The Code of the Zombie Pirate
The Code of the Zombie Pirate
I recently found a great book at the local used book store: The Code of the Zombie Pirate by Scott Kennemore. First things first if you are looking for something non-fictional about pirates, this is not your book. But if you are looking for a great read with lots of humor, and a combination of pirates and everybody’s favorite undead creature, the zombie, then you are in luck. The Code of the Zombie Pirate assumes that you are a pirate captain that has to take on a crew of the undead and take over the Caribbean, and if that is actually the case then you don’t need to make a plan you just need to read on.
Kennemore takes in all the great aspects of the zombie from the slow moving methodical nature to their taste for human brains. He also does a good job of picking up all those characteristics about pirates that we have learned from movies and pop-culture. Remember these are zombie pirates so we are not looking for historical fact. We are looking for entertainment (unless you are a pirate zombie captain, in which case this is your business plan, your marching orders).
The section on picking a ship’s name is hysterical, especially the subtitles section on the ironically lame names of some ships. Though he missed one of my favorites: Caca Fuego (one of Henry Morgan’s). The originality on how to use a zombie pirate crew and potentially how to grow that crew while at sea was very thought provoking and more than just words on a page. Kennemore put some serious thought into it.
The Good:
- His section on what happens when two pirates meet when one is zombie and when is not is quite well thought out and very funny.
- Overall his concept of pirate tactics shows quite a bit of research. It would have been just as easy to have phoned that part of the research in but he seems to have gotten it right.
The Bad:
- The section on vampirates is long and drawn out. I could have skipped it and gotten to something much better.
- Though I liked some of the leaps in historical knowledge that the author showed there were times were the book went completely pop-culture. One whole section was devoted to buried treasure and it is pretty evident that most pirates didn’t have any treasure left over to bury.
- The language. My nephews would love this book. Unfortunately the language is a little harsh. The f-bomb is dropped a good bit so if you get it make sure to keep it out of the hands of the impressionable youth.
-Bobaganush the pirate (regular not zombie)
