On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers

On Stranger Tides

by Tim Powers

Shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award
Shortlisted for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel

1718: Puppeteer John Chandagnac has set sail for Jamaica to recover his stolen inheritance, when his ship is seized by pirates. Offered the choice to join the crew, or be killed where he stands, he decides that a pirate's life is better than none at all.

Now known as Jack Shandy, this apprentice buccaneer soon learns to handle a mainsail and wield a cutlass - only to discover he is now a subject of a Caribbean pirate empire ruled by one Edward Thatch, better known as Blackbeard.

A practitioner of voodoo, Blackbeard is building an army of the living and the dead, to voyage together to search for the ultimate prize: the legendary Fountain of Youth.

Reviewed by empressbrooke on

3 of 5 stars

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I might just be a little burned out on all things pirates having just read Michael Crichton's [b:Pirate Latitudes|6428887|Pirate Latitudes|Michael Crichton|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5146R1lrF6L._SL75_.jpg|6618328] before this one (my reading selection is often dictated by what has to go back to the library soon), but I enjoyed On Stranger Tides much less than I enjoyed the other Tim Powers book I've read, [b:The Anubis Gates|142296|The Anubis Gates|Tim Powers|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172136827s/142296.jpg|2193115].

It was fun, but by the end, I was skimming through fight after fight while trying to keep track of what each antagonist's motivation was.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 27 December, 2009: Finished reading
  • 27 December, 2009: Reviewed