Wyvern

Fans of adventure yarns may relish this blend of fantasy and historical fiction if they take to the author's baroque, tinted prose and lush imagination. Jaki Gefjon, son of a native Borneo woman and a Dutch sea captain, starts life as witch-doctor's slave and apprentice. Later kidnapped by pirates, he befriends his captor, Trevor Pym, famed for his dreaded man-of-war, the Wyvern. Jaki falls for Lucinda, the headstrong daughter of Pym's arch-rival, Captain William Quarles. Crammed with intrigue, pirates' battles, curses and visions, this seafaring saga takes Lucinda and Jaki from the South Seas to India to the New World. Various plot strands interweavethe encroachment of colonialism on the world of spirits, Jaki's hard-won self-acceptance after abandoning the role of European gentleman, the clash of duty versus romance as Lucinda defies her father. But the cardboard characters defeat the book's epic and historicl pretensions. Attanasio's previous novels include Radix , a Nebula Award nominee, and Arc of the Dream. (September)