Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Published posthumously, this book is completely different than his others. Though still very good, I usually pick up his books to enjoy the scientific twist. Interesting enough some believe this to be the basis for a video game he was going to develop. It was not a very long book, but it seemed to take me a while to read, I had trouble getting into the plot and enjoying the characters. I kept looking for a character like Gerard the African grey parrot in Next. The plot is a typical pirate movie searching for gold, but nothing atypical occurs. There is the bout of witchcraft and a few fast paced sections, but nothing real memorable. Pirates of The Caribbean, which was written from the book Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, seemed to also incorporate this book, the similarities were astonishing. I found myself thinking if he were to publish this himself he would have adding to it, this was a sort of skeleton for a great book. If you have never read a Crichton book I would start with his others so you can see what a truly great author he was, such an educated creative man.