After his recent death (at a relatively young age), it was salutary to remember that his writing career had been a very long one - so that when he took a concept that he might have used before (i.e., high tech amusement park goes disastrously wrong with fatal consequences for visitors) he could ensure that there was a lengthy gap so that people barely noticed (look at the plots of 'Westworld' (1973) and the aforementioned 'Jurassic Park').
And now we have his final book, published posthumously, 'Pirate Latitudes'. For once, though, it looks as if Crichton were following the pack rather than leading it - but things are not that clear cut as they might initially have seemed.
'Pirate Latitudes' takes the reader back to 1665, when Charles II’s Jamaican colony is under serious threat, besieged on every side by the voracious Spanish empire. At the centre of this troubled outpost is its crowded capital, Port Royal, a lively (if festering) hangout for criminal dregs, who inhabit its taverns and brothels.
This is the time of the privateer, when (with tacit royal sanction), ship's captains could make sorties against Spanish ships and outposts, plundering at will - just so long as the Governor and King Charles are taken care of.
And now we have his final book, published posthumously, 'Pirate Latitudes'. For once, though, it looks as if Crichton were following the pack rather than leading it - but things are not that clear cut as they might initially have seemed.
'Pirate Latitudes' takes the reader back to 1665, when Charles II’s Jamaican colony is under serious threat, besieged on every side by the voracious Spanish empire. At the centre of this troubled outpost is its crowded capital, Port Royal, a lively (if festering) hangout for criminal dregs, who inhabit its taverns and brothels.
This is the time of the privateer, when (with tacit royal sanction), ship's captains could make sorties against Spanish ships and outposts, plundering at will - just so long as the Governor and King Charles are taken care of.