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On Stranger Tides | 
 enlarge | Authors: Powers, Tim
Publisher: Subterranean
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $12.31
You Save: $6.64 (35%)
New (17) Used (4) from $12.31
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 252216
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 280
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 1596061677
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781596061675
ASIN: 1596061677
Publication Date: April 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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Product Description
On Stranger Tides is Tim Powers's great Disneyland ride through pirates, puppeteers, treasure, and thrill a minute action that carries on from page one.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 An engaging pirate tale August 19, 2008
This is the first Tim Powers book I have read and all I can say is WOW! The story is clever (in a good way) the characters are engaging and the plot zips along. My only criticism is that the story's ending is obsessed with tying each loose thread.
Skip this edition - buy a used paperback on Ebay... July 3, 2008
I'm giving the book 4-stars for the fact that Tim Powers can produce nothing less than a 4-star work of fiction. This isn't my favorite Powers book by any means ("THE ANUBIS GATES" takes the top spot there), but it's a Tim Powers novel which means it's better than almost anything else written in genre fantasy. Tim is a bloody genius at characterization and plot and his style is unique and original.
But, there is a problem with this particular edition of the book that needs to be mentioned.
I love and support the small press industry, and own at least 20 titles from this particular publisher. But if you buy this edition of this fine novel, then you are supporting mediocrity within the small press and that's where I have to draw the line.
I purchased a copy of this book through a local chain bookstore - had to get them to special order it - and was unpleasantly surprised to find upon it's arrival that the type was squeezed significantly which makes the text not necessarily unreadable, but simply irritating to look at and somewhat difficult to focus on and read.
It's not that they shaved off a point or two on the size of the type, but from what I can tell, the type was squeezed from top to the bottom. It's sort of the same effect you get when you take a standard television signal and then run it through a wide screen tv set. Everything just sort of looks squatty and you lose proportion. It just doesn't look right?
I would prefer not to assume that the font was squeezed in order save pages - increased density of lines per page, thus a reduction in the number of overall pages required to typeset the book - but I can't really come up with another reason why this was done?
Excepting this one, unfortunately major flaw, Subterranean Press should be congratulated on the production values on this book. The binding is great with nice cloth-covered boards, creamy acid-free paper, and the use of the original cover is a rare treat for a reprint volume. And all this for only $18.95.
They also deserve thanks for reprinting titles that deserve to remain in print, and printing them in hardcover editions to boot. If not for the problem with the type, I'd be recommending this book to friends and family as a great purchase for value and multiple readings over the next 20-30 years.
I was really looking forward to this new edition, but I'm strongly considering returning the book, which for me is effectively an act of blasphemy.
 Introduction to Tim Powers April 24, 2008
Do not over-analyze this book. Read it for what it is. I am a Tim Powers fan, but other Tim Powers fans will try to say I'm not a true fan because this book was my introduction to Tim Powers. After reading this book, I searched for everything by Tim Powers and read it. Even after reading the earlier works, I personally feel that Stress of Her Regard and Last Call were both very powerful novels and both touched me in a way that made me look at the world a little differently. On Stranger Tides offers enjoyment. You will not put it down. You cannot ignore it. That alone speaks more than any written explanation can attempt. I will buy this hardcover edition and read it again. My original copy is a yellowed paperback I purchased while working at a bookstore, as a struggling college student.
Pirates and black magic... what else do you need? March 20, 2008
Pirates, voodoo, the caribbean, black magic... stop me if you've heard this story.
But OST is much more than a cobbled together version of a Disney ride. Powers has created a swashbuckling epic, and has enough ideas for any three other novels. There's epic sea battles, drunken sailors, some extremely nasty villains, and a nightmarish trip to the Fountain of Youth that is worth a read all on its own.
Powers has a fantastic imagination, and the skill to get it all onto the page. I'm in awe of his talent.
Welcome to the Caribbean September 8, 2007
Did you like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? How about the Monkey Island computer games? Then you will LOVE this book.
John Chandagnac has come all the way from Europe to finish some family business. Little did he know he would fall in love, get kidnapped by pirates, fight off the Royal Navy, zombies, voodoo magic and end up trying to find the Fountain of Youth.
The best part of the book is that most of the characters have their own goals in mind and, while sometimes they are helping John, most of the time they are looking out for themselves. The mixture of history and fiction makes it great book for, well, anybody! Myth, magic, history and legends all in one story.
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