CSFF Blog Tour – Blaggard’s Moon

Christian publisher Harvest House must be pleased with George Bryan Polivka’s latest pirate fantasy—this month’s CSFF Blog Tour feature, Blaggard’s Moon. Starting with this great cover, the book promises an adventure story set in a mythical world that will captivate readers.

Billed as a prequel to Polivka’s excellent Trophy Chase Trilogy, Blaggard’s Moon does what few books even attempt. It portrays pirates like pirates, without softening or “graying” their sinful ways, and it portrays God like God, without softening or glossing His righteous character. In that regard alone, this book is masterful.

I’ll be frank. I’m not a great fan of pirate stories. I’m not sure why. Perhaps they feel predictable. After all, I’ve been to Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride time and again. I’ve read Treasure Island with Long John Silver. I’ve seen comics and cartoons and stories aplenty with pirate characters. Peter Pan comes to mind, with Captain Hook. Characters like Blackbeard and Black Bart come to mind. Plays like Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and theme restaurants like the Jolly Roger have popularized the pirate stereotype. Most recently, Jack Sparrow has added to pirate lore.

It adds up to make the pirate scenario feel predictable, but Polivka takes the familiar and makes it distinct. Blaggard’s Moon is anything but a warmed over version of an old story.

For one thing, the fantasy elements, existent in the form of fantasy creatures, add an unexpected twist. For another, Polivka paints all the characters with unique voices. He makes them believable—some terrifyingly cold-hearted, some poignantly naive, some understandably compliant.

In addition, Polivka tells this story in a most unique way. In structure, it reminds me a little of To Kill a Mockingbird. The fundamental story is told as a memory. However, it is also a story with a frame, and part of what I as a reader want to know the further I got, was how the main character got into the pickle we find him in the beginning.

I’ll give a full review later in the tour, but here’s the point I want to make today. Blaggard’s Moon is the kind of story that readers of all kinds of genres will like. There’s romance, adventure, spiritual depth, wonderful characters, artistic structure and prose. It’s a masterful work, one I hope you don’t miss.

Also, check out what other CSFF bloggers on the tour have to say:

√√√ Brandon Barr
√ Jennifer Bogart
√√√ Keanan Brand
√√√ Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
√ Stacey Dale
√ D. G. D. Davidson
√ Jeff Draper
√ April Erwin
√ Karina Fabian
√ Alex Field
√ Beth Goddard not on the original list
√ Todd Michael Greene
√ Ryan Heart
√ Joleen Howell not on the original list
√√√ Becky Jesse
√√√ Jason Joyner
√ Kait
√ Carol Keen
√ Margaret
√ Melissa Meeks
√ Eve Nielsen not on the original list
√ Nissa
√√√ John W. Otte
√√√ Epic Rat not on the original list
√√√ Steve Rice
√ Crista Richey
√√√ Chawna Schroeder
√ James Somers
√ Speculative Faith
√√√ Rachel Starr Thomson
√ Steve Trower
√√√ Fred Warren
√√√ Phyllis Wheeler
√ Jill Williamson