On Stranger Tides is a 1988
historical fantasyHistorical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy, related to historical fiction, which makes use of specific elements of real world history. It generally takes place prior to the 20th century.-Overview:...
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by
Tim PowersTimothy Thomas Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
. It was reprinted in 2006 by Babbage Press with a limited edition in 2008 from
Subterranean PressSubterranean Press is a small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction...
. It was nominated for the
World Fantasy Award for Best NovelThis World Fantasy Award is given to the fantasy novel or novels voted best by a panel of judges, and presented each year at the World Fantasy Convention.-1975:...
and the
Locus Award for Best Fantasy NovelLocus Award for Best Fantasy Novel is one of the awards given by Locus Magazine.-External links:* *...
.
This book follows the exploits of John "Jack Shandy" Chandagnac, who travels to the new world after the death of his puppeteer father to confront his uncle, who apparently has made off with the family inheritance.
On Stranger Tides is a 1988
historical fantasyHistorical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy, related to historical fiction, which makes use of specific elements of real world history. It generally takes place prior to the 20th century.-Overview:...
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by
Tim PowersTimothy Thomas Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
. It was reprinted in 2006 by Babbage Press with a limited edition in 2008 from
Subterranean PressSubterranean Press is a small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction...
. It was nominated for the
World Fantasy Award for Best NovelThis World Fantasy Award is given to the fantasy novel or novels voted best by a panel of judges, and presented each year at the World Fantasy Convention.-1975:...
and the
Locus Award for Best Fantasy NovelLocus Award for Best Fantasy Novel is one of the awards given by Locus Magazine.-External links:* *...
.
Plot summary
This book follows the exploits of John "Jack Shandy" Chandagnac, who travels to the new world after the death of his puppeteer father to confront his uncle, who apparently has made off with the family inheritance. During the voyage, he gets to know a woman named Beth Hurwood and her father Benjamin Hurwood, an Oxford professor. Before they arrive, their ship is waylaid by pirates and, with the help of the professor and his assistant, the captain is killed and Chandagnac is forced to join the pirate crew. The reader discovers a sinister plot being concocted by the professor involving his dead wife, his living daughter, the Fountain of Youth, and
BlackbeardEdward Teach or Eduardo Thatch , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic during the early 18th century, a period referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy...
. Chandagnac, now known as "Jack Shandy", must put a stop to these plans and save Beth Hurwood.
Influence on other works
Kim NewmanKim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
based the name of a
vampireVampires are legendary creatures said to subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, generally by drinking their blood. Although typically described as undead, some minor traditions believed in vampires that were living people....
in his
Anno Dracula seriesThe Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman—named after Anno Dracula , the series' first novel—is a work of fantasy depicting an alternate history in which the heroes of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula fail to stop Count Dracula's conquest of Great Britain, resulting in a world where vampires are common and...
on the main character of
On Stranger Tides.
Although
Ron GilbertRon Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...
has been widely quoted that the
Monkey Island seriesMonkey Island is the collective name given to a series of five graphical adventure games produced and published by LucasArts, originally known as LucasFilm Games through the development of the first game in the series. The fifth installment of the franchise was developed by Telltale Games in...
of adventure games was inspired by Disneyland's
Pirates of the Caribbean ridePirates of the Caribbean is a dark ride at the Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris theme parks.This was the last attraction in which Walt Disney himself participated in designing; it opened three months after his death...
, he stated in a blog that the ride was mainly his inspiration for the ambience of the series, while his true inspiration was
On Stranger Tides.
On September 11, 2009, Disney announced that in the summer of 2011, the fourth installment of the wildly popular
Pirates of the CaribbeanPirates of the Caribbean is a multi-billion dollar Walt Disney franchise encompassing a theme park ride, a series of films and spinoff novels as well as numerous video games and other publications...
series would be entitled
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The announcement has fueled speculation that the movie will follow the plot of the novel, with Jack Sparrow replacing Jack Shandy as the story's protagonist, especially as Powers sold the film rights for the novel to Disney.
External links