1718: Puppeteer John Chandagnac has set sail for Jamaica to recover his stolen inheritance, when his ship is seized by pirates. Offered the choice to join the crew, or be killed where he stands, he decides that a pirate's life is better than none at all.
Now known as Jack Shandy, this apprentice buccaneer soon learns to handle a mainsail and wield a cutlass - only to discover he is now a subject of a Caribbean pirate empire ruled by one Edward Thatch, better known as Blackbeard.
A practitioner of voodoo, Blackbeard is building an army of the living and the dead, to voyage together to search for the ultimate prize: the legendary Fountain of Youth.
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THOUGH THE evening breeze had chilled his back on the way across, it hadn't yet begun its nightly job of sweeping out from among the island's clustered vines and palm boles the humid air that the day had left behind, and Benjamin Hurwood's face was gleaming with sweat before the black man had led him even a dozen yards into the jungle.- PROLOGUE
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(@AtlanticBooks, I May 2011, e-book, 418 pages, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @OverDriveInc, #POPSUGARReadingChallenge, a book about pirates)
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I enjoyed On Stranger Tides a lot. I'm pretty sure this inspired Pirates of the Caribbean in some form or another. This is an engrossing tale packed with pirates, curses, strange islands and the supernatural. I had a lot of fun reading it. The book is well written and engaging. I got lost in it every time I read it which is a good thing.