve of the fisherman, Santiago, in his lone battle in the sea. The book discusses more than just an exciting story; it also addresses human conflict with nature and even conflicts with one’s uncertainties.
Aubrey Maturin series
The Aubrey-Maturin series, a group of more than 20 nautical historical books by British novelist Patrick O’Brian, is another naval tale of the Napoleonic Wars. The novels’ tale takes place in the Royal Marines during the Napoleonic Wars, and they were published during 1969 between 1999. They are frequently hailed as the best historical novels were ever written.
Why Captain Blood is a Mind-Catching Novel?
A skilled Novelist Rafael Sabatini has refined and perfected the storyline of the Novel Captain Blood. If you enjoy ancient romances and sea adventure stories presented in a fast-paced manner with strong character development, you’ll love this narrative.
Rafael Sabatini
Sabatini was a British author of romance, thriller and, adventure books who was born in Italy. Sabatini created a total of 34 novels, eight collections of short stories, six books of non-fiction, several uncollected short tales, and several plays. He always had a separate fanbase for his best-selling Sea adventure novels. Other famous novels like Captain Blood by Sabatini that you can also read are:
- The Sea Hawk
- Scaramouche
Captain Blood- Novel outlook
Sabatini’s enthralling book is packed with color, passion, and excitement. It is a lively tale of the pirate on a grand scale, highlighted by stunning maritime operations, close calls, and broadside hits. Captain Blood is a rollicking classic that first appeared in 1922 and is packed with pirate action, stolen goods, and high-seas adventure. A brave Englishman and a noble doctor Peter Blood, who was imprisoned for nursing an injured rebel, narrowly escapes the hanging during the turbulent era of James II. Blood, who was given a 10-year sentence of enslavement on a Barbados farm, flees from confinement and courageously begins a journey as a pirate, never falling short of his objectives to clear his record and go back to England. Blood gains freedom—displaying his noble character while in flight—and is left with no choice but to embrace the life of a pirate. Although it is a risky and challenging life, Blood is genuine. He does what is required while always upholding an understanding of right and wrong, and he is an honorable pirate, no less.
Themes
The overall theme of Captain Blood is circled under the life of pirates. It is well established in the book that pirates practiced civic control within themselves, electing their commanders, imprisoning mutinous crew members, allocating fair shares of the loot, and devising complex insurance plans to cover injuries sustained. Sabatini puts Blood and his renamed Arabella boat on many adventures. Captain Blood forms relationships with other people, such as his fellow pirate Captains, and even enters the military of the King of France, however, these partnerships fall apart as a result of the crude, brutal, and dishonest behavior of individuals he is compelled to depend on.
Significance
Peter Blood is in charge of his fellow pirates, exercising them with an impressive amount of discipline for pirates, and controlling their most barbaric inclinations. As much as anyone can under the situation, Blood continues to be a respectable, honest, and thoughtful pirate. And because he is so skilled at it, his pals support him. Thus, this book is the most sophisticated literary ruse that plunders the heart of the readers and is a treat for sea lovers.
What Is Nautical Fiction?
Also termed naval fiction, maritime fiction, and naval adventure fiction, nautical fiction is one genre of literature formed around the sea, highlighting nautical culture in the sea environments. People generally turned these novel genres into theater plays, films, and television stories.
British and North American writers mainly followed nautical fiction. Still, over the years, it was a widespread form of literature employed even by novelists of France, Japan, and Scandinavia.
Since this form of literature mainly included men as the main character, the significant features of this genre include fishing, boats, ships, and women passengers. The theme of such novels focused on heroism, masculinity, social hierarchies, and other social and psychological struggles with the sea as the primary environment.
Common themes of nautical fiction
Male centric and heroism
Since male authors wrote most maritime novels, they centered on the male world and male heroism. According to John Peck, the theme of this genre was more socially conservative with high relevance and relation to masculinity.
However, over the years, the primary genre of the literate started to vary from masculinity to sea-centric stories. Over the years, the book also started targeting issues and developments in the naval world, merchant ships, and others.
Women at the sea
The contemporary sea culture flows women as fisheries and commanding offices on naval ships. The early and medieval civilizations were alien to these thoughts. Hence, women on the sea were only characterized as passengers on the ship. However, after the success of the book Adventures of Louisa Baker in 1815, women-centric sea adventure roles drastically improved.
Working class on the sea
In their novels, the 20th century was marked as a great twist in the maritime litreture and introduced the working class. Theater enthusiasts also converted some of these novels into plays that were popular in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Sailors were also introduced to the novel during this time, introducing sailor town with brothels, lodgings, public houses, etc. These helped in catering to the needs of all the sailors living ashore. Some novels also wrote about the families of the sailors and their life experiences on the boat.
Enslaved persons and passenger ships
Many authors introduced the ships of sales and passengers in maritime novels that focused on the adventures of the people on the ship. However, many novelists also wrote about the dark secrets and the involvement of slavery in those times. Therefore, the book was mainly based on the theme of sea and slavery, as it was also a part of a social issue.
Language and style
The main difference between maritime fiction and ordinary fiction lies in the sea and water-body as the backdrop. Since such a genre started gaining immense traction, it is still one of the leading genres in literature, plays, and movies.
Must-read Sea-faring adventure books
Sea-faring adventures are inspiring and death-defying. Suppose you are someone who wants to sail across the sea, experience the numerous adventures and life-threatening situations posed by the mighty ocean, and explore the far-flung destinations, sailing adventure books will be gratifying to read.
If you are someone who cannot afford to go for a sea-faring adventure, you can read these books to get a glimpse of what life in the sea is life is like. Here are the best sea-fairing adventure books that will help you taste all the adventures and phases of sailing life.
Seized: A Sea Captain’s Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World’s Most Troubled Waters by Max Hardberger
This book by Max Hardberger, a ship captain, writer, and adventurer, takes the readers on a real-life journey into the mysterious world of freighters. He takes us to his unique and peculiar life, where he recovers stolen ships for a living.
We can see how desperate the owners are when they hire Max Hardberger to extract the ships that have been seized illegally. Max Hardberger gathers a team of highly skilled sailors to complete the nearly-impossible mission and sail along with his team to the international waters under cover of darkness. This is a high stake mission, where you can even lose your life. If Max or anyone on his team gets caught, they risk imprisonment or death.
Thus, this finely crafted adventure non-fiction takes us through the mysterious world of the multibillion-dollar maritime industry.
The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime history by John S. Sledge
John S. Sledge, through this book, presents a compelling narrative on the tenth largest water body on the face of the planet. This is a book with beautiful illustrations that enables the readers to get an insight into the life of people, ships, and cities that made the history, culture, and heritage of the Gulf so mesmerizing and rich. We can also learn about many significant figures like Francis Drake and Earnest Hemmingway, who have sailed across the Gulf’s waters. Sledge also takes us through the unique and exciting life of people in the Gulf, thus enabling the readers to see and understand what maritime life is like.
Plunge: One Woman’s Pursuit of a Lifeless Ordinary by Liesbet Collaert
If you are women who have always dreamt of leading a nomadic life and exploring the vast adventure of the sea, then Liesbet Collaert’s book is the inspiration you were looking for. From her journey through Mexico and Central America to sailing across the south pacific, this is a wonderful tale that enables us to look at the world from a different perspective. Her nomadic lifestyle will motivate the readers to lead an alternate lifestyle.
Escape from the ordinary by Julie Bradley
This adventure book takes us through the life of two couples who retired early to fulfill their dream of sailing around the world. The story will take us through every adventure the couple faced, like getting caught in the Force 10 storm to escaping from the underwater caverns in the pacific.
The author has given a vivid description of their sail around the world that will inspire everyone to take risks and chase their passion. Read these books to explore and experience the unique and adventurous life in the sea.
Top Must-Read Maritime Novels
Over the years, many fiction writers have run down the path of literature, and many have bent the rules to keep their readers hooked on their writing styles and novels. As a result, every author in the literary field has a unique writing style, attracting different readers over the years.
Among other writing genres, fiction is one genre that rules the world of literacy. Maritime novels, also called Nautical books, deal with interpreting stories about the sea and life on the sea and explaining humans’ different ties with the sea and oceans.
This form of literature is equivalent to the ocean’s vastness and has captured readers from time immemorial.
This article lists the must-read maritime novels that will open different perspectives about the seas and oceans in the readers’ minds.
The Old man and the sea
Ernest Hemingway is an exceptional maritime writer who wrote this book in 1952 to convey the story of an old fisherman for survival in the Gulf Stream.
With Santiago as the main character, the author also digs into the battle between humans with the environment, which is symbolic of fighting with one’s thoughts.
Moby Dick
Moby Dick was written by an American novelist named Herman Melville in 1850. It is also the best book ever written on the relationship of humans with the vast ocean.
Since this book is written in the first-person point of view of the main character Ishmael, it is much more relatable to the readers. More than just being an adventurous book, it talks about the contradiction between good and evil in life!
The North Water
This maritime novel was published in 2016 by Ian McGuire and talks about the incredible adventures of a 19th-century whaling ship that set out to the arctic for whaling and other fishing activities.
The book talks about intense violence, the cruelty of the ocean, and whale-killing, which takes the readers to the cold and brutal waters of the Arctic.
Captain Blood
Apart from being a remarkable maritime novel, this book by Rafael Sabatini is also considered the best book for adventure. The book talks about an Irish physician Peter Blood, who was also once a soldier and sailor.
Shogun
This Japanese novel, written in 1600, talks about an English sailor who was encountered by two people on the sea, which changed his life entirely after his ship was gone ashore in Japan.
The hero’s bravery amidst the troubling waters gives the readers a fresh perspective on life. Despite the complex plot of the book, it is regarded as one of the best-selling maritime books, with a sale of 15 million.