Customer Reviews

Michael Crichton Thriller Two

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I'm a big fan of Crichton, which is not to say all of his books are great, but he is a compelling author. I'd rank "Pirate Latitudes" way above "Congo" or even "Sphere", but not in the class with "Airframe" or "The Great Train Robbery". I personally think that "State of Fear" is the best thing he ever wrote. Knowing that the book was "complete" but nobody knew anything about it until after his death, I suspect Crichton didn't view it as ready to send to the editors and publisher yet. I think he wanted to flesh out several areas and maybe alter the story at least a little. All that being said, I read the book three times and lent it to a friend who has spent 50 years sailing. We both enjoyed the story very much. As usual, Crichton did his thorough research on the history of pirating and privateering in the Caribbean and his storytelling transports you right into the era and the action. A good read that leaves you wondering if they discovered any more 'publishable' material in Crichton's effects.

Being an avid Michael Crichton I was intrigued that he wrote a book about pirates; seafaring, wooden ships and iron men. Mr. Cichton's books are always well researched and are as instructive as they are entertaining. But I am also a avid fan of Patrick O'brian's books, Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Master and Commander. I am spoiled on the seafaring novel genre. And being such, I found Pirate Latitudes unfathomable (pardon the pun) in nautical terms, i.e. During the climactic battle, the book's primary character, Captain Hunter, shifts all his galleon's main guns to a single broadside. However acknowledging the effect this will have on both the ships maneuverability and gunnery, he then is able too, with an out-manned, untrained crew, out-maneuver and out shoot, destroying, a much larger Spanish ship-of-the-line. As to the story itself, the characters and plot turns were undeveloped and rarely entertaining, both in dialog, motivation and plot, i.e. the hero or one of his specifically picked crewmen, again nearly always finding the exact tactic and at just the right moment to defeat an otherwise experienced and deadly foe - with never much suspense.

Considering Crichton died in mid/late-draft, this book was lacking the fine tuning Crichton would have otherwise given the subject. For those interested in this genre, I recommend any one of Patrick O'brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels before this book.