Plenty of swash is buckled here, once the yarn gets ripping. After a rather rousing start, the story bogs for a while in order for the pieces to get positioned on the board. Then the dice are rolled and Ethan Gage starts shredding the scenery with all of the enthusiasm and grit, but not quite as much suave, of James Bond. Yes, there are pirates. Plus more Napoleon, now with added Archimedes, Robert Fulton and plenty of old friends and enemies. ( )

Better than the last one in the series. Quick reading and extremely lightweight but fun in any case. ( )

fast pace, bawdy, flippant, sly and pessimistic humor, lots of dialogue, not much history, read the others in series first ( )

I started this one first of the lot that I received in the mail, and within just a few lines I knew I’d enjoy it. The book opens with this line:

After I trapped three scientissts in a fire I set in a brothel, enlisted them in the theft of a stampeding wagon, got them arrested by the French secret police, and then mired them in a mystic mission for Bonaparte, they began to question my judgment.

And it only gets better from there.

Ethan Gage is the main character, a treasure hunter with a shady reputation and a questionable past who has decided, as of the previous book in this series, to rehabilitate himself. Considering the book begins with him taking three historical luminaries to a notorious Parisian brothel, you begin to question his dedication to the cause. But a simple trip tot he brothel isn’t so simple for Gage, and he ends up having to escape some old enemies (taking the luminaries with him, of course) by setting the entire building on fire. In the midst of the getaway, he is arrested by the French secret police and brought to Napoleon, who has a mission for the entire group.

Find Archimedes’ Mirror, and find it before the mysterious enemy that has been plaguing Ethan for years finds it. Oh, and to find it, they probably have to find the lost continent of Atlantis as well, or at least decode some Templar documents that seem to point to the location of the fabled lost continent.

This is a classic treasure hunting novel, complete with Templar clues, a modern heretical Masonic group (the Egyptian Rite), hidden tunnels with intricate booby traps, ancient documents that contain hidden secrets, and even a little bit of love thrown in for good measure. There were a few plot twists in the book, but the main reason I kept reading it (and make no mistake, the book is a compelling read) was simply to find out how Ethan Gage got out of his latest scrape. You know he always will, just as sure as Indiana Jones will still be alive at the end of the movie; you just want to know how he does it, and who survives with him. There are deaths in this book, though you know that Robert Fulton, William Smith, and Georges Cuvier would all survive, since they are the historical luminaries I mentioned earlier. Some major characters are killed in this book, and fans of the series will be shocked by one of them, I think.

Ethan Gage himself is an interesting character. I’m used to main characters who have at least one true ally, but Gage seems to be surrounded with people who are there because they’re stuck with him, and would leave him in an instant if circumstances were different. In fact, at one point Fulton himself has the US Navy ready to hang Gage as a traitor. But throughout, Gage is a character you can feel sorry for; the book is written from his POV, so we get a better idea of his motivations and attitudes. At times, you can even feel sorry for him.

This is yet another middle-of-a-series book that has made me want to read the whole series. If I only had the time … ( )

A Swashbuckling Adventure of Espionage and Ancient Science

William Dietrich’s fourth installment of the adventures of American envoy and spy Ethan Gage, who tends to be a bit like Captain Jack Sparrow in the sense that is loyalities tend to lie with whoever offers the best deal, comes back strong after a weak third book that had me a little disappointed in Ethan’s future.

Barbary Pirates finally wraps up some loose ends with the explanation of why Ethan has been led on a merry chase around the globe since the onset of book one, finding ancient artifacts that are being hunted down by the mysterious cult group The Egyptian Rite. Ethan’s trails have led him to find Egyptian amulets, Rosetta Keys, and Thor’s Hammer, all at the behest of none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. We also get to witness Ethan’s reunion with his beloved Astiza whom he fell in love with in Napoleon’s Pyramid, that offers up one heck of a surprise for our fumbling spy and allows us to see a different warmer and more responsible aspect of Ethan’s personality that up to now tended to be quite fickle and carefree.

Napoleon has a new quest for Ethan and promises him he will help find Astiza if he accomplishes his newest mission. For Ethan, Napoleon has been both friend and foe, but has no choice but to once again bow and obey when Bonaparte retells the legend of Archimedes Death Ray war weapon, telling Gage he believes it exists on the Greek Island we now call Santorini, and also thought to be the lost island of Atlantis.

This book is packed full of great action, lots of humor, and an abundance of the usual mishaps and madcap adventures we can expect from Dietrich’s Ethan Gage novels. Swashbuckling sword fights, duels and explosions, torturous dungeons and sensuous Pirate Queens, all make Barbary Pirates a fine installment, if not maybe the grand finale of this series. I love the first two books, didn’t care for book three, but am very happy to say this fourth book is a hit and nothing but pure entertaining fun! ( )