Pirates of the Caribbean, Redux

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Adult Fiction

Reading the first chapter called to mind the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.  And, it didn't really move much from there.  It is as fun a read as the movie but no better.  The novel is just a rollicking, fun romp, not too heavy on the demands of the reader.  Minus Johnny Depp, who I think we can all agree is really the best part.

And, that's what made it so darned disappointing.  This is just not Crichton's usual style.  Normally, I am hanging off the edge of each page, yearning to find out what happened next.   Not so in this one.

The setting is Jamaica during times of pirates and full of swash-buckling adventure (anyone know what a swash is and how it buckles--just curious).  Captain Edward Hunter, a little too similar to Captain Jack Sparrow without the black humor and oozy sex appeal, thinks he can pull off the perfect heist.  He enlists a crew's worth of misfits and bad guys and, well, pirates, and sets off to rob the most notorious pirate of all time of a prize that is almost unstealable.

This is just a complete beach read--total adventure, no mystery, no thrills, no real meat.  Sigh.  I miss Crichton and his classics.