Adventures on the open sea, monsters from unexplored depths and supernatural phenomena that can't always be explained away as superstition...
Nautical Fantasy can run the gamut from High Adventure to the darkest depths of disturbia, yet we can never get enough!
The Saga of the Outer Islands
by A.F. Stewart
In the Outer Islands, gods and magic rule the ocean. Rafe is the God of Souls. His sister, Manume, is the Goddess of the Moon. Their battle will decide the fate of the living and the dead.
Banished from his ancestral home for showing favour to mortals, Rafe sails the seas as the captain of the Celestial Jewel. Caught between two worlds, the mortals and the gods, he exists as a wayward saviour collecting the ghosts of drowned sailors before they can be devoured by malicious sea monsters.
An insane Manume wreaks havoc from the Isle of Bones, sending her monster children out into the world to unleash destruction. Heedless of the consequences, she now seeks greater revenge, and her violent actions put everyone in peril.
To end his sister's madness, and protect the mortal realm, Rafe must confront his past and his estranged family. He must persuade them to help, convince them that the Goddess of the Moon is a true threat. For Manume has become more powerful than anyone could have predicted, and he's not sure he can stop her. And if Rafe can't, the entirety of existence could be destroyed.
Available at these retailers:
Ghosts of the Sea Moon
Souls of the Dark Sea
Renegades of the Lost Sea
The Flying Dutchman BLEAK FUTURE
by Nils Visser
1622: Threat of renewed warfare with Spain throws an ominous shadow over the young Dutch republic. Liselotte Haelen, a physician's daughter, has to cope with other shadows as well, trapped in an unhappy household as she is. Her prodigal cousin, Peter Haelen, has built a ship like no other but who will crew her? Folks are superstitious, wary of innovation. Some say Peter has defied the natural order of things. Wagging tongues claim his ship is cursed ere she's even launched. Other aspects are at play. Echoes from the past. Realms below the waves. Hidden forces that confound logic, as deep as the ocean and as wide as the sky.
A story 376 years in the making. Inspired by Willem Bontekoe's Journal (1646), German author Philipp Korber penned Der Fliegende Hollander in 1849. This work inspired Dutch author Piet Visser's De Vliegende Hollander in 1901.
In 2018 Nils Visser started writing The Flying Dutchman BLEAK FUTURE, using elements of his great-grand-uncle Piet Visser's story, but thoroughly modernizing this origins story of the infamous phantom ship for a contemporary audience.
Korber's and Piet Visser's main protagonist, Peter Haelen, plays a major part, but Nils Visser opted to tell the story through the eyes of Peter's cousin Liselotte, who only appears very briefly as 'Lotje' in Piet Visser's work, very much as a damsel in distress. Nils Visser would like to say Liselotte is his invention, but this renewed character is anything but a damsel in distress and would probably shoot the author if he tried to claim ownership.
The paperback is beautifully illustrated by Hastings based artist Julie Gorringe. She accepted the challenge to provide an illustration for each chapter. During the writing process she read each new chapter multiple times before she decided what she would draw, giving her as much creative freedom as possible within the context of illustrating a story.
Find it at Amazon!