New novel marks the 435th anniversary of the second circumnavigation of the world.

Nov. 8, 2012 - PRLog -- On November 15th, 1577, led by the charismatic captain Francis Drake, five small wooden ships set out from Plymouth harbor and sailed into history, circumnavigating the globe and returning to England with the greatest pirate treasure of all time. In this meticulously researched novel, author David Wesley Hill brings the adventure to life in thrilling detail, “embellishing history rather than manufacturing it.”

“I was privileged to receive an advanced copy of At Drake’s Command,“ notes David Hayes, reviewer at Historic Naval Fiction. “The narrative quickly grabbed my attention and after that was hard to put down.”

At Drake's Command tells the tale of Peregrine James, a young cook aboard the flagship of the fleet. Ostensibly the expedition is bound for Alexandria to trade in currants. But as the expedition sails down the African coast toward the Cape Verdes, it becomes clear that their destination lies elsewhere and that he has joined a pirate band rather than a peaceful company of merchants. After being kidnapped by Moors, marooned in Barbary, and hung from the mainmast spar, it also becomes clear to Perry that it is unwise to be both insignificant and expendable when serving so perilous a master as Captain Francis Drake.

“Most of the characters, with the exception of Perry and a few others, actually sailed with Drake,” Hill says in an interview with Historic Naval Fiction. “Wherever possible I use their very words to express the opinions they voiced while they were among the living.”

David Wesley Hill is an award-winning fiction writer with more than thirty stories published in the U.S. and internationally. In 1997 he was presented with the Golden Bridge award at the International Conference on Science Fiction in Beijing, and in 1999 he placed second in the Writers of the Future contest. He studied under Joseph Heller and Jack Cady and received a Masters in creative writing from the City University of New York.

At Drake’s Command is being released almost to the day that the adventure departed Plymouth 435 years ago.

Title: At Drake’s Command: The adventures of Peregrine James during the second circumnavigation of the world
Publisher: Temurlone Press | New York | www.temurlonepress.com
Format: 5.5 x 8.5 Trade Paperback
Pages: 424
Price: $14.95
ISBN-10: 0983611726
ISBN-13: 978-0-9836117-2-1
Cover Art: “The Golden Hinde off New Albion” by Simon Kozhin
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Drakes-Command-adventures-Peregrine...

Review copies in .mobi or .epub format available upon request