Having trouble finding a good book, help?

[Lady D. Luffy]

I have really been having a hard time finding a good here recently, anybody know of any that would fit in with the categories below?

- Adventures on the sea. (pirates/sailors)
- NO romance.
- Elements of tragedy. (encountering problems/battles/bad weather)
- Non-fiction or fiction.

Much appreciated ^^.

[MattG]

For your first category I might recommend Wilbur Smith's Courtney series (http://www.wilbursmithbooks.com/books/courtney). I haven't read a few of the earliest ones but certainly starting with Birds of Prey forward they would fit the bill (though there are some naughty bits... not romance focused though).

Good luck!

[OrphanPip]

Mieville's The Scar is about a sea adventure if you don't mind fantasy literature.

[Calidore]

Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk by Rafael Sabatini should fit the bill, except for the non-fiction part. Good movies, too.

[Dark Muse]

The Bounty Trilogy I thought was a wonderful book (or books) about a sea adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

Also Treasure Island is quite good and Kidnapped.

Of course Moby Dick

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is a horror-fantasy that involves an adventure at sea.

For Non-Fiction with tragic elements Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser I thought was a fabulous book, and very engaging.

[PeterL]

I think that yu should read The Ship that Sailed the Time Stream and T Sail the Century Sea buth by AG. C. Edmondson. Taken together they are the best novel of the 20th century.

[kasie]

You may enjoy Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin books, set in the period of the Napoleonic Wars - Master and Commander is the first of the series, in which Jack Aubrey receives the command of his first ship, and though each can be read as an independent book, there is a running narrative concerning the careers, life and loves of the two main characters (not too much sloppy romance, however, these are essentially men of action!).

C S Forrester's Hornblower books cover the same period but I personally rate O'Brien's writing above Forrester's.

Had you not banned Romance, I'd have recommended Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn or Frenchman's Creek - there's Romance and romance, after all.....:smile5:

For non-fiction, Robert K Massie's Dreadnought charts the deadly competition between Britain and Germany for naval supremacy in the years leading up to the First World War.

[Calidore]

Just to second a couple of the above, The Ship that Sailed the Time Stream is excellent, and while I haven't read them, my father is a big fan of Patrick O'Brien's stuff.

[TheChilly]

"Battle Royale" by Koushun Takami. =)

[Zelian]

I must second the notion to read "Battle Royale". Although it may be a somewhat easy read, it is a very captivating novel, with nice character development.

[Whifflingpin]

"The Raven" by Peter Landesman. Sea, weather, tragedy - amazing book

[OrphanPip]

I must second the notion to read "Battle Royale". Although it may be a somewhat easy read, it is a very captivating novel, with nice character development.

The movie is good kitschy fun too.

[marcolfo]

the odyssey.....

[Whifflingpin]

Conrad & Masefield both wrote a number of sea yarns at the end of the age of sail.
Masefield, for example, "Victorious Troy" "The Bird of Dawning" and many others.
Conrad, for example, "The Nigger of the Narcissus" "Lord Jim" and also many others.

Both authors spent sea time before turning to writing, so, although the stories are fiction, their books are truly about the sea & ships of their time, written from experience not from historical research.

Of course, there is Captain Marryat, another seaman turned novelist, about a century earlier than Masefield & Conrad, and, I think, much more dated than either of them.

For true tales, R. Henry Dana's "Two years before the mast" (1840) and Captain Joshua Slocum's "Sailing alone around the world" (1900) are classics, still readily available. Easy to read, in fact "must read."