Pirata: The Gates of Stone

Part two in the brand new Roman pirate series by Sunday Times bestselling authors Simon Scarrow and T. J. Andrews. AD 25, the Adriaticum. Pirate ships hunt merchantmen across the stormy waters of the vast seas. But their control of these waters is threatened by the actions of a callous Roman commander... Ship's boy Telemachus has left behind grinding poverty in the Piraeus to join the crew of the merchant ship Selene. Only recently a scrawny youth, he has become a strong and skilled seafarer after weeks of hardship at sea. Now he has fallen into the hands of pirates: brutal men, who take pleasure in vicious acts against their victims and, sometimes, each other. As a pirate recruit under Captain Bulla, Telemachus faces cruel initiation rites and the dangerous enmity of the ship's ambitious first mate. He takes heart from the goal that drives him: of amassing the fortune he needs to rescue his older brother from slavery. But the men of Bulla's Poseidon's Trident face many dangers: Prefect Canis, commander of the Ravenna fleet, has them in his sights, while rival pirate gangs hunt the same seas. Telemachus quickly learns that fate, as much as courage or cunning, will decide his future . . . The full novel of PIRATA is available now. (P)2019 Headline Publishing Group Ltd