I guess that his experiences filming The Poseidon Adventure and Crimson Tide got into Gene Hackman's blood, as Wake of the Perdido Star is full of every seaman's cliche conceivable. One character does end up with a hook (no eyepatches, thankfully), the captain has premonitions of his own death, there's plenty of Jolly Rogers and piracy and cannonshot and shipwrecks and fathoms and beautiful native girls and evil Spaniards and noble British and Americans and topsails and broadsides and press gangs and fantails and even a letter of marquee, with the whole thing tied together in the tale of a young man out to avenge the death of his father. About the only thing that doesn't happen is a shark attack--maybe they are saving that for the sequel. However, that doesn't make it a bad book, just entirely predictable. Clearly the authors know their seamanship--Hackman's coauthor has impeccable credentials in this regard--but they don't always fill in the reader in a timely fashion, probably expecting him to either know the terms already or care enough to look them up. I'm sorry to admit that I didn't, and when I read the sentence I've used for my title, I couldn't help but think that it sounded like a Dr. Seuss version of The Night Before Christmas: The pintles were sprung from the gudgeons with care/in the hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there!" Not for several hundred more pages (literally) do Hackman and Lenihan tell us what pintles and gudgeons actually are, and the truth is that it doesn't really matter even then.
Wake of the Perdido Star is the perfect beach book for those who prefer their beach books without any hint of erotic character whatsoever. The writing is workmanlike--the tale solid and familiar, and if the book gets washed away by a freak wave it is no great loss.
The plot, focused around the young Jack and his adventures aboard the Perdido Star, is extremely well-developed. In their prose, Hackman and Lenihan paint a vivid picture for the reader. They manage to tackle several subplots with gusto and pizazz without losing sight of the more central story: Jack seeking revenge for the death of his parents. Also, even though there are a few twists that force the reader to "stretch the imagination" a bit, they are written with tremendous plausibility, making them far more easy to digest.
As I alluded to, the prose allows for wonderful imagery. Some of the passages describing the Perdido Star's voyages immediately evoke comparisons to the best of - dare I say - a Herman Melville or, more recently, Patrick O'Brian. Of note is the passage describing the Star's rounding of the cape, as well as the "battle" scenes involving the Star's departure from Manila harbor and the climactic fight at Havana.
All in all, Hackman and Lenihan have hit the proverbial home run with their first effort, a feat reserved for very few authors. Fans of the aforementioned Patrick O'Brian should also love this book. For those who enjoy the "technothrillers", this is a wonderful diversion from that genre. I certainly believe it is one of the past several years, and I hope that Mr. Hackman and Mr. Lenihan will grace us with another work very soon.
The agressive hero acquires a sidekick who faints at the sight of blood, and a Chinese cook who is a little more than that. With various enemies, intrigues, battles, hazards at sea, etc., it never gets dull. The native women match the description from "The Journals of James Cook," i.e., naked and promiscuous. There is enough sex, language, and violence to give it, at best, a PG-13 rating. It will require some re-writing to make it into a reasonable length for a motion picture.