Black Meridian Debuts Early 2026
Black Meridian: Piracy & Empire
Where Empire Meets Outlaw in the Golden Age of Piracy, History is Written in Blood and Salt
By Sean Patrick Sayers
In the wake of empire, the black flag was born.
Black Meridian is a sweeping narrative history of how piracy and empire shaped and broke one another across four centuries of global conquest. From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the twilight of piracy in the industrial age, this book traces the violent, intertwined relationship between kings and criminals, merchants and mutineers, navies and nomads of the sea.
What begins as Europe’s desperate scramble for trade routes evolves into a global struggle for dominance, where the lines between privateer and pirate blur in the salt-sprayed winds of imperial ambition. Empires sanctioned piracy to expand their reach, then turned against the very rogues they had unleashed. At the helm of this chaotic tide sail legendary figures like Francis Drake, Henry Morgan, and Blackbeard, men who built fortunes and terrorized fleets, sometimes in service of crowns, sometimes in spite of them.
But Black Meridian is more than a tale of plunder and gunpowder. It reveals how pirates became both the product and the provocation of imperial expansion. Their raids justified colonization. Their freedom threatened control. And in the end, they were hunted down not for their crimes alone, but because the empires they haunted needed order more than legend.
With vivid storytelling and a historian’s eye for consequence, Sean Patrick Sayers charts how piracy shaped the modern world, not just in the stories we tell, but in the map itself. From the Caribbean to the Barbary Coast, the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea, this is the forgotten history of a war waged without borders, between the rulers of the world and those who dared to defy them.
Sweeping in scope and unflinching in its detail, Black Meridian uncovers the cost of empire and the fearless outlaws who refused to kneel.
About Sean Patrick Sayers
What Critics Are Saying
“A standout in post apocalyptic military science fiction, raw, intense, and unforgettable.” — Steven Messenger, author
“A sprawling, ambitious, and remarkably profound novel.” — Diane C. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“An epic fusion of mythology and science fiction that lingers long after the final page.” — Reader Views
Raw and UNFILTERED: A Stunningly Powerful Debut Novel(2014)
In the gritty, haunting style of Cormac McCarthy — discover Conrad Scott by Sean Patrick Sayers.
Conrad Scott is a gripping novella that explores the depths of human resilience and the stark reality of survival in a world on the brink of collapse. Set in a desolate landscape where remnants of humanity clash against the forces of nature and their own fractured morality, the story follows Conrad Scott, a man hardened by loss and haunted by the ghosts of his past. In his quest to reclaim hope amidst despair, Conrad embarks on a journey across a ravaged terrain, encountering allies and enemies who challenge his beliefs and force him to confront the demons within.
Through sparse, gritty prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, Sean Patrick Sayers crafts a haunting narrative that is both poetic and visceral. Readers are drawn into a world where every moment pulses with tension, and the smallest victories resonate with profound meaning.
