Sailing by Orion's Star
In the 18th century West Indies, stories hold the ultimate power. Sailors spin yarns about pirates. Newspapers tell tales full of half-truths. Myths spread like whispered wildfire. East India Company sailor Nicholas Jerome has no patience for pirates, determined to leave his father's thieving past behind. After a convict and an enslaved woman escape his grasp with the aid of an aristocrat's mysterious wife, he faces one last chance to save his career. Finding an unexpected home with a new crew, he gains a chosen younger brother in René Delacroix, the son of his wealthy captain and the grandson of Jamaica's cruel governor. But there's a storm brewing in the Delacroix household. For René and his best friend Frantz, the Robin Hood tales about legendary pirate Ajani Danso and his famed female quartermaster are a lifeline amidst the governor's abuse. Danso robs greedy merchants, frees slaves, and shelters queer sailors, inspiring the downtrodden across the New World. When death and betrayal shatter the lives they knew, René and Jerome each face a choice: obey, or rebel. A war for history's favor begins, and as an uprising against colonialism erupts on the ocean, everyone must choose a story to believe in. Sailing by Orion's Star is the origin story of the Constellation Trilogy, a familial epic spanning from 1695 to 1718. The trilogy pulls on the hidden threads of the past and uncovers the truth behind who pirates really were--people of color, poor sailors, desperate runaways, women, and queer people--an army of all nations who dared to fight for a better world.
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2 primary books#1 in The Constellation Trilogy
The Constellation Trilogy is a 2-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 2022 with contributions by Katie Crabb.
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This was an intriguing debut novel and a really good read. I especially enjoyed the way stories were woven throughout the narrative — René's collection of sailor's tales, Jerome's interest in Greek mythology, the various native and African mythologies given presence throughout. Stories as inspiration and hope things can change are a major theme throughout, and it's good to see the wealth of different tales that play a part, there. The secondary plot — that of Danso and Abeni and their growing pirate legend — serves as yet another story for René and Frantz, if one that turns out to be true, and the way the thread is woven in with the Interludes and references (with a few key crossing streams), is well done before they come together in the last few chapters.
It does feel like a setup volume, but as the first book in a trilogy that's somewhat expected. There are two things I want to note. One is an addendum to a content warning: the only racial slur in text is the one towards the Romani people. There are some narrative reasons this might be the case, but it stands out as others are skirted around or implied by the narrative so it's something some readers will want to be aware of. The other is some of the dialogue. Some of it is a little clunky and expository in contrast to some really beautiful narration, and while it's mostly written in a style that suits a historical narrative occasionally a really modern turn of phrase would appear and jolt me momentarily out of the narrative (one of them in an otherwise really tense scene).
This didn't really tarnish my enjoyment of the story, though, and a lot of the descriptive passages really are gorgeously written. I've fallen in love with a lot of the characters and I'm really looking forward to diving into the other two books!