manga: Gentlemen's Alliance Cross Vol 6-7

Alas! Much of my beloved insanity and crack is taking a back seat to the romantic angst!

( spoilers )

Mad Kestrel by Misty Massey

Kestrel is the Quartermaster of a pirate ship. She got the job after exposing a conartist who was cheating the captain at cards, and has been on the run for most of her life. In her world, everyone with any kind of magical ability is taken in by the Danisoban order, and Kestrel has the ability to control the wind. Her happy status quo, however, is shaken when her captain meets a mysterious man named McAvery, who seems to also possess magic. The next thing she knows, her captain has been arrested and McAvery has stolen her ship, and so she gathers her crew and steals another ship, determined to get both back.

Massey seems to gloss over various parts of pirate life and pretty it up, but doesn’t shy away when it’s time to have Kestrel make various decisions. Pirate stories are something I like as an idea, but often not as much in individual application. Probably because so many seem to involve dirty men abducting “uppity” women and teaching them the error of their ways. That, obviously, isn’t the case here. I don’t think the book ever quite lives up to its potential (Lady pirate off to rescue her captain and have adventures!) but it was fun. I liked Kestrel, her captain, and various members of her crew. McAvery, who’s half-trickster, half-rogue, I probably would have crushed on madly as a teen, but am vaguely annoyed by now. That said, due to a part of that well spent, I kept picturing Kestrel and McAvery as looking like Geena Davis and Matthew Modine. I don’t think they’re supposed to, though.

Totally unrelated to the actual content, this book desperately needs a better copy editor. I don’t blame authors for typos and grammar errors in books. I figure that by the time you get the content of a 300-700 page book the way you want it, you aren’t going to notice that you replaced “of” with “if” or forgot to close your quotes. In fact, you’re allowed to not look at it for a couple years. You probably don’t want to until then, anyway. Unless it’s in book form. Which is what copy editors are for! They’re supposed to fix that for you! But this one did not do a good job!