Mixnmojo's hosting a contest, and the prize is a brand new paperback copy of this book. Check out the rules here, and good luck!
</shameless plug>
Time to revive the thread, as I've just finished reading OST.
I wanted the hardcover edition with the cover painted by James Gurney, but that's unfortunately far too expensive right now. Resorted to the paperback with its massively ugly cover, but what the heck.
I see where Gilbert's inspiration came from, and of course the large influence on the PotC movies. However, I think that you could scarcely get more out of this book for the MI series without making it look far too much...
...like the PotC movies.
In fact, after reading through Power's book, I'm rather convinced that the fourth movie, supposedly based on the book, can't be worth much. Almost every twist in OST has been put into previous PotC movies, and those which did not end up in PotC just plain don't fit. Apart from the MacGuffin they're after - the fountain of youth - hardly anything could be taken from the book. I even wonder if the main character will still be a puppeteer...
I see someone mentioned Pirate Latitudes a year and a half back. I also read it recently and it's laughable. On the other hand I love On Stranger Tides, although I think the magic should be a little more subtle. Like the voodoo dolls in Monkey island. Anyway, I'll just cut and paste my review of Pirate Latitudes from Civfanatics. I was actually angry at the book at the time so the text may be a little disjointed.
I bought Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton on the airport. Published after his death. It was entertaining but I wasn't impressed. First of all the characters where more cardboard than usual. We're not even allowed to find out by ourselves how the characters are. The traits(two or three for each) of most of the main characters are conveniently explained in the beginning. You see there is a chapter where the captain rounds up the crew for a mission, so that their function and personality is explained for the reader. It's very much like a movie. Too much like a movie. We have even the token black guy(whose defining trait is that he hasn't a tongue and that he is strong) and token woman(whose traits is that she acts like a man and has a good eye sight). The only person I found remotely interesting was Emily Roberts who actually had character development.
The story is very straightforward. They(british privateers with the governor's blessing) find a Spanish treasure ship(And thanks to Sid Meier I know precisely what that is) moored in a harbour guarded by an impregnable fortress and they want to take it. However the captain of the ship has obviously seen "Guns of Navarone" so they know precisely how to get into the fort and how to disable the cannons. They manage to do this in the first third of the book and the rest is about them trying to get home.
But what about the villains? Well, his name is Cazello and he is an evil bastard that loves to torture and kill people and our heroes are appalled by how he behaves(I'll get back to this). And all the Spaniards are undisciplined, drunk or asleep. They're apparently also terrible sailors. Based on his descriptions I find it amazing that it's the spaniards who own the entire Caribbean and not the angelic and highly disciplined British(he has more prejudice against spain than Dan Brown in "Digital fortress"). Anyway, half the crew including the captain has a bone to pick with Cazello because he has killed someone in their close family. But since Cazello dies in the first third(!!!) of the book, all that is simply forgotten. It is actually only implied that he dies, but he never shows up afterwards, so I guess he really died.
So are our heroes likable? No.
They are appalled when Cazello kills one of their crew. They can't understand anyone can be so cruel to kill an innocent privateer. Interestingly they later kill dozens of defenseless Spanish sailors and soldiers who are drunk or asleep without any remorse whatsoever. And believe me. I looked for anything resembling remorse and there was none. So they all involuntarily become hypocrites in my eyes. The book also doesn't seem to know whether it's a dark, close-to-reality kind of book or a lighthearted swashbuckling adventure kind of book.
And what was the point of the kraken? Or the cannibals? He could at least try to weave them into the story in stead of letting them come out of nowhere and disappear out of no where.
And do you know what spanish soldiers say when they ask if everything is all right?
"Questa sta bene?"
edit: I forgot to mention. The prose is at times atrociously bad. I far more recommend On stranger tides if you want a real modern piratebook. Even though it contains a bit too much magic, and at times I find Tim Powers a bit difficult to read.
Comments
</shameless plug>
Time to revive the thread, as I've just finished reading OST.
I wanted the hardcover edition with the cover painted by James Gurney, but that's unfortunately far too expensive right now. Resorted to the paperback with its massively ugly cover, but what the heck.
I see where Gilbert's inspiration came from, and of course the large influence on the PotC movies. However, I think that you could scarcely get more out of this book for the MI series without making it look far too much...
...like the PotC movies.
In fact, after reading through Power's book, I'm rather convinced that the fourth movie, supposedly based on the book, can't be worth much. Almost every twist in OST has been put into previous PotC movies, and those which did not end up in PotC just plain don't fit. Apart from the MacGuffin they're after - the fountain of youth - hardly anything could be taken from the book. I even wonder if the main character will still be a puppeteer...
Including an unabridged audio book
http://www.amazon.com/On-Stranger-Tides/dp/B003X4T18M/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1306114549&sr=8-12
Just for fun lets look at some of the book covers for the book.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=394265&page=9