ericadawn16 | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom

I had heard mixed reviews about Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom but it has Beckett, I loved author A.C. Crispin's Han Solo prequel series and I basically read everything about POTC anyway...

So, I loved it and to illustrate one of the points why I love it, I'm going to use the Bechdel test. It's still not a litmus test for me but I think it'll be useful here.

1. It has to have at least two women in it Yep
2. Who talk to each other Yep
3. About something besides a man Yep

Try doing that with the actual films! Actually, the Young Jack Sparrow series and Legends of the Brethren Court also have better multiple female characters but they don't always interact with each other. However, this book had female characters interacting and talking with each other on MULTIPLE occasions!

Some had concerns about Jack's "voice" but I felt like this is a much younger Jack Sparrow before Barbossa's betrayal and really growing into a man. Really, how many 25 year olds act the same at 38? People change.

I was once again struck by how similar Jack Sparrow is to Han Solo. Obviously, I knew this before which is why I thought Crispin would be such a great choice but it's still interesting to compare the two rogues with troubled childhoods and a hatred of slavery along with a distrust of religion.

However, then that makes me even more curious that we fully support Han settling down with Leia but a majority of POTC fans seem to hate the idea of Jack settling with anyone but his ship. So, what makes the difference there? Is it just because of their acting or because Han/Leia are canon or because they were supposed to be for kids? If you notice, Han's the rogue but we never actually see him kiss anyone but Leia...
On the other hand, we hear all about Jack's exploits but we only see him kiss Elizabeth which wasn't his idea and Angelica.
I suppose Jack is just too damaged, compared to Han, to maintain a meaningful relationship other than Gibbs (NOT slash, platonic) or the Pearl especially since he's often apart from both.

One of the main females in the book, Esmeralda, is similar to Angelica but I felt she was done better. She chose to leave her convent education to become a pirate since that was the family business and not because of Jack Sparrow. Esmeralda didn't have any secret agendas or contradict herself.

If they wanted to make a film out of this, I'd be very happy...

Beckett was awesome. We learned a lot of his backstory and I was very pleased with the details. I felt there was even enough ambiguity that I could still ship Beckett/Jack if I wanted.

My only real quibble with the novel, and it is just a quibble, is that the chapters are really long. I feel so bad for complaining but when you're used to chapters that are 8-20 pages, then a book with 40 page chapters just seems so very different and daunting...

Oh, Poochie! POOCHIE!
I love Poochie and he's in this book. SPOILERS
It's very much implied that Poochie is immortal! YAY!

I started to write a story about Poochie being immortal in 2006, but never finished. Here's the beginning.

Poochie

In the year 1240 AD, a strange woman appeared on the island. She was like no woman that the young pup had seen before with not only clean finery, but eyes that almost looked bloody and bright. It was an abstract thought and certainly had to be what the humans meant by colors. He had never known them before. Everyone and everything were shadows of blacks and greys until she came. His littermates cowered before her so he alone stepped forward. Curiosity won out over his fear. She leaned down and he growled as best as his weak, high pitched voice could muster, but she only laughed. There was nothing he could do as she scratched the top of his head gently with her long nails where for a brief moment her skin met his fur. This was no human! Humans had pet him before as soon as he could make tentative steps away from his mummy and it had never been like this. Images assaulted the puppy of lands beyond his island of pirates and wrecks and the dormant monster within. He saw this woman…different: large or as crabs or with a man of strange attire or petting a strange sea creature of many legs. Names had never mattered much to the animal because none of his kind in this place had one. Even his mother and father were referred by the humans as “Dog” yet he suddenly knew with certainty what hers was. Calypso, he thought to himself and she smiled with nicotine stained teeth as she declared his, “Poochie.”

He had a name and she had given it to him!

They shared one last look before she continued walking. Then, the puppy made the second decision that would forever alter the course of his life just as rashly as he’d made the first. He followed her. He followed her despite his family barking for him to stop. Calypso shown brightly now in many colors that contrasted greatly with the rest of the grey world. Poochie couldn’t resist her and found it exciting as she led him farther into the bowels of the island than he had ever been before. It was a large room with a table of equal proportions yet the room was bare save for a bowl on the table, a few of the ancient treasures of Greece, coins, trinkets and thirteen men. Nine stood exquisitely in color and he recognized them as the Brethren, although they had never met in one place together, while two others were of a paler hue. The puppy became apprehensive about what was going to happen and whined.

“You dare to scheme against me? Ares?” she accused and one of the paler men changed into his true form so he shone as brightly as she. He wasn’t human either and the God lunged at her as the mystic from Arabia began chanting which only incensed Calypso more. She threw him off and the earth moved so that mystic fell with it, hitting his head hard on the table leg. It was obvious that the man was dead, but another continued the chant while Ares grabbed the woman very tightly. The God’s appearance was like that of an unblemished young man as he continued to hold her close as she struggled to transform, managing only to elongate a finger here or change her nose there. All the while, her captor spoke things in her ear that made Poochie very uncomfortable to hear them. There were objects in the bowl and the puppy watched as they began to glow blue even though they were ordinary junk. They were taking away her power was his first thought…except that didn’t quite seem right either as Ares held her tighter while she snarled and scratched at him.

“Dirty coward!” she spat in his direction and charged, “’Twas you that told them!”

“Not I, I is but a humble God obliged to offer his services when they are in need,” replied the muscular youth with brown curly hair who talked in a manner unknown to Poochie.

“Liar!” she yelled and he dropped her so that she fell to the ground, sobbing. Her magnificent color was faded and he began to bark in protest. They had broken her. The men simply laughed as they picked up piece after piece from the bowl and stepped over the lifeless body of the mystic although Ares laid a hand on her intricately braided hair before disappearing. Poochie was the only one to stay and try to comfort her the only way he knew how, by licking her salty tears.

“Poochie,” she rasped finally, “You will do.”

There was a glint in her eye as she pet him and it looked like blue spluttered from her fingertips. He wasn’t sure what to think and when she lay still, he fled. Calypso stole a boat in the middle of the night so the puppy never had a chance to say a goodbye or know what she had done to him. Not only could he see colors, but he felt different, too. The sameness he’d shared with his littermates was not just broken by the giving of a name, which grew evident as the years passed. Poochie wasn’t aging in the same manner of his brothers and sisters. Oh, he grew into a full-grown dog easily enough, but with same energy he’d always had even as his brothers rested from the exertion. He’d also fallen from a great height when a rotten board had given way and survived with nary a scratch. His own mum had looked a little afraid of him that time. While his brothers and sisters found mates and had litters of their own, Poochie looked desperately for color. The last of the Brethren to leave was also the last real color he had seen and he was anxious for one to return…but it’d been years. He wondered where Calypso had gone and whether he could find her. There was only one thing he could do: he had to leave the island. The thought was scary yet he was also excited by the images of foreign lands that the Goddess had put in his head. He could have stowed away on a boat. However, he’d be at the mercy of the captain. No, the dog had another idea. After everyone had told him farewell and his mum had licked his cheek, he had stepped onto the back of a sea turtle to start his new life…although with an odd feeling that he would see the island again. With no idea as to the location of Calypso or one of the nine Brethren, he headed west. He visited island after island before finally landing at what his current escort referred to as China.

Then, he would have traveled the world for centuries; meeting Marco Polo, Dante, Magellan, Shakespeare and others before deciding to stay at Port Royal for James.

...but I started writing Torchwood instead...