I realized what the problem was after finishing it. It wasn't really a Michael Crichton novel. It was a manuscript that they found in his hard drive after he was dead and somebody decided it would be a good idea to publish it. Clearly it was an unfinished manuscript. It may even have been written years and years ago and shelved because he didn't want to bother editing and polishing it. Bottom line, this is definitely not in the league of Crichton's other works.
World Building: Decent
Characterization: Shoddy
Plot: *headdesk*
The biggest difference between this and the typical Crichton novel is in the plot. It's very linear. Usually I look forward to reading dozens of different perspectives and trying to figure out how they all fit together and how the plot is going to unfold. With Pirate Latitudes it was basically one perspective. A privateer is sent off to capture a Spanish prize vessel during a time of peace so he has to fabricate provocation or else he'll be deemed a pirate and there are unbelievable odds that the reader knows, from page one, he is going to be able to get through. Therefore, no reason for me to even read the thing...
The characterizations and world building also lacked the detail that I would expect from Crichton. There were many characters but none of them were very believable and we weren't given much description to really color the world so much. I've seen this book compared to Pirates of the Caribbean, as if to say that it's "as bad as those Pirates movies," but I completely disagree with this analysis. Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3 were awesome because they had likable characters and things happened to those characters that actually put them in danger! I wanted to watch to see if they would make it out alive, and in what condition they would make it out.
My honest opinion would be to skip Pirate Latitudes.
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