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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
This book scratched an itch I'd been having for a good swash-buckling pirate story. I've never really read a pirate themed novel and this one didn't disappoint. Magic, sword fights, zombie pirates, Blackbeard, Ponce de Leon, the fountain of youth and a damsel in distress, this book really did have it all. I was expecting things to be a little more like the movie that was based on this book, but honestly, it's nothing like the movie, but this book would make a fantastic movie in its own right. There was a chapter or two at the beginning of section three that was a little tough to follow, there's a lot of names thrown around and it was sometimes hard to understand it all, otherwise it'd be a 5 star review. There is also a lot of ship jargon that I didn't really follow, but that's no fault of the book, just be prepared for it if and when you read it, which I would recommend if you're in the mood for such a thing.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
The protagonist, John Chandagnac, strikes me as a complete Mary Sue. He out-fences a pirate leader based on his experience taking some fencing lessons to improve his puppetry. He's given the task of cooking for the pirate crew, and within days becomes the most famous chef on the island (perhaps achievable given how low the local culinary standards are). In one day of training on firing cannons from a ship, he becomes the best in the crew. He becomes second in command on a sailing ship within weeks, and is able to effectively manage the sailing and fighting of a ship, even through a hurricane, not long after. And so on.
Powers likes to go to strange places with magic, which is fine. What's odd in this book is that there is creepy stuff intertwined with a simpler adventure story. The central plot is straightforward: Boy (John) meets girl (Beth), boy becomes pirate and saves girl from peril, powerful bad guys are defeated, and then they get married. I don't recall them sharing so much as a chaste kiss before they are wed. There are dashing sword fights, and ship battles. At the same time, the peril sub-plot is repellent. Beth's father is working on magic to bring Beth's dead mother's ghost into Beth's body, and he keeps addressing Beth by his wife's name. The father's magician side-kick wants to take control of Beth's mind, and make her eager to have sex with him, while also using magic to make her look like the side-kick's mother. Enough rape and incest for you?
Powers likes to go to strange places with magic, which is fine. What's odd in this book is that there is creepy stuff intertwined with a simpler adventure story. The central plot is straightforward: Boy (John) meets girl (Beth), boy becomes pirate and saves girl from peril, powerful bad guys are defeated, and then they get married. I don't recall them sharing so much as a chaste kiss before they are wed. There are dashing sword fights, and ship battles. At the same time, the peril sub-plot is repellent. Beth's father is working on magic to bring Beth's dead mother's ghost into Beth's body, and he keeps addressing Beth by his wife's name. The father's magician side-kick wants to take control of Beth's mind, and make her eager to have sex with him, while also using magic to make her look like the side-kick's mother. Enough rape and incest for you?
How could I resist a book about pirates, zombies, voodoo, and sailing on the high seas? I didn’t, of course. I love a good swordfight aboard a sailing ship on a tumultuous sea and there are plenty in ON STRANGER TIDES. Throw in zombies and I’ve got goosebumps! Tim Powers has just enough storyline to bind the adventurous parts together.
The main character, Jack Shandy, is out to avenge his father but is distracted by a woman. Yuck. That whole “saving the damsel in distress” storyline was a distraction. The part about traveling through thick swampland to and from the Fountain of Youth was darn near hallucinogenic. The problem with that was that it seemed wrong for the book. It needed to be either expanded (my vote is expansion) or not in the book at all.
The fourth PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie is based on this book but I’ve not seen the movie. As soon as the pirate Captain Davies appears in the story I couldn’t see anyone else but Johnny Depp playing him, even though he isn’t the main character. His humor and energy made him my favorite.
I really enjoyed the book, even with its small faults, because its a good adventure story full of derring-do. It even has a very satisfying ending. Recommended for pirate enthusiasts!
The main character, Jack Shandy, is out to avenge his father but is distracted by a woman. Yuck. That whole “saving the damsel in distress” storyline was a distraction. The part about traveling through thick swampland to and from the Fountain of Youth was darn near hallucinogenic. The problem with that was that it seemed wrong for the book. It needed to be either expanded (my vote is expansion) or not in the book at all.
The fourth PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie is based on this book but I’ve not seen the movie. As soon as the pirate Captain Davies appears in the story I couldn’t see anyone else but Johnny Depp playing him, even though he isn’t the main character. His humor and energy made him my favorite.
I really enjoyed the book, even with its small faults, because its a good adventure story full of derring-do. It even has a very satisfying ending. Recommended for pirate enthusiasts!
Since Anubis Gates is one of my favorite books EVER, I had super-high hopes for this one. And while it was definitely entertaining, alas, it did not meet the promise of its predecessor. Too much "action" - am I weird that I find literary action scenes intolerably dull? He thrust with his rapier *yawn*. I'm almost kind of bitter because I know how talented the author is, and yet he willfully failed to please me. Do you know how rare it is for me to love any author born after 1903?? Then I am stuck re-reading Victorian novels since everything penned in the past 100 years is mostly utter crap. But I LOVED Anubis Gates with a penultimate ardor. So then I tried this one. Pirates. OK. Last time, you gave me Byron, Coleridge, Ashbless. Now Blackbeard? Downgrade. Vodun - very cool; I'll take it. Make the main character a hapless French puppeteer - yes. Good one. The girl was ultra boring though. Villains needed work too. After Horrabin, might as well pack up everything and go home. What could be better than him?? Pirate lingo and history - nice touch. Ponce de Leon even. Why not? Thankfully, I see that this author has written lots of books, so I don't have to give up hope quite yet. But that last one was transcendent. This one is just solidly good.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
While I know the Pirates of the Caribbean film wasn't really close to it (I didn't even see that one) it made me think on some ways of the first one and I thought how much more interesting it'd have been if Elizabeth Swann's father were a sorcerer.
This book has been sitting in my to-read pile since seventh grade, when my English teacher sat next to me on a plane out to wherever we were visiting for a school retreat trip. He was reading this book. I asked him about it, and he said it was about pirates and told me to mind my own business.
So yeah, it's been a long wait. But I've finally read it!
It was neither overwhelming nor underwhelming, neither incredibly avant-garde nor too comfortably formulaic. Jack Shandy made for an enjoyable protagonist, though it gets kind of muddled 2/3 of the way through. The pacing felt too slow for the kind of blow-by-blow action-adventure book it's trying to be.
It's too bad the female character (there was only one of note, I guess there was Anne but she's not that important) was useless. The romantic subplot felt too one-sided and like too much of an afterthought to engage the reader.
So I guess it was okay.
So yeah, it's been a long wait. But I've finally read it!
It was neither overwhelming nor underwhelming, neither incredibly avant-garde nor too comfortably formulaic. Jack Shandy made for an enjoyable protagonist, though it gets kind of muddled 2/3 of the way through. The pacing felt too slow for the kind of blow-by-blow action-adventure book it's trying to be.
It's too bad the female character (there was only one of note, I guess there was Anne but she's not that important) was useless. The romantic subplot felt too one-sided and like too much of an afterthought to engage the reader.
So I guess it was okay.
This was fun, if the ending was a little lackluster. Good halloween book. As always with Bronson Pinchot, the narration makes it. He fast becoming my favorite narrator. Excellent with accents and he came make a whisper work like I've never heard.