Week 4 - Blood and Brine by Greg Cox

[Foxy]

Hello all, here we are at another week of the Tales short stories. Are you ready to read about a Slayer who is also a pirate? Arr!

Out of the 4 we have read so far which one do like the most?
Did you like the story?
How did you feel about the 'pirate speech' in the short story?

Fun fact: Greg Cox is a seasoned TV show turned book writer with novelisations of Xena, Star Trek, Daredevil and Farscape under his belt! He is a devout Buffy fan too!

Where is Xander with his eye patch when you need him? Go forth and discuss!

Note: Did you all miss the thread for week 3 Abmonination or were you too busy? If I am going too fast with once a week please let me know!

 

[Priceless]

Note: Did you all miss the thread for week 3 Abmonination or were you too busy? If I am going too fast with once a week please let me know!

Yes I missed it. I shall try to read both and comment on both this week

 

[Last Watcher]

I actually really enjoyed this one. It was quite well written, ok the 'Pirate Speak' was a little over the top at times, but that didn't detract from the overall feel of the piece.
Although I guessed quite early on what the big nasty was the tension was kept up till the end & was not overdone.
The author had obviously done his research on all the nautical terms. My Father & Brother both served in the Royal Navy so I grew up with nautical references, and they
all seemed pretty accurate to me......

What remained of her crew were going to be very rich pirates

Certainly my favourite story so far!

 

[Priceless]

Finally finished this one and quite enjoyed it, though Abomination is still my favourite.

Like @Last Watcher I thought the pirate-speak was a bit much, but I think the writers made a definite stylistic choice and ran with it. I'm not usually a fan of pirate stories, so I wasn't looking forward to this, but was pleasantly surprised at how fun and readable it was.

It was clever of the writers to use the name William Pratt, that grabbed my attention straight away and probably made me like it more than I otherwise would. My headcanon was telling me this had to be Spike's ancestor and he was a Watcher, which was really intriguing.

The Slayer was quite engaging, but I didn't believe she'd be Captain of a ship, not because of her sex, but because of her age. I imagined her quite young, but can't remember if they mention her age in the story?

The story was fun, but thin. My favourite part was the arm chopping. I thought that had real shock value and wasn't expecting it. I was also happy that she finally felt confident and supported enought to reveal to her crew who she really was

 

[Foxy]

I actually really enjoyed this one. It was quite well written, ok the 'Pirate Speak' was a little over the top at times, but that didn't detract from the overall feel of the piece.
Although I guessed quite early on what the big nasty was the tension was kept up till the end & was not overdone.
The author had obviously done his research on all the nautical terms. My Father & Brother both served in the Royal Navy so I grew up with nautical references, and they
all seemed pretty accurate to me......

What remained of her crew were going to be very rich pirates

Certainly my favourite story so far!

I found the pirate speak to get increasingly less throughout the story. I also noticed it less I think.

I loved the Spanish woman and the mild nod to the hell mouth. Before I realised it was the Kraken I thought it might have been a Hellmouth.

Who was your favourite character in this story?
 

Finally finished this one and quite enjoyed it, though Abomination is still my favourite.

Like @Last Watcher I thought the pirate-speak was a bit much, but I think the writers made a definite stylistic choice and ran with it. I'm not usually a fan of pirate stories, so I wasn't looking forward to this, but was pleasantly surprised at how fun and readable it was.

It was clever of the writers to use the name William Pratt, that grabbed my attention straight away and probably made me like it more than I otherwise would. My headcanon was telling me this had to be Spike's ancestor and he was a Watcher, which was really intriguing.

The Slayer was quite engaging, but I didn't believe she'd be Captain of a ship, not because of her sex, but because of her age. I imagined her quite young, but can't remember if they mention her age in the story?

The story was fun, but thin. My favourite part was the arm chopping. I thought that had real shock value and wasn't expecting it. I was also happy that she finally felt confident and supported enought to reveal to her crew who she really was

I noticed the reference as well and pictured Spike in the watcher outfit. Randy Giles!

I got the feeling she was in her late 20s but a person with superpowers could beat most leadership battles I imagine.

I loved the arm chopping bit and wished that we could have gotten a bit more depth. I would have liked to see a bit more moral debate about leaving the crew to die or not. I love morally ambiguous stuff anyway!

The reveal was cheesy but the story did leave me wanting more!

 

[Mylie]

This is my least favorite story so far.

I found most of it unoriginal and uninspired. It felt more like Pirates of the Caribbean than Buffy. There also wasn't enough about slayer mythology for my taste and the ending gave me second hand embarrassment.

Oh and how did the dead captain end up in the cave of the ship? That just didn't make sense to me.

 

[TarasBoyfriend]

The story wasn’t as good as the others, in my opinion. I felt it was predictable. As soon as the golden effigy was mentioned, I knew that it was what had killed the crew of the El Dorado. When the crew split and took a large portion of the treasure I immediately thought of the effigy. I also agree with @Last Watcher that the nautical terminology was a bit distracting. I know nothing of boats or sailing.

I did, however, like Captain Rob herself. She seemed to have more of a distinctive personality than the slayers of the previous stories (excluding Buffy). I hadn’t really thought of a slayer having to disguise herself as a male before. I guess that would have been more likely in the past. I was happy when she dropped the facade and was accepted. That was a nice resolution to the story.