Book Review: Pirate Latitudes
And here is the link to the Captain Kidd treasure story too, if you're curious. Kidd's supposed habit of hiding his treasure is said to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island. I already reviewed that one. So Pirate Latitudes will have to stand in, in its stead.
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| Source: mjeffryes.net |
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| Source: Amazon.com |
From the book’s cover:
Jamaica in 1665 is a
rough outpost of the English crown, a minor colony holding out against the vast
supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, Jamaica′s capital, a cut-throat
town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses, is devoid of London′s luxuries;
life here can end swiftly with dysentery or a dagger in your back. But for
Captain Edward Hunter it is a life that can also lead to riches, if he abides
by the island′s code. In the name of His Majesty King Charles II of England, gold
in Spanish hands is gold for the taking. And law in the New World is made by
those who take it into their hands.
Word in port is that
the Spanish treasure galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is stalled in
nearby Matanceros harbor awaiting repairs. Heavily fortified, the impregnable
Spanish outpost is guarded by the blood-swiller Cazalla, a favorite commander
of King Philip IV himself. With the governor′s backing, Hunter assembles a
roughneck crew to infiltrate the enemy island and commandeer the galleon, along
with its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloody legends
of Matanceros suggest, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he finds
himself on the island′s shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish
infantry are all that stand between him and the treasure.
With the help of his
cunning crew, Hunter hijacks El Trinidad and escapes the deadly clutches of
Cazalla, leaving plenty of carnage in his wake. But his troubles have just
begun. . . .
The first half of Pirate
Latitudes was quite a bit of fun, but the second half (starting around the
point where our heroes land on "No-Name Key" and are beset by
bloodthirsty natives of the Carib Indian tribe), seems a bit contrived to
me. Not bad, per-se, but a bit rushed
and less polished. It's like the ideas
were there and things were fleshed out, but more formal editing was not
done. I'm not a consistent Crichton
reader, so I can't say. The quality just
seemed to drop a level, as though someone else was completing most of the
work.
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| Source: Michael Crichton, the author. / Source: topics.Time.com |
As I understand it, Crichton had a terminal illness, and
perhaps this affected the work. Not my
place to judge. But I will say that Pirate Latitudes is hardly ever boring,
and is full of all the excitement that anyone might wish for when reading a
"pirate" novel. It's
swash-bucking and exciting and generally a fun read.
I'll add more comments later, after I have finished the
book.
Some time later...
Some time later...
And now (that was quick, from your perspective, I'm sure)
after having concluded the book, I must agree with my earlier assertion that it
really does feel like Pirate Latitudes was
being worked out and polished as it went, and the latter half was not as well
done as the first. Some of the details
and nuances in the first half were quite fascinating, but after halfway through... it lost its touch.
Also, the book isn't shy about sex or violence, so that
should be taken into account by the potential reader. The sex is not fully realized in its
graphicness, but there is a good deal of it, and even some rape as well. The violence and gore fits the accuracy of
the events portrayed of course, but it's not for the squeamish. I point to a particular passage in which the
heroes aboard their vessel are being bombarded by the enemy, and a sailor has a
chunk of flying wood become embedded in his face. He falls to the deck bleeding and screaming,
and somebody calmly pulls out a pistol and shoots him out of his misery. The book is like that throughout. No, I don't dispute the harshness of the
events portrayed as they would be in real life, but the attention to detail can
be a little bit much, I suppose you'd say.
The book is full of examples like that.
So for these who prefer a more romantic flavored pirate novel, this
isn't it.
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| An illustration of Port Royal, pre-1692. At least that's what Wikipedia says. / Source: Wikipedia.com |
At the same time, I found the whole thing to be
swash-buckling, as mentioned previously, and full of potential. And after having completed it, I still think
it is better than 2.5 of the 4 Pirates of
the Caribbean films. So there is
that. Pirate Latitudes is recommended for those who like Crichton's work,
who would enjoy a good pirate-flavored caper story (the treasure, the hero, the
plot, the double-cross, the harrowing adventures, the chases and escapes,
etc...), and can put up with the book's flaws and the mature level content, as
noted.
The parting comment:
What can I say about this? It's random and funny in a random and funny sort of way.
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