PIRATE LATITUDES (Michael Crichton) - February 21/10

Though it started out well, with that sequence in which the main character assembles his team, Oceans 11 style, Pirate Latitudes suffers from a midsection that's simply too uneventful for its own good. Crichton is clearly interested in exploring the minutia of a pirate's day-to-day life on the open seas, but it's just not terribly interesting. The book does pick up, however, with an exciting kraken attack and a revenge-fueled finale. *** out of ****