On Stranger Tides 2006 publication. (original 1987; edition 2006)

Pirates - Bluebeard
*note to self. Copy from A.

I would love to read this book, but I had to give up on it - possibly because this edition is poorly typeset, with tiny font set too close together, and full of bad OCR errors. I expect better of Subterranean. I suppose I'll just have to go buy a copy now, since this is the ones all the libraries have.

I didn't get on with this one. Despite some fairly exciting sequences, this novel could not decide whether it was a historical adventure story or a fantasy novel. I could enjoy one or the other (the former rather more so) but not this amalgam. Also, I couldn't make myself care about any of the characters. Have stopped reading this two thirds of the way through. The latest Pirates of the Caribbean film apparently borrowed some ideas from this novel. 3/5 ( )

I love Tim Powers. Tim Powers was, in fact, the first writer I ever wanted to marry. Not that I'd met the man, I'd just read his work, but that's how it is. (Tim Powers was eventually supplanted in my affections by Neil Gaiman, but now that Neil has fallen from his perch, I'm open to reuniting.) I'm not saying that simply to gush -- I am notifying you folks that I have a bias toward this man. I pretty much love everything he writes.

And, yes, I loved this book. I am not claiming that it is perfect. In fact, Tim Powers does not write perfect books, but that always seems to be part of the charm. Sometimes he leaves you breathless with the pace of action, sometimes puzzled because a piece seems to be missing, until of course you stumble across it in the next chapter and realize that the book was just taunting you... but here's the key: you are always engaged.

This particular novel engages the reader in piracy, in fact. Interestingly enough, though the novel "suggested" the fourth installment of the tired "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, it is not at all the bloodless, artless affair the film depicts. In fact, by "suggested" apparently the Disney folks mean that the book and the film have exactly one character and one plot point in common. Never judge a book by its loosely-affiliated movie. The book is much more interesting, much more adventurous. All that is exactly as it should be, because this is a Tim Powers book.

Naturally, our protagonist, the unintentionally piratical Jack Shandy, roams all over the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico encountering not only pirates, but also vodun/voodoo and the sometimes awful and sometimes miraculous magic that it produces. Jack's multiple antagonists are, in fact, almost all practitioners of this mysterious art, which makes things tough for a former puppeteer. Yes, you read that correctly. Jack was raised as a traveling puppeteer. Not the sort of background one sees every day, even in a fictional character, but that is another wonderful element of a Tim Powers novel -- they are all deeply odd, in one way or another.

With the pirates -- some of whom are the stuff of legend, like Blackbeard, and some of whom are purely invented creatures -- Powers has the room to play broadly with peculiarity. The result is a novel that artfully balances authentic emotion and sometimes disturbing violence, including some gruesome death and reanimation sequences, with a wry humor that never carries one too far over the top. Powers also has a talent for descriptions that -- with similar balance -- create a rich, real visual but don't distract from the movement of the story.

There is a genuine pleasure in a book like this, one that offers so much, stitched together so well. The stitches may show in places, but this is the sort of book that becomes an old friend -- the kind of friend who wears old clothes comfortably and walks around in scuffed shoes, but always takes you on the best adventures. ( )

Far, far better than the movie it inspired, this tale of pirates, and magic, and the fountain of youth is a gripping read. So many of the details are historically accurate, from what I've read about pirates of the early 1700s, and the characters are fully developed people that leap into action in the numerous sea battles. A treat for anyone who wants to read a gripping yarn about pirates. ( )