Brethren: Raised by Wolves, Volume One. By W. A. Hoffman.


I found this book by typing in the key words “Gay Pirates” into Amazon.com, looking for quite another book. It sounded intriguing, so I decided to give it a try.


I am extremely glad I did. The first of four proposed books, (three have already been published) I found not a prurient romance, but a clever, insightful book full of action and intrigue, with protagonists who just happen to be men who love each other. I was deeply surprised and delighted by how very enjoyable these books were.


John Williams, Viscount of Marsdale, heir of the Earl of Dorshire, is a dilettante, a libertine, and a duelist for hire, meaning basically a polite assassin. Living a life of decadent excess in Florence, he makes love to many women, and keeps a lover, Alonso. However, when one of the targets of his blade proves to be a person with powerful connections, it proves best to leave, and thus, the prodigal wends his way home to England.


His father, the Earl, is hardly pleased with his lifestyle. He much prefers the manner of his nephew, Shane. Shane is a manly man and a particular problem for Will. It was to escape the torturous relationship he had with his cousin that drove Will to flee England. Deeply in love with Shane, Shane found his attentions disgusting…until he was drunk.


However, the Earl has plans for his son. He can prove his suitability to inherit by expanding the family fortunes by traveling to Jamaica to oversee the installation of a sugar plantation. The chances are that Will shall die in transit, die of disease, or die of misadventure in the rough and lawless Caribbean. Barring that, the hard life would hopefully drive the licentious nature from the boy, and make him a proper English aristocrat.


Will is bright, and of a philosophical bent, and is aware of his father’s feelings and motivations. However, he accepts the challenge, because remaining in disgrace, in Shane’s orbit, waiting with both fear and anticipation for his next amorous assault, would be unbearable.


On the long journey over, accompanied by two score and eight men, indentured to the adventure, sickness and poor nutrition threaten many of the men he has signed on. Will takes the extraordinary measure of paying extra to see they get food and water enough to survive the voyage. He looses but four, an unheard of survival rate.


This fact, the disposable nature with which human life is regarded, has a profound effect on the Viscount, and calls all “popular wisdom” into serious doubt. He determines to think things through, and make up his own mind in all matters. One thing that is made up for him, however, is his attraction to men, and the voyage over, surrounded by so many, with several engaging in carnal activities before his eyes, and no one with whom he dare share.


In Port Royal, Will meets his uncle, and sees the start of the plantation. What he views is the English view of colonialism at its finest. The men are fed the minimum, of “good proper English food” imported from the far side of the world, and half rotted, while all around them, food grows in abundance. Sickness is untreated, and many die. Disgusted by the waste, Will sets out to make some changes.


The society of Port Royal is eager to welcome a new nobleman, and Will finds it all very familiar, and very tiresome. However, he perceives something that he will use to his advantage. The life of a plantation supervisor does not sit well with him. However, there is very little stigma attached to a man who is also a privateer. The roving life of the Brethren of the coast might have some appeal to a man like Will.


And then fate intervenes, and he sees a figure under a tree. Gaston is striking; with long auburn hair, and kohl about his eyes, a most startling green. Intrigued, Will moves to get to know the man.


Gaston is mad. They call him the Ghoul, because after battle, when the blood lust has subsided, he has a habit of rearranging the bodies, posing them, not crudely, but artistically. Gaston is scarred, both physically, and mentally. Whip scars stripe his body from neck to knees, and his voice is a husky whisper, forever ruined from screaming.


Yet Will is drawn to this striking figure, and he to him, and together, the two men tentatively form an alliance.


Gaston is also of noble birth, French, and mainly attracted to women. But Will’s diligent efforts to understand his madness, and steadfast refusal to judge it, form a powerful bond between the two men. Gaston is equally patient with Will’s anxiety whenever he is the passive partner in sex, and slowly the two men unravel the cause of his distress. Shane.


What Will mistook for love amounted to rape, and scarred him. Incidents that remind him of his last encounter with his cousin, face down pinned over a hay bale in the stables; bring Will to a panic.


Gaston’s triggers are whips, confinement, and bloodshed. And together, the two men work through them, and become matelots.


A matelot (Mate –low) is an interesting custom of the Brethren of the Coast. As the first western democracy in the new world, and the only pure one, the Brethren were very resistant to autocratic control. However, the jealousy inspired in the close quarters of a ship by rivalries in love could not be tolerated, especially between armed men trained to kill. So matelotage evolved. A man’s matelot was his partner, and legal heir. If sex was involved, and it almost always was, it was an exclusive relationship. It was a marriage between equals, and had all the protections, rights, and gravitas of that institution.


Now the two men work at building a life among the Brethren. They do well, for they have several important advantages. One, both can fight; Will is a skilled duelist and a fair shot. Gaston is also skilled, and when in the grips of insanity, unstoppable. Two, both have titles that carry weight, and that is a good thing for a ship, opening doors that would otherwise be closed. Third, Gaston is a skilled physician, trained by the doctor who was his keeper. Fourth, Will is a natural leader, and the only man who can control Gaston.


Of course, they have a few strikes against them as well. Gaston is liked in some quarters, but feared for his madness. And Will discovers he has some baggage as well, manipulations by his father, carried out from across the seas.


However, with their friends, Striker, a competent sailor, well respected, with his star upon the rise, and Striker’s matelot, Pete, called the Golden One, a simple, but not stupid gorgeous lethal fighter, and several of the indentured servants Will brought from England who would rather try their hands at piracy, they begin to build a coalition.


Remember, the Brethren were a true democracy. The captain had absolute command in battle, but everything else, including his captaincy were determined by majority vote. Each ship drew up their own articles, the rules they would live by, and voted on them. If they broke them, they would be punished, as was laid out, but the point is, they voted on the rules in the first place.


So Striker’s group was important, as they commanded a sizable block, and had clout; four brilliant fighter (one a martial god) with two nobles who knew how not to act like one, and a physician who saved many a man both life and limb.


Of course, they are not immune to the problems of the Brotherhood either, nor to the political manipulations of long distant relatives.


So, while living a life of hardship and extreme violence in a society of men, Will and Gaston explore the nature of their respective madnesses, treading the thorny paths of pirate politics and social expectation, and together, slowly beginning to drain the psychic poison and heal their wounds.


The Analysis


There are a few points that I found a bit strained in the book. While I am quite willing to accept Will and Gaston as men of the Age of Reason, and prone to apply the scientific method to problems, they are very advanced for the time. I would not mind the belief in eating local produce over staples shipped from England, fourty five unrefridgerated days distant, and their habit of boiling water for drinking, especially after seeing what swims in it through lenses, were they not so very insightful in matters of psychology as well. However, that said, they also get some things so perfectly wrong, and build a very codependent relationship, thinking themselves quite clever, that I am inclined to give it a bit more leeway.


The bit of business with Will’s sister taking both Striker (who is basically straight) and Pete (who is totally gay) as her husbands shows a bit more…libertine an attitude than I would normally expect to see in the period. However, not to long after Anne Bonny and Mary Read shared Captain Calico Jack Rackham in what seemed to be a happy, if weird arrangement of three pirates in a bunk.


These few reservations aside; I am quite willing to forgive all just because of the rollicking ride the book takes us on. Alternating between periods of action and introspection, it shows how “down time” can be just as dangerous. It gives a clearly well researched look into the society of the first true democracy, and the last homosexual society in the New World.


Hoffman’s writing is clear and concise, and flows, waxing lyrical at times. Romance and sex are handled frankly, and somewhat frequently, and wickedly well. It gets steamy.


But it is not gratuitous; it has its place in the plot, and moves the story and our heroes where they need to be. And this book covers a lot of territory. At 541 pages, it is a substantial book. Its brothers, Matelot and Treasure are of similar length, making this a detailed epic.


It is difficult to find good strong gay characters in literature. They are the exception rather than the rule. Here, we have a book built entirely around a group of them. It is more than a little refreshing.


While this book may not be for everyone, I highly recommend it. If you can handle the sexual aspects of the novel, everything else makes this book a winner. And if you are gay, it does not get much better than this.

AHOY, MATEYS!  High adventure on the High Seas
Brethren: Raised by Wolves.
Matelots: Raised by Wolves 
Treasure: Raised by Wolves
Wolves: Raised by Wolves
Ransom
Black Wade the Wild Side of Love
Pirate Booty


Pirate Latitudes
Treasure Island
Cutthroat Island
Swashbuckler
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
The Black Swan 
The Wake of the Red Witch 
The Sea Hawk
Captain Blood

The Lavender Quill
Gay Non-Fiction

Is It a Choice?
The Martian Child
What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality
Gay Tales of the Samurai


Gay Fiction.

Son of a Witch
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Raised by Wolves: Brethern
Raised by Wolves: Matelots
Raised by Wolves: Treasure
Raised by Wolves: Wolves
Master of Seacliff 
Ransom
Forbidden Colours
Lord John and the Private Matter
Lord John and the Hand of Devils
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

Comics and Graphic Novels

Side by Side
Fogtown
Black Wade: The Wild Side of Love
The Authority: Prime
Hellblazer: Highwater
Midnighter: Anthem
Midnighter: Killing Machine
Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather
Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather (part 2)

Recommended: Yes