Gay Marriage on a Pirate Ship! MATELOTS: RAISED BY WOLVES VOL II
Written: Oct 22 '08 (Updated Sep 24 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well written yarn with gay pirates, scheming nobles, and women problems!
Cons: Homosexual content may offend some.
The Bottom Line: A great historical look at a society romanticized by Hollywood; the truth was much more interesting.
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| talyseon's Full Review: W. A. Hoffman - Raised by Wolves: Matelots |
Matelots: Raised by Wolves Volume Two. By W. A. Hoffman.
In Brethren we met Will and Gaston, an unlikely pair of lovers. Will is the Viscount of Marsdale, heir of the Earl of Dorshire. Gaston is the son of a French Marquis. He is also a physician and quite mad. Will includes duelist among his credentials.
Together, the two men, both damaged by family and society, build a life among the brethren of the coast, as pirates are called. And as the title suggests, they become Matelots.
A matelot (Mate -low) is an interesting custom of the Brethren of the Coast. As the first western democracy in the new world, and the only pure one, the Brethren were very resistant to autocratic control. However, the jealousy inspired in the close quarters of a ship by rivalries in love could not be tolerated, especially between armed men trained to kill. So matelotage evolved. A man's matelot was his partner, and legal heir. If sex was involved, and it almost always was, it was an exclusive relationship. It was a marriage between equals, and had all the protections, rights, and gravitas of that institution.
Will and Gaston have been exploring the boundaries of their mental afflictions, and great progress has been made in exploring the cause, and addressing the treatment of the same. While Gaston is not sane, he is stable, and is learning coping skills as they clumsily unravel the cause and effects of his madness.
Nor is Will entirely sane; brutalized by his cousin who used him sexually while despising his homosexuality, Will discovers that some ghosts won't be laid to rest. And one of those ghosts is women....
Now, out on the ocean, there are no women. A ship is a society of men, and they must rely on each other for all needs, mutual support and protection, camaraderie, and sexual gratification. But a ship does not sail all the time, and in port there are...women.
The Earl of Dorshire is desirous of having heirs; he wants a grandson. And while Will is happily homosexual, Gaston is primarily straight, and he wants children. However, he does not want children of his own; he fears they will be mad like he and his mother. He wants to raise Will's children.
The couple's best friends, Striker and Pete, an up and coming captain, and his beautiful lethal boyfriend, share a similar problem. Pete is gay; he doesn't like women due to cruelty suffered at their hands in childhood. But Striker is basically straight, and longs for children and a relationship where he can be on top.
Things are brought into focus when the pirate group's house is rented from under them. Their housekeeper, Rebecca, has married their lawyer, Theodore, prompting some rearranging of household matters, and contemplation of what their life might be lacking.
The philosophical aspects are rendered moot when it is discovered that Will's father is mailing him a bride. Unwilling to let him control them in this manner, they begin hunting for a local candidate.
And they find one. Miss Christina Vines, daughter of a prominent planter, is educated, headstrong, and unwilling to be treated as chattel. She seems like just the ticket. However, the questions this arrangement would generate are numerous. Would she be willing to marry Will knowing that his heart belongs to Gaston? Would Gaston suffer from jealousy? Would Gaston suffer from lust for the pretty young lady? How will this arrangement be accepted by the Brethren? (Pete won't like it, that much is certain.)
Of particular note is Miss Vines' companion, Agnes. Scrawny, thin and plain, she is also frightfully intelligent and curious. The boys like her, and fold her into their mélange of a family group.
But Miss Vines herself is exactly that, herself. And perhaps her plans do not include being the convenience of a pair of pirates.
The situation is further complicated by two more arrivals; Will's bride to be, and his sister, Sarah.
It seems his cousin Shane hoped to inherit by marrying her, and thus supplanting
Will, but his courtship with Sarah was a subtle as his affair with Will, and Sarah escaped rather than allow it to progress to rape as well. Here, she hopes to find sanctuary. And she does, after a fashion.
His bride to be, Miss Vivian Barclay, daughter of the Earl of Whitlock, and doomed to be referred to as ‘The Damn Bride,' is everything Will and Gaston feared; beautiful, vapid, furious at life and her circumstances. And she drinks. Auspicious, yes?
Nor are the boys' problems confined to the fairer sex. Gaston's position, already tenuous among the brotherhood, has suffered since their lethal encounter with Doucette, Gaston's doctor and jailer, the man who taught him medicine, and tried to lock him away in a sanitarium for loving Will. Widely loved for dispensing excellent medical care, the story of Doucette's death has been twisted and used to tar Gaston's reputation.
So a campaign is in order, and the Will is the schemer to institute it. A lie and a scapegoat are needed, and a duel will set things to rights. However, in preparing, they begin to see the true range of forces against them, and to suspect a hand in setting up the board against them.
With all this, and the normal adventures in planter and pirate politics, and the adventures on the high seas, Will and Gaston's lives certainly are never boring!
The Analysis.
Hoffman's writing style is delightful, and pulls the reader along, which is a good thing, since each book averages 600 pages, and there will be four. Her style is rich in history, without getting bogged down in detail and the dialogue reaches a nice compromise of authenticity and readability.
What really impresses me is her ability to mix action and philosophy; just as your appetite for introspection reaches satiation, suddenly there is a development, and the heroes move on to more energetic pursuits. Just when you are as tired and exhausted as our heroes from all the bloody battle, they go off to lick their wounds and other things; it truly is a perfect mix. Mystery and gossip, and hot steamy sex spice up the mix as well, making sure the reader does not tire.
The intrigues of Gaston's legal status as a Frenchman and a madmen, and Will's need to placate his father to retain his oh so useful title greatly complicate their lives, and enliven the story. It gets very soap operaish at times, but I find myself forgiving them, time and time again.
I was really surprised by this series. I stumbled upon it by accident. I am somewhat leery of gay literature for a few reasons. The really good stuff is usually depressing. Think of the story in Brokeback Mountain. And if you have a story with strong gay characters that does not end in tragedy, it often is the lavender equivalent of a harlequin romance. This book is both gay positive, and worthy literature. I find that so refreshing. Combine its very action oriented theme, and the historical perspective that has so often been glossed over (The Pirates of the Caribbean were the first, truest democracy in the New World, and they were gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide) and you see this saga is a rare gem. Would I compare it with Shogun? Well, no, but I will tell you it is better than most historical fiction.
The homosexual themes are an issue; if you can't handle them, I can't recommend this book. Hoffman handles them with grace and verve, and the sex scenes are fairly frequent and range from truncated mentions of what is going on around them to detailed steamy accounts of Will and Gaston's explorations of the sexual scars they bear. Not much is left to the imagination.
That aside, I highly recommend these books. If you are a gay man, this will make you look at Pirates of the Caribbean in a whole new light.
AHOY, MATEYS! High adventure on the High Seas
Brethren: Raised by Wolves.
Matelots: Raised by Wolves
Treasure: Raised by Wolves
Wolves: Raised by Wolves
Ransom
Cutthroat Island
Swashbuckler
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
The Black Swan
The Wake of the Red Witch
The Sea Hawk
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Recommended:
Yes
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