Product Description

From one of the best-loved authors of all time comes an irresistible adventure of swashbuckling pirates in the New World, a classic story of treasure and betrayal.

The Caribbean, 1665. A remote colony of the English Crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses.

In this steamy climate there's a living to be made, a living that can end swiftly by disease—or by dagger. For Captain Charles Hunter, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking, and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it.

Word in port is that the galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is awaiting repairs in a nearby harbor. Heavily fortified, the impregnable harbor is guarded by the bloodthirsty Cazalla, a favorite commander of the Spanish king himself. With backing from a powerful ally, Hunter assembles a crew of ruffians to infiltrate the enemy outpost and commandeer El Trinidad, along with its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloodiest tales of island legend, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he even sets foot on foreign shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry stand between him and the treasure. . . .

Pirate Latitudes is Michael Crichton at his best: a rollicking adventure tale pulsing with relentless action, crackling atmosphere, and heart-pounding suspense.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24 in Books
• Published on: 2009-12-01
• Released on: 2009-11-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061929373
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by by Ron Charles Hoist the Jolly Roger above the bestseller list, ye mateys, 'cause Michael Crichton has just published a swashbuckling pirate thriller. The popular author of "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain" went to Davy Jones's locker last November, but his assistant found a finished draft of "Pirate Latitudes" on his computer, and Harper has plundered this booty like a chest of gold doubloons that washed up on shore. The first print run is a million copies, and Steven Spielberg has already signed on to produce the inevitable movie version, so drop sail and prepare to be boarded. Although plenty of novels are ripped to shreds in Hollywood's shark-infested waters, "Pirate Latitudes" should enjoy smooth sailing to the silver screen. This hilariously exciting book already reads like a film treatment, jumping from one cinematic, doom-filled episode to the next as it cuts its bloody way through the encyclopedia of piracy from "Ahoy" to "Yo-ho-ho." Crichton opens the story in 1665 in "a miserable, overcrowded, cutthroat-infested town" on the island of Jamaica, a wealthy if precarious British settlement deep in Spanish territory. King Charles II has signed a fragile treaty with Spain, but English pirates -- who euphemistically call themselves "privateers" -- continue to operate whenever and wherever opportunity arises. "Let me explain to you certain pertinent facts," the governor says in a rather too clunky bit of exposition, but tell your inner 14-year-old to hang on: Once we get past this first section, "Pirate Latitudes" howls along till the very last page. The hero of this buccaneer adventure is Charles Hunter, captain of the Cassandra and "the most valued pirate in all these waters." Women call him a "bastard, a rogue, a cut-throat vicious rascally whoreson scoundrel" and then lick their lips and wink at him. Using some special genetic technique developed in "Jurassic Park," Crichton has crossbred Johnny Depp and Daniel Craig to create the coolest, handsomest, daringest sea dog in the world. (Guys, if you don't want to be Charles Hunter, have your testosterone level checked immediately.) When he gets word that a Spanish ship loaded with gold has arrived at a nearby island, Hunter can't resist the prize. No matter that 300 men failed in their attack on that impenetrable fortress just last year or that the commander is a notorious villain who finds "the screams of his dying victims restful and relaxing." Sooner than you can say "Shiver me timbers," 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." Crichton sends this motley crew off to the isle of Matanceros, which means "slaughter" in Spanish and may be the subtlest omen in his blood-soaked tale. "None of us will survive," a crewman tells Hunter, and that's not just the grog talking. Inside the eight-sided fort surrounded by 30-foot walls lurks that bilge-sucking villain who could flog the Penguin and Dr. No with one hand tied behind his back. He's a real Spanish charmer named Cazalla, who chokes his victims to death on their own testicles or lets rats chew off their faces. When thwarted, he shrieks, "Fools!" and shakes with uncontrollable rage. The adventure that follows is a sort of "Great Train Robbery" with an eye patch and a peg leg -- one impossible deadly fix after another. "It was unheard of," Crichton reminds us, "an insane thing to do": from sword fights in burning buildings filled with gunpowder to crossbow attacks on sinking ships. Fortunately, Hunter is indestructible, the kind of guy who can jump 30 feet and still look suave in a puffy shirt, while dispatching battalions of Spanish soldiers: stabbed, crushed, strangled, drowned, shot, pierced and blown to smithereens. Even when he's "lost his mizzen top and his mainsail rigging on the leeside," our Cap'n Hunter takes on man-eating sharks, ship-crushing sea monsters, drum-thumping cannibals and ocean-dumping hurricanes. And of course, no tale of high-seas adventure could come back to port without picking up a saucy wench in distress. This is, after all, a booty call in every sense. Hunter and Lady Sarah Almont bicker like sworn enemies through much of their voyage. Will they end up in bed? Does Polly want a cracker? The only distraction from these rip-roaring pages is fantasizing about which Hollywood pinup will traipse around deck in her underwear delivering lines like, "What will you vagabonds have with me? I presume I am in the clutches of pirates." As in any Crichton novel, all of this breakneck adventure is decorated with little bits of historical and technical instruction that float down like parrot feathers here and there. We learn how a 17-man crew loads, aims and fires a cannon -- "two and a half tons of hot bronze." We learn that 17th-century pirates craved gold but considered platinum worthless. And we learn enough about sailing wooden ships through coral-lined shoals to pilot one ourselves. But Crichton always had a perfect sense of how much (or how little) background most readers really wanted. He may stop a moment to explain the jury system required by Parliament in 1612 or the predictive nature of waves, but then he's quick to shout, "Hoist anchor! Lively with the lines!" and we're off again. If you're on the lookout for some light adventure this holiday season, thar she blows! charlesr@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review
"Offers unexpected turns and plenty of yo ho ho's." (Richard Eisenberg, People (3 out of 4 stars) )

"The plot sucks you in like the giant kraken monster that nearly sinks our hero's galleon." (Benjamin Svetsky, Entertainment Weekly )

About the Author

Michael Crichton's novels include Next, State of Fear, Prey, Timeline, Jurassic Park, and The Andromeda Strain. He is also known as a filmmaker and the creator of ER. One of the most popular writers in the world, he has sold over 150 million books, which have been translated into thirty-six languages; thirteen have been made into films. He remains the only writer to have had the number one book, movie, and TV show at the same time. Pirate Latitudes was discovered as a complete manuscript in his files after his death in 2008.

Customer Reviews

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum....
I miss Michael Crichton already and was so glad this book was found and published. It's probably not what you're used to when it comes to his medical/ethics thrillers, but can probably be categorized as historical fiction.

He sets the story in 17th century Port Royal, Jamaica, home to all the shady pirates and privateers of the Caribbean. A motley band of pirates head out to storm a Spanish fortress in the Caribbean and capture a ship of Spanish gold. Of course things go amiss and the resulting adventure is a sound one.

The characters are engaging and the plot is tight. This wasn't meant to be "deep" reading, instead it's a fun romp with enough period detail to make you feel as if you're right there with them....personally, I didn't put it down until I turned the last page. It was a fun read and makes me realize how much I'm going to miss this author.

Pirate-y.
It's impossible to know whether Crichton intended this book to be published, or if he wrote it for fun. Considering it was written in 2006, and discovered on his hard drive after his death, it feels like maybe he wasn't rushing it off to his agent for publication.

It's not Crichton in peak form, that's for sure.

While the book is entertaining enough, it's missing what I love most about Crichton ... the research, the education, the intense build of excitement. It's a pirate story, and not a particularly original one ... It's got your storms, your cannibals, your sea monsters, and general pirate treachery. The first half of the book I felt it was unforgivable that they decided to publish this. But the second half was fun enough that I can see it, and of course Spielberg is already working on the movie.

I didn't love it, didn't hate it. I think, had Crichton been ready for publication it would have been better. Less flawed. But it was enjoyable enough, very fast paced and Amazon has a great deal on the hardcover so you almost can't go wrong.

For all your pirate needs...
Michael Crichton's "Pirate Latitudes" is everything you're looking for in a pirate adventure. It doesn't necessarily do anything new with the genre, but it will satisfy those who found the popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" films too over-the-top and cartoony.

This (relatively short) novel tells the story of pirate (he prefers "privateer") Charles Hunter and his crew of super-pirates as they embark on a quest for the ultimate prize-- a Spanish treasure galleon. I say "super-pirates" because each of his crew does one or two things extraordinarily well, creating a sort of "who's who" of pirate archetypes. You have the stealth assassin, Sanson, who kills entire ship crews without making a sound. Then there is Bassa, the giant Moor who seems inspired by Fezzik from "The Princess Bride" and who kills with his bare hands. There is Lazue, the quintessential female pirate, who goes about as a man unless it suits her to use her feminine attributes and whose eyes are capable of spotting even the most camouflaged of reefs. There is Enders, the dependable helmsman, who can sail even the bulkiest of ships through the eye of a needle. And finally Don Diego aka "The Jew", the crafty munitions expert, who does something with rat innards you will not believe.

Other pirate tale staples appear as well: cannibals, damsels in distress, storms at sea, and sea monsters. The inclusion of the sea monster surprised me, given Crichton's realistic account of 17th century pirate life up to that point. While my initial reaction was to scoff, I soon found myself going with the idea. Crichton was a man of science, and you get the impression that he is acknowledging the possibility that perhaps the strange stories of sea monsters told by the old seafarers of the past may have had some truth to them. I won't go into too much detail about the monster, but its presence in the story is handled well. The sea monster scene is not particularly original, but it's hard not to smile while reading it. Yes, we've seen it before, but it's still fun to go over again with a new set of characters and circumstances.

"Pirate Latitudes" doesn't really hit its stride until about halfway through. From there on it is difficult to put down. The publisher's description of the book is incomplete (probably intentionally so). Yes, Captain Hunter and his motley crew are indeed embarking on a dangerous mission to cut out a Spanish treasure galleon from a nigh unconquerable port, but that is only half the story. I will not give away any more, but will instead allow you to discover the rest for yourself as I did.

As you read though the novel, you get the impression that this was something Crichton was writing merely for his own enjoyment. It was well-publicized that the completed manuscript was discovered after the author's death. We'll never know what he intended to do with it. Perhaps he never intended to publish it at all. While this may sound ludicrous to non-writers, I suspect this is the case. Many prolific authors have completed manuscripts tucked away that they wrote just for the pleasure of writing, and "Pirate Latitudes" seems to be one of those. Perhaps it was something he picked away at while trying to stave off writer's block for something else he was working on. Even if this novel was never intended to see the light of day, I am glad his family decided to go ahead and let us have a look at it.

"Pirate Latitudes" delivers everything you'd ever want from a pirate story, and also gives a fairly accurate historical portrayal of 17th century pirates, particularly the violent lives they lead. This book will likely not receive any awards, nor will it impress many literary critics, but it is not attempting to do so. It is well-worth reading if you enjoy fast-paced action adventure, particularly of the cutlass-wielding, piratey variety.