Ongoing "Inspirography"

While I'm working on other projects, I'd also like to start developing a list of non-RPG source material. This is inspired by such a list in Issue 2 of the Buccaneers & Bokor e-zine, from which I also take the title of this one.

-Nate


Pirate Latitudes
Written by Michael Crichton; published by HarperCollins in 2009

While I've seen many movies based on the novels of Michael Crichton, I've never read any of the books themselves. I was quite intrigued, however, when I heard that this story would be published posthumously, so I had to try it.

All in all I was quite impressed. The action is solid, covering such a range of locations and situations that I thought it would have played well as an RPG scenario. Crichton does an excellent job of researching the setting, as usual, meaning that this uses realistic details in highly inventive and entertaining ways. The one difficulty I have is the characters, although I think this reflects more on the genre than on the author's writing. Piracy is an inherently wicked business, which sometimes makes it hard for me to like the protagonists. In this case I never felt a strong connection to Captain Charles Hunter, the main character. Even so, the detail and action more than make up for this one quibble, and I would strongly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good pirate story.