Victoria Aveyard on her adult debut, an epic, seafaring love story with pirates, imperial power and a dash of magic
Katie FraserKatie Fraser is The Bookseller's deputy books editor and chair of the New Adult Book Prize. She has chaired events at the Edinburgh
...moreThe fantasy author of Red Queen makes waves with her swashbuckling adult debut, Tempest.
Katie Fraser is The Bookseller's deputy books editor and chair of the New Adult Book Prize. She has chaired events at the Edinburgh
...moreIt is 2003 and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl has hit cinemas. Little did Victoria Aveyard know, the franchise would go on to inspire her adult debut, Tempest. A mesmeric romantic fantasy of epic nautical proportions, Tempest carries shades of what made the films (the first three, at least) great – battle sequences, a touch of magic and an invading colonial force bent on eradicating piracy. And did I mention the yearning? Think Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann but better. In Tempest, Aveyard exquisitely renders a slow-burn romance between Lady Catrine – Cat – Rose and pirate captain, Valerian Kane.
Aveyard is a reigning name in fantasy. Her debut Red Queen published in 2015 when she was 24 years old, becoming a hit quartet that was followed by a brace of novellas, a short-story collection and the Realm Breaker trilogy. The series set Aveyard’s writing agenda, establishing a lineage of female protagonists that exemplify the myriad forms of female strength. Her latest creation, Cat, is no different.
Aveyard’s previous protagonists include Mare of the Red Queen series, who possesses supernatural powers, and Corayne from the Realm Breaker trilogy, whose magic sings in her veins; Cat has none of this. Aveyard has described her as Pirates of the Caribbean’s Elizabeth Swann, played by Keira Knightley, “if she was a stone-cold bitch”. When I ask her about this – very accurate – description, she laughs: “That really cuts to the heart, doesn’t it? I’ve realised this now as I’ve started talking about her more. I, and a lot of other female writers, share this frustration that our female characters are judged much more harshly than our male characters. We can have the absolute worst man and [readers are] like: ‘I can fix him! My sweet genocidal cinnamon roll!’”
When writing fantasy, I always strive for the moments of realism because that makes you believe all the unreal things
The “I can fix him” trope skirts around bad behaviour by relying on the female protagonist to shoulder the responsibility and carve out a “better” version of the male character. Cat does not assume this mantle. “I really homed in on a character who is very selfish, but justifiably so.” Speaking from her home in Los Angeles, Aveyard adds: “I started off writing literally superpowered female characters, physically very strong and dangerous, and now in Tempest I’ve written my physically weakest female character who, I think, is mentally the strongest. It almost felt like a challenge of, ‘How do I make her as interesting and as dangerous
as people who are physically dangerous?’” This could easily have been a novel about a female pirate, “a woman who is strong by the definition of masculine or physical strength”, but for Aveyard it is about “shifting the gaze”. “In all my work, I’m always trying to show the spectrum of female strength and what it is to be a strong woman and how many different ways there are to do that.”
Inspired by the “historical events of the year 1718 in the Bahamas”, Tempest is set on the islands and ships – both naval and pirate – of the Lyrian Sea. Narrated from Cat’s perspective, the story unfolds across two timelines told in alternating chapters. In the “before” sections, we find Cat, aged 19, married to the odious, spittle-flinging and broke Lord Rose, on a storm-cursed voyage to a remote island to scramble together a living. But when the ship is waylaid by a pirate vessel, Cat meets the entrancing and handsome Valerian. In this timeline, piracy is in the ascendant, but in the “after” chapters, the pirate republic lies in tatters. Here, Cat is 30 years old, bartering for her survival by providing information about pirates to the Meridian imperialists. Her luck is running out and the noose looms; to save herself Cat must deliver Valerian, her only love, into the hands of the navy. But what happened to Cat and Valerian in those intervening years? What lies in store for the pair whose fate is bound to the Lyrian Sea?
Continues…
Read More
The Lyrian Sea is contested territory, fought over by the local, pirate force and the invading Meridian navy. Aveyard has “always” been “really interested in worlds in flux”. It is a trait that runs through her writing. “Worlds where something is ending and something is beginning. There’s sort of that vacuum in-between… I love these frontiers and edges of the world… I love the concept of worlds ending and what people do to try and stop that.”
Although Aveyard was “extrapolating” from the Golden Age of Piracy, she “didn’t want to deal with a Caribbean-esque location that also included slavery. I wanted to make clear [in the novel] that slavery was not in use and that totally shifts what sort of future that looks like because [slavery] is unfortunately so braided into Caribbean history”. The novel is told from Cat’s perspective, but the story has three points of triangulation: Cat, Valerian and Jasper Fell, a naval officer whose life becomes tied to Cat’s. They represent “different states of deprogramming” from the imperialist mindset. “Jasper is extremely loyal to [the colonial system] for his own end. Cat is figuring her way through it and trying to use it to her advantage – and then you have Valerian, who is very outside of it. But all of them started within [the system] because I think that’s the [story] I’m really suited to tell. I didn’t want to tell the story of someone who was oppressed and crushed by this system. I didn’t think that was something I could do well.”
Tempest is, by Aveyard’s own measure, the “most romantic book” she has written. The tension between Valerian and Cat is palpable and agonisingly romantic. An instant spark between the two burns slowly but indelibly, and smoulders even in the “after” sections when it is clear a gulf now lies between them. “I was really interested to dig into the vulnerability that comes with being connected to another person. You give them so much power over you, but you also have power over them. I really love those moments where love isn’t enough or love doesn’t conquer all. I think that’s the realism of it. When writing fantasy, I always strive for the moments of realism because that makes you believe all the unreal things.”
The magic in the novel is light, and I will be deliberately vague to avoid spoilers. It is a soft magic system where, at least in the first book, the rules are undefined. It was, again, partly inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean. “I remember going back and watching it and realising, the magic, the paranormal element, is quite light and it’s very simple. It’s just one rule. The real drive are the characters and their journey and goals… You care about all these things because you care about the characters and that’s where I really wanted to be.”
Magic will figure much more in the second instalment, Tyrant, which will publish in spring 2027. It is the quickest Aveyard has ever released two books in succession. And not only this, but her Realm Breaker series is getting a new look and will be reissued with book jackets in the classical fantasy style. The trilogy will also be marketed as adult fiction. It is a new era for Aveyard and Tempest is just the beginning. Reader, don your tricorn and raise the flag. It is time to set sail.
Metadata
Imprint Gollancz
Publication 8th September 2026
Formats HB (9781399622141, £25); EB (9781399622172, £25)
Rights sold 10 territories, including US (HarperVoyager)
Editor Bethan Morgan
Agent Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary & Media
