Ahh,
pirates! From Robert Louis Stevenson’s superb Treasure Island to Disney’s Pirates
of the Caribbean franchise, the thieving rogues capture the heart of
everyone wanting freedom and life on the high seas with wine, treasure, and adventure. Recent genre forays faring better and worse
(Gene Wolfe’s Pirate Freedom, better;
Scott Lynch’s Red Seas under Red Skies,
worse), a little gem written in the 80s has gone overlooked and is deserving of
resurrection—voodoo style—for anyone interested in eye patches and Jolly
Rogers: Tim Power’s 1987 On Stranger
Tides. Falling in the middle quality
wise, the novel remains an imaginative romp through pirate land.
On Stranger Tides opens with John
Chandagnac as passenger aboard the Vociferous
Charmichael in Caribbean waters on its way to Kingston, Jamaica. Looking forward to reclaiming an inheritance
from a sleazy uncle who cheated John’s father years ago, his dreams of
vengeance, as well as conversations with the lovely Beth Hurwood onboard ship,
are interrupted by a pirate attack. The
little brigand sloop amazingly able to overtake the much bigger and better
armed Charmichael, John is taken
captive by the buccaneer Philip Davies and given a choice: join or die. Taking the obvious path, John is soon
learning the ways of pirating and helping to trim the Charmichael down to racing speed so that Davies can rendezvous with
the notorious Blackbeard. Blackbeard’s
purpose for the meeting, however, remains shrouded in ghosts and magic, leaving
John in a fight for his life—and soul—on the seas and in the jungles of the
Caribbean when they do meet.
The early
days of Hollywood the greatest influence on the novel, On Stranger Tides features all the elements of pulp adventure. There is a damsel in distress, captures and
escapes, increasing heights of unbelievability, wild magic and sorcery, an
unrelenting pace, and, of course, a daring hero. If the characters say they’re going
somewhere, they go—and adventure is sure to follow. Powers doesn’t waste text humming and hawing,
getting his characters from one scene to the next, bogging the narrative down
with world building. If they’re going to
meet Blackbeard, they’re off, no mucking about in the details of life aboard ship
or lessons how to be a pirate. The result
is a streamlined novel that maintains interest through sheer verve.
It’s
therefore in depth of story that On
Stranger Tides falters. When hedging
all your bets on plotting, one had better be sure the characters, setting,
pacing, story direction, etc. are proportioned to produce a cohesive whole that
satisfies in both predictable and unpredictable fashion. Starting from the first, the scenes are
gloriously set; the jungle voodoo prologue sends a chill down the reader’s spine. But it is
the nighttime walk with Blackbeard through the swamps of Florida which is the single best section of the book. The characters, well, they are less
successful. They get the story from
point A to B, but are generally place holders for an adventure. Beth is damsel du jour. John is the resourceful and honorable hero caught up in
matters over his head. Leo Friend, with
his mommy-issues and lechery, is an obvious villain. Davies is the pirate you respect, Blackbeard
the crazy wild card, and so on. Story
direction (event plotting, whatever you want to call it) is likewise
mediocre. The first and second thirds of
the novel moving in an exciting, even unpredictable fashion, the final third
collapses into a narrative that everyone knows the result of, only the minor details
left to click into place. Powers makes
no effort to hide this (everyone knows from the beginning how John will end
up), and therefore tries, and for the most part succeeds, at making the pacing
as salacious as possible. As a pure
storyteller, Powers, is awesome, but the conclusion of On Stranger Tides does not possess the same satisfaction as The Anubis Gates and Dinner at Deviant’s Palace. For a story dependent on plotting, this is a
sore spot.
Another
issue is the consistency of style. Where
the scenes are set and move wonderfully, there are other times when the
exposition becomes quite overt. See the
following:
“I can't fire on a Royal Navy vessel, he thought. But
if I refuse to shoot, these men will kill me … as a matter of fact, if I don't
do a good job here, the Royal Navy may very well kill me, along with everyone
else on the Jenny. My
God, there simply isn't an acceptable course of action for me.”
There are,
of course, some readers who find nothing wrong with such presentation, so I
will suffice in saying it was possible for Powers to have imbued the narrative
with a little more nuance.
In the
end, On Stranger Tides is a strong
Hollywood-esque pirate adventure.
(Indeed, Disney would later option Powers’ story for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film.) Light entertainment, it’s easy to become
drawn into John Chandagnac’s plight in the pirate waters of the Caribbean for
its sense of fun. With voodoo magic,
Ponce de Leon’s fountain of youth, and the ghost-infested Blackbeard coloring
his adventure, the pages keep turning, and turning in imaginative fashion. True popcorn fantasy, I would recommend
Wolfe’s Pirate Freedom over On Stranger Tides for substance, but if
one is just looking for a beach read—perhaps the Caribbean (sorry, couldn’t
resist), it’s tough to go wrong with Power’s novel.
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