ahammel87's review against another edition
4.0
Another really good Tim Powers novel. Who doesn't like pirates? Something to recommend as an alterantive to interminable Pirates of the Carribean nonsense. It's interesting that Powers lets magic work slightly differently in all his books.
steds's review against another edition
3.0
just fun. see: http://manresamaine.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/on-stranger-tides/
annelyle's review against another edition
4.0
On Stranger Tides was first published in 1987, and is the third (and most American-based) of Powers' historical fantasies. It is set in the Caribbean in the early eighteenth century, where magic still survives on the remote fringes of civilisation. Penniless puppeteer John Chandagnac sets out from Europe to reclaim the family estate in Haiti from his usurping uncle, but en route the ship is boarded by pirates and John is forced to join their crew. Dubbed "Jack Shandy" by his new shipmates, he harbours dreams of completing his quest (and rescuing his fellow passenger, the lovely Beth Hurwood, who was taken captive in the raid), but he runs afoul of Blackbeard, who is searching for the fabled Fountain of Youth, the key to immortality. In true swashbuckling pirate fashion, Shandy learns to fight and sail a ship, kills the bad guys and gets the girl, facing European sorcerors, voodoo bocors, zombies and even Baron Samedi himself along the way - no wonder Disney wanted to steal the best bits!
In fact this book's plot has so much in common with the very first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, that the inspiration is clear. The protagonist's pirate name is awfully close to that of Jack Sparrow, his quest to rescue (Eliza)beth from a sorcerous pirate captain mirrors that of Will Turner, and like Sparrow, Shandy does indeed become captain of his own small ship and spend a couple of long spells getting blind drunk on rum (or red wine if he can get it) on beaches. There's even a character who could have stepped out of the original movie, a black pirate called Mr Bird who periodically shouts "I am not a dog!" for no apparent reason.
In some respects this is a very old-fashioned book: there is no strong language (beyond an occasional "damn" or "bloody"), with any actual swearing being referred to obliquely, and any feminist readers are likely to be disappointed by the passivity of the female characters. Beth Hurwood exists purely to be threatened by the bad guys and rescued by the hero, and the one potentially interesting young woman (a teenage Ann Bonny) makes only a couple of brief appearances. However all this is very true to the genre's swashbuckling, "Boy's Own" roots and detracted very little from this reader's enjoyment, perhaps because the hero himself is a complex, well-rounded character: likeably naive to begin with, gradually coming to enjoy his new adventurous life but with a moral core that prevents him from descending into the savagery displayed by the other pirates.
Overall, I can heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves a good adventure story. It's darker than the movies, but comedy is much harder to pull off on the page than on-screen, and Powers' rich imagination more than compensates.
In fact this book's plot has so much in common with the very first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, that the inspiration is clear. The protagonist's pirate name is awfully close to that of Jack Sparrow, his quest to rescue (Eliza)beth from a sorcerous pirate captain mirrors that of Will Turner, and like Sparrow, Shandy does indeed become captain of his own small ship and spend a couple of long spells getting blind drunk on rum (or red wine if he can get it) on beaches. There's even a character who could have stepped out of the original movie, a black pirate called Mr Bird who periodically shouts "I am not a dog!" for no apparent reason.
In some respects this is a very old-fashioned book: there is no strong language (beyond an occasional "damn" or "bloody"), with any actual swearing being referred to obliquely, and any feminist readers are likely to be disappointed by the passivity of the female characters. Beth Hurwood exists purely to be threatened by the bad guys and rescued by the hero, and the one potentially interesting young woman (a teenage Ann Bonny) makes only a couple of brief appearances. However all this is very true to the genre's swashbuckling, "Boy's Own" roots and detracted very little from this reader's enjoyment, perhaps because the hero himself is a complex, well-rounded character: likeably naive to begin with, gradually coming to enjoy his new adventurous life but with a moral core that prevents him from descending into the savagery displayed by the other pirates.
Overall, I can heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves a good adventure story. It's darker than the movies, but comedy is much harder to pull off on the page than on-screen, and Powers' rich imagination more than compensates.
madibacon's review against another edition
3.25
Read for the B&N 2023 Reading Challenge, prompt: featuring pirates.
saraishelafs's review against another edition
3.0
Rehash of pirate lore with Blackbeard, Jack Shandy, various magical beings. It ended strongly
joelevard's review against another edition
3.0
If you are as nerdy about movies as you clearly are about books if you are visiting this here book website, you probably recognize "On Stranger Tides" as the name of the fourth film in the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Belabored Franchise Subtitle series. This is wholly appropriate. After all, you can't read the book these days without thinking of the movie trilogy extended cash grab saga:
* Both are about pirates, natch.
* Both are set in the south seas.
* Both combine seafaring lore and zombies, one dull taste and one stale taste that somehow still taste great together.
In fact, I'd wager POTC actually does quite a disservice to On Stranger Tides as a novel, since even though the book was published around 15 years before the writers of the moviesappropriated all of its ideas named it as an "inspiration," Tim Powers' work can't help but feel a little uninspired these days. And it's a shame, because it was never a huge success, even though aside from being original, at the time, probably, it apes the film franchise in another significant way, which is that you really enjoy about the first third and then the plot starts getting really complicated and difficult to follow and by the end you're basically reading voodoo action sequences with only a vague idea of what is happening.
Unfortunately, the book stars Captain Jack Shandy instead ofJohnny Depp Captain Jack Sparrow. And while Movie-Jack is boozy and entertaining and carries the movie along even when you'd otherwise be super bored at lame Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly's skeleton (very realistic creature, that), Book-Jack is just boozy; not funny, not compelling, barely a character.
In fact, all of On Stranger Tides would probably work a lot better if it was funnier. Because let's face it: pirates? Hilarious. Especially when you are listening to Bronson Pinchot narrate an audiobook like it's Talk Like a Pirate Day.
So it's probably fortunate that On Stranger Tides was optioned for the fourth movie in the series, because Powers will finally get the payday he deserves for clearly inspiring the whole supernatural take on the genre in the first place, and the story will benefit from a dose of the films'tiresome trademarked humor. And it already doesn't make any sense, which saves the screenwriters a whole bunch of time.
* Both are about pirates, natch.
* Both are set in the south seas.
* Both combine seafaring lore and zombies, one dull taste and one stale taste that somehow still taste great together.
In fact, I'd wager POTC actually does quite a disservice to On Stranger Tides as a novel, since even though the book was published around 15 years before the writers of the movies
Unfortunately, the book stars Captain Jack Shandy instead of
In fact, all of On Stranger Tides would probably work a lot better if it was funnier. Because let's face it: pirates? Hilarious. Especially when you are listening to Bronson Pinchot narrate an audiobook like it's Talk Like a Pirate Day.
So it's probably fortunate that On Stranger Tides was optioned for the fourth movie in the series, because Powers will finally get the payday he deserves for clearly inspiring the whole supernatural take on the genre in the first place, and the story will benefit from a dose of the films'
celise_winter's review against another edition
4.0
Update: This review probably isn't very helpful if you haven't read the book. Rereading this review after forgetting what the book was about, I don't understand much of it. Oops.
I should start by saying that even though this novel is nearly 26 years old I wouldn't have heard of it had they not based the fourth film in my favourite series, Pirates of the Caribbean, off of it. Having said that, I should say that I didn't find too many similarities between the stories so I am reviewing the book, NOT the movie.
Powers evidently put an awful lot of research into this novel. The nautical terms and historical technicalities all seemed to be in their proper place, with the allowance of the fantasy elements. I feel like this was a good story from the perspective of someone looking into those fantasy elements, but I didn't particularly enjoy it as someone who loves pirate stories. It was almost too romanticized, and too fantasy-oriented for my tastes. Also, I thought it had a weak ending.
I did appreciate Powers' character building skills. Johnathan Chandagnac develops quite creatively into Cook Shandy, and eventually Captain Jack Shandy. I liked the mentioning of “Ann Bonny” though it took me until page 200 before I said “Oh, THAT Anne Bonny!” at the point where Calico Jack was also mentioned. I also liked the reference to Thomas Hobbes, and his writing on Leviathan, when The original take on Blackbeard was also entertaining and his
Overall, four stars for the writing and three for the story.
I should start by saying that even though this novel is nearly 26 years old I wouldn't have heard of it had they not based the fourth film in my favourite series, Pirates of the Caribbean, off of it. Having said that, I should say that I didn't find too many similarities between the stories so I am reviewing the book, NOT the movie.
Powers evidently put an awful lot of research into this novel. The nautical terms and historical technicalities all seemed to be in their proper place, with the allowance of the fantasy elements. I feel like this was a good story from the perspective of someone looking into those fantasy elements, but I didn't particularly enjoy it as someone who loves pirate stories. It was almost too romanticized, and too fantasy-oriented for my tastes. Also, I thought it had a weak ending.
I did appreciate Powers' character building skills. Johnathan Chandagnac develops quite creatively into Cook Shandy, and eventually Captain Jack Shandy. I liked the mentioning of “Ann Bonny” though it took me until page 200 before I said “Oh, THAT Anne Bonny!” at the point where Calico Jack was also mentioned. I also liked the reference to Thomas Hobbes, and his writing on Leviathan, when
Spoiler
Shandy is trying to sneak past the Navy to Jamaica and refers to himself as the philosopher and Woefully Fat as Leviathan.Spoiler
death and reincarnation were certainly not what I had expected when thinking of Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth. I was slightly confused when Hurwood was reincarnated though. I thought Blackbeard was Ulysse, not Benjamin.Overall, four stars for the writing and three for the story.
jhpedemonte's review against another edition
3.0
Decent overall. Imaginative, with some very good ideas.
However, the pacing is all over the place, and the plot meanders quite a bit.
However, the pacing is all over the place, and the plot meanders quite a bit.
august30th's review against another edition
2.0
I was really excited to read a swashbuckling pirates tale and heard great things about this book, but it did not deliver unfortunately. There were some things I enjoyed - the author did a decent job at setting the atmosphere and it felt like an appropriately romanticized version of the time of pirates. I enjoyed how it tied so much of the New World and Caribbean into it. It could have been more fleshed out, though.
The protagonist was average. I enjoyed his story arc, but he had little depth. The rest of the characters were interesting, though.
I didn’t find the book to be particularly entertaining at any points. It felt rushed and like there was no room for any of the details to breathe. At some points, it felt like I was reading the script for a movie, but it lacked the charm or fun for it. Overall, I was hoping for better.
The protagonist was average. I enjoyed his story arc, but he had little depth. The rest of the characters were interesting, though.
I didn’t find the book to be particularly entertaining at any points. It felt rushed and like there was no room for any of the details to breathe. At some points, it felt like I was reading the script for a movie, but it lacked the charm or fun for it. Overall, I was hoping for better.
thomcat's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyable tale that was a bit slow in the middle. Fantastic descriptions of magic and lots of historical tidbits, but nowhere near enough storms for the Caribbean. The two female characters were flat. This is the first novel I've read by Tim Powers, and I look forward to more. Also, I still haven't seen any of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.