Seized: A Sea Captain’s Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World’s Most Troubled Waters

By Max Hardberger
Broadway, $25.00, 294 pages

Sailor, pilot, lawyer, and ocean-crossing freelancer, Max Hardberger is a modern day action hero, stealing back freighters and cargo ships that have been illegally impounded or seized in backwater ports by corrupt and criminal officials.

But whereas your standard Hollywood action stories are all glamour and glory, Max’s narrative is one of struggle, one of loss, well steeped in reality and its consequences. He holds plenty of victories, but there is no glossy veneer or ultimate triumph. There is always another job waiting for him down the line–another trumped-up charge, another shady businessman, another abandoned shipping crew.

Genuine tension permeates every operation he shares with the reader, because the stakes are so high. Imagine if imprisonment in a corrupt port or even death were the usual dangers associated with your line of work.

Seized gradually evolves from a maritime memoir into a thoroughly enthralling tale of a man of principle, a man who risks his life in order to restore a spirit of fairness and honor to the seas, often with only his guile and whatever meager resources are available. It’s an interesting and engaging read, but far deeper than you’d expect.

Reviewed by Glenn Dallas