Book Review: Port of Errors (Born of Tyranny) by Steve Cypert

Port of Errors is a swash-buckling pirate tale and historical fiction, set in the Atlantic in the late 1700s. Relationships between Spain, France and England are tentative and there are plenty of opportunities for privateers and pirates. Davy and Joseph grew up in the same orphanage, but when it was burnt down they were separated and took very different paths to end up on opposing sides. The pair are unwittingly trying to hunt down and kill each other, not realising the identity of their foe.

I like historical fiction and have been known to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean so this sounded like a good bet. I knew a little about the political climate of the time and thought it made for a good backdrop. I also thought the way the boys had been torn apart but had never forgotten one another, yet were now attempting to destroy their former friend was a good twist. I certainly enjoyed the basic premise of the book. I also liked the slightly archaic language and turns of phrase which gave a taste of the setting without getting too cartoon-y.

However I found the plot and the number of characters, some of whom switched allegiances, a bit confusing at times. It was all just a bit too complicated. Black-Hearted (Davy's pirate name) and Captain Stirvin (Joseph's adopted name) were good characters with a decent background presented, but many of the other characters lacked depth and felt a bit superfluous. And I'm afraid although I'm not talking about an error a page there were far too many for my liking, a mix of spelling errors, missing or extra words and rogue commas and apostrophes. Unfortunately in this case it did affect my appreciation of the book as I found it a bit too distracting. Some more attention to formatting, for example putting more obvious breaks between paragraphs when the scene changes, would also be helpful. The good news is that this is easily corrected, and the story itself was pretty good.

I did enjoy the story and could be tempted to read future books in the series (set up nicely at the end of the book) However I can't give it a great rating because of the above issues.

Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 3*