The Voyagers

This pallid adventure novel rejoins the seafaring protagonists introduced in The Dreamers; it skips from one to the next of its parallel stories at dizzying speed but with little suspense. Ines, a Portuguese gentlewoman wrongly accused of stealing a handkerchief, is on a prison ship bound for the colony of Madeira when she falls in love with Pedro, one of the sailors. Once they reach the colony Ines must marry quickly to escape a scoundrel named Lobo, and Pedro returns from a voyage to find her married. Englishman Tom was first taken on board a ship as an apprentice; as an adult he has allied himself with the powerful Chinese eunuch Cheng Ho and lived in the Forbidden City. Now he is eager to sail around Africa with Cheng Ho and possibly see England again, though he must leave his pregnant concubine. Sandro, the younger son of a powerful Venetian family, was sold into slavery because of his jealous brother's ruse. Having escaped, he is now achieving business success. He loves a tavern waitress, but she refuses to marry him until he resolves his desire for revenge on his brother and his longing for his late wife Marina, whom he married as a slave. (Jan.)