The Nature of a Pirate

The Nature of a Pirate by A.M. Dellamonica, 368 pages

Sophie Hansa has been slowly assembling a forensic science department in the flooded, curiosity-phobic parallel world, or future Earth, or something, discovered in the first book of the Hidden Sea Tales (of which this is the third). But as ships start being sabotaged by an unknown and powerful magical force, her deductive skills and ability to cope with the baffling and alien cultures of the Fleet of Nations are strained. It’s difficult to go into more detail of the plot, as of course there are two books before this. Additionally, this book is quite complex – there are many moving pieces to the plot, and they interlock in surprising and unexpected ways.

Part mystery, part swashbuckling nautical fantasy, part geopolitical power struggle, part exploration of scientific concepts we take for granted that an alternate universe might not, The Nature of a Pirate is a masterfully constructed speculative fiction novel. It’s often frustrating to see a character thrust into a magical world who fails to consider the implications of said magic (yes, this is a bizarrely specific quibble to have, but it pops up more often than one might think), so it’s a nice change to read Sophie’s attempt to bring scientific reasoning to this world so opposed to curiosity, and deal with the issues of cultural relativism she runs into at every turn.