On Stranger Tides

In 1718, John Chandagnac, a puppeteer by trade, sails for Jamaica to face the uncle who cheated him out of his inheritance. Pirates seize his ship. To stay alive, he joins their crew and takes the name Jack Shandy.

Hurwood, a scholar named Benjamin, is held prisoner on board with his daughter Beth. Over the course of the voyage, Shandy discovers that the pirate captain, Blackbeard, is a voodoo sorcerer who commands the dead. Hurwood, it turns out, has dark ambitions of his own.

This is historical fantasy, set in a Caribbean where magic is as real as the tides. Real figures of the Golden Age of piracy, including Stede Bonnet and Anne Bonny, move through the story. The search for the Fountain of Youth carries the characters from Jamaica to Nassau and on to Florida.

Tim Powers published it in 1987, and it was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Its plot is often named as the origin of the idea behind the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. A man who set out to reclaim money must now decide how far he will go among sorcerers and sea raiders.