ON STRANGER TIDES MM

Sure, "Treasure Island" is the best pirate story of all time -- but it's by a narrow, narrow margin. While Stevenson was a heck of a fantasy writer -- check out his "Bottle Imp" if you doubt it -- Tim Powers is perhaps the best fantasy writer most fans have never heard of. And in typical Powers fashion, in "On Stranger Tides," he tosses in everything he thinks he might need in a pirate novel -- historical figures, naval action, a noble man in a bad situation, voodoo, jungles and so on -- and a few things only he would think to link to the rest and comes up with another hit, and my favorite Powers novel. The action here careens back and forth across the Caribbean and if Powers isn't wrestling crazy ideas to the ground as he does in "The Stress of Her Regard" or "The Anubis Gates," it's only because, this time around, the play's the thing.