Book freaks discussion

This is the monthly book read discussion for the May- June 2012 novel Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton! Feel free to pour out any questions, comments or feelings about the book that you may have! Also feel free to comment even if you've read the book before! :)

Oooh, I've never read Michael Crichton before - I'm excited!

Nicole wrote: "Oooh, I've never read Michael Crichton before - I'm excited!"

Yay! This book is really awesome! A good gateway book into Crichton!

I'm sorry guys but I'm going to sit this one out.
I'm not really in the mood for pirates right now, even though I like them in general and to tell you the truth I haven't heard good things about the particular book but of course people might be wrong..anyway, to the rest of you, I hope you ENJOY IT!

Anastasia wrote: "I'm sorry guys but I'm going to sit this one out.
I'm not really in the mood for pirates right now, even though I like them in general and to tell you the truth I haven't heard good things about th..."

oh that's sad but thanks for telling us you wouldn't be joining! See you in the next rd!

Michael Crichton... yeah, i've read his

it's a good book; not the best i read but good none the less.

fingers crossed for Pirate Latitudes

Gorfo wrote: "Anastasia wrote: "I'm sorry guys but I'm going to sit this one out.
I'm not really in the mood for pirates right now, even though I like them in general and to tell you the truth I haven't heard go..."

Definitely!! :)

Soul wrote: "Michael Crichton... yeah, i've read his

it's a good book; not the best i read but good none the less.

fingers crossed for Pirate Latitudes"

Have you started it yet! Do you like it!!?!?!

I've placed an order for it... should reach me by, Saturday :)

so i guess, soon i'll start it...

Just finished! I gave it 3 stars because I found it easy to read and mildly entertaining, however...I felt like Michael Crichton was trying to include every type of disaster that could possibly befall a pirate ship in the 1600s. Capture, a battle at sea in a damaged ship, a hurricane, a kraken!, desertion on an island inhabited by a cannibalistic tribe thought to be extinct, and then ultimate trial and imprisonment. I know it sounds exciting, but I felt like none of these events was fully flushed out; everything was solved so quickly! And I honestly did not care if a single character lived or died. In fact, I thought it pretty unrealistic that all of the main privateers survived the adventure.
I did like Crichton's writing style, however, and I would like to read another of his books.

Yeah! I kinda felt like he was trying to pack in too much too! Like trying to squeeze an elephant through a straw. I believe if he wanted to write more he should have published two volumes. However we should probably take into account the fact that this book was published posthumously, so it probably wasn't in the state he wanted it to be published in...

This is poop. No offense meant to anyone, only the book itself.

April the Cheshire Meow wrote: "This is poop. No offense meant to anyone, only the book itself."

lol, I like your assessment, April. Have you read any other Michael Crichton books? I haven't, and I'm interested in how his other books hold up.

Yes, the books from the 1990's were pretty good. He's always had a slightly histrionic, exaggerated tone, but they were fun or adventurous thrillers. I'd rate them about three stars. He wrote Jurassic Park and the Andromeda Strain which were interesting at the time he wrote them, but now they are dated, both from over exposure. I read Congo, but he was over the top on that one. I really liked Westworld. At some point, though, he started phoning them in. He seemed to specialize in being a bit ahead of the new science of the time (not visionary, but able to see what could happen if this idea got out of the lab in a devastating way). He was VERY much a science hater in all of his books, but entertaining in a summer read. This one I couldn't believe was one of his at all. First of all, PIRATES! Kept expecting a space meteor disease or a plague of frogs. Not only was this not his niche, it was a book written as if it was his first try at a novel.

I won't say I didn't like this book, but it's definatly not on my most favorite list. I know it was supposed to be an exciting read but it just didn't come off that way to me at all. There were so many things that went wrong and happened to this crew that by the end I didn't really care if they got out or not. I think the author could have trimmed out some of that and pumped up some character interaction, then I would have maybe connected a bit with the characters so I would have cared if something bad did happen.

Melissa wrote: "I won't say I didn't like this book, but it's definatly not on my most favorite list. I know it was supposed to be an exciting read but it just didn't come off that way to me at all. There were s..."

Yeah I totally understand that! I feel as if it was just a series of unfortunate events that kind of made the whole plot weak as a whole!

I have been reading Crichton since I was a young teen, and I knew from synopsis and reviews that this would not be one of his typical works. I enjoyed reading this book because it felt like I was reading a book written purely for the joy of writing. He probably had no intention of ever publishing this book, so it was appropriately raw and underdeveloped.

I will have to pick up a copy from my library on Monday afternoon

I read somewhere that this was published after he died so Chrichton himself may never have meant for it to be published? Any truth to that?

In my copy of the book, there was a note that said they found the book buried in back of a drawer after he died while going through his effects. It looked like to them either he was still working on it or had never meant to publish it.

April the Cheshire Meow wrote: "In my copy of the book, there was a note that said they found the book buried in back of a drawer after he died while going through his effects. It looked like to them either he was still working ..."

Yeah! That's what I heard! I think it's interesting to read books that are published posthumusly, you kind of see the rough sketch of things & in some cases really realize how important revision is!

I wonder now about what our other favorite authors have in the back of their drawers. Does China Mieville have a chic lit bodice ripper hidden away?

I really enjoyed this title and have pretty much had fun with everything I've read of his. I wonder being that this was found after he passed, how much of it was actually finished and what the publishers may have put together. As much as I enjoyed it, for some reason the Kraken creature almost didn't fit the feel of this thing. As cool of a scene as it was, the story was more realistic and inetesting enough without the creature. I really enjoyed the bombardment between the 2 warships and wonder what I would have done in Hunter's position with all those mates being ripped apart in front of me. And Sanson...that guy ticked me off. I wanted to kick his butt the minute he back stabbed Hunter :o/
Anyway this title really got me going for the summer and as much as I liked the pirate stuff, I started reading Riptide by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child which has to do with a hidden pirate treasure off the coast of Maine. The treasure is on an island called Ragged Island and is hidden in a place called The Water Pit. So far so good.

Steven wrote: "I really enjoyed this title and have pretty much had fun with everything I've read of his. I wonder being that this was found after he passed, how much of it was actually finished and what the publ..."

Glad this book spurred more summer reading! I definitely agree with you here! This title was very good without the introduction of supernatural elements and I think that was the one thing that really turned me off from it!

it was almost like he tried to make it a big monster in it but not really. like it was really just some gigantic squid or octopus. I think he was going for the ending where the mention of the monster was the thing that made Hacklett and the rest laugh Hunter off...but to Crichton's credit there could very well have been creatures in the ocean that were that big back in the 1600's. Especially since the waters weren't commercially fished as much as they are today. Look at the discovery of the whale shark. Had fishermen not fished most of it's food from the lower depths, it never would have been forced to come to the surface so we could finally see this beast. I did love how Sanson finally bought it. It was quick, and no pun intended, to the point. What sucked was Sanson was one of the most useful people in his crew...at least that's what we thought :O)

Wow! I never actually thought about it from an environmental point of view, but now I see that perhaps Crichton's wasn't really formulating a "mythical beast" at all! & I have to say that I also agree with you about Sanson, I really felt that like he was a great guy!

I guess the best thing I can say about Sanson is, I felt that when he stabbed Hunter in the back, it felt like he was stabbing me too cause I wanted to like him. I would like to check on some of the names in this book as I think Anne Sharp might be a real name and have been a real actress back in the day. Not sure but the name sounds familiar to me. Either way the book entertained me and having that Pirates of the Caribbean feel it really got my blood going.
The Riptide book I'm reading now is fantastic too. It's not the same type of pirate book though. It's more of a modern day treasure hunting story with some "could be" supernatural elements.