Book Review

Pirate Latitudes

By: Michael Crichton

Ahoy matees! Michael Crichton in his new book Pirate Latitudes is absolutely amazing. There’s action-adventure, thrilling sea fighting and best of all MONSTERS…….. To put it all in perspective Pirate Latitudes is nothing short of greatness. “The setting is the crown colony of Port Royal in Jamaica. Hunter, our dashing privateer, is an American -- coincidentally a Harvard man -- born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. When asked by an attractive woman whether he's a Puritan, he replies, "Only by birth." You get the picture. Meanwhile, a treasure ship has arrived in the heavily fortified Spanish port of Matanceros, and Hunter is asked to capture it.”(New York Times, Janet Maslin) The plot is driven to the point of hallucination for the gold on the ship Hunter is trying to capture.  Like Maslin said earlier “coincidentally a Harvard man”, the mans no fool a privateer or not the guys pretty smart. 

" Hunter has assembled his piratical A-Team: Don Diego de Ramano, the Jew, is an explosives expert who makes fuses from rats' entrails; Mr. Enders, the barber-surgeon, is the best sea artist in Jamaica; Lazue, the transvestite, is a deadly markswoman who exposes her breasts in the heat of battle to disorient the enemy; Bassa, the Moor, had his tongue cut out, but he's just the man to scale a sheer 400-foot cliff of naked rock; and finally Sanson, the Frenchman, is "the most ruthless killer in all the Caribbean." (Book World  Ron Charles) Sanson, the Frenchman is an enigma. He has the personality of a fox he is sly and desperate. At the beginning he is Hunter’s friend but after he feels betrayed it’s a whole other ball game that plays deep into the plot of the story.

Crichton wrote this book as if he wanted people to believe that a single character was good but as soon as you started to believe it he flipped the script so fast you had to re-read the page just to understand. It was exciting but very annoying because most people would’ve thought something different was going to change. His style of writing is so unique to the eye; he glorifies one character then makes the character do a complete 360 in character development and personality. As Janet Maslin said “Crichton’s highly opinionated research and editorializing could give great polarizing energy to his narratives. But this is a straight-up pirate story, and its reach does not extend far beyond the Spanish-dominated Caribbean of 1665”. To me it’s saying that he couldn’t change the writing style or voice of a straight up pirate novel. It’s pretty hard to even write a good pirate novel and yet Crichton did an outstanding job at that.

To say that Crichton had ideas for novels was and is an understatement.  He has set the precedent for books to be written for many years to come.  “Unlike those earlier works, though, "Pirate Latitudes" comes to us with an unusual history of its own. The completed manuscript was "discovered" by Crichton's assistant in one of the author's computer files after his death, along with what's been described as an unfinished "techno-thriller." Lynn Nesbit, Crichton's longtime agent, told the Wall Street Journal that "Michael was extremely secretive. . . . We never knew what he was working on until he turned it in." (LA Times Tim Rutten)

For example in the book on page 254 “Hunter looked. To port, there was a churning beneath the surface and a phosphorescent object, blue-green and glowing, came streaking towards them. The dragon. Lazue said. The Dragon has been following us for an hour.” The writing is so stunning that you can picture the eerie feeling on board the ship and the agitation of being followed. On page 201 “ By midday Monkey Bay was burning hot and airless > Hunter, pacing heated decks of his galleon, feeling the sticky ooze OF SOFTEENED pinch beneath is feet, was aware of the irony of his predicament.” Again Crichton shows us not tells us the atmosphere aboard the galleon.

Pirate Latitudes is one of the greatest historical fiction novels I have ever read. Crichton is an outstanding author who is going too remembered as an author who brought readers together through the characters not as an author whom had egotistic few.

Charles, Ron. "Book World: Ron Charles Reviews Michael Crichton's 'Pirate Latitudes'" Washington Post. The Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2009. Web. 04 June 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112403201.html.

 

Maslin, Janet. "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Vile Heroes and High-Seas Swagger." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Nov. 2009. Web. 04 June 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/books/23book.html?_r=2.

 

Rutten, Tim. "'Pirate Latitudes' by Michael Crichton." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 26 Nov. 2009. Web. 04 June 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/26/entertainment/la-et-rutten26-2009nov26>.