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Cutthroat Island
Inheriting her father's pirate ship and his map to an unfathomable treasure, the fiery Morgan Adams begins a merry hunt, with the help of con artist William Shaw, until her uncle and the British Navy get in the way. Original. Movie tie-in.
245 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1995
60 people want to read
About the author
John Gregory Betancourt
398 books69 followersJohn Gregory Betancourt is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels as well as short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at Amazing Stories and editor of Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field, the revived Weird Tales magazine, the first issue of H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror (which he subsequently hired Marvin Kaye to edit), Cat Tales magazine (which he subsequently hired George H. Scithers to edit), and Adventure Tales magazine. He worked as a Senior Editor for Byron Preiss Visual Publications (1989-1996) and iBooks. He is the writer of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series, as well as a dozen original novels. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as Writer's Digest and The Washington Post.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 9, 2021
Well. That was a ride.
I mean, don't you have a special movie that you love and barely has any merchandise or recognition? You love the world and every detail in it, but there's no material outside the movie so you have to fill the gaps on your own. I loved Cutthroat Island, flawed as it is, since I was a kid. So reading this was like finding a secret door in a room you've been living in your whole life.
Don't get me wrong, the novel is crap if we have to judge it outside the movie. There are so many mistakes that even I, a non native, noticed. But the beautiful thing is that it allows you to know more. From movie plotholes I've never thought about (like what happens with Reed after the battle or the whole backstory behind the treasure hunt) silly geeky details (like the cool story behind Dawg's neck scar) or deleted scenes that I know were filmed and I hope to see in a future 30th aniversary special edition (Morgan's interrogation after discovering the treasure or a final duel that shows the demise of Governor Ainslee)
As I said, it's my geeky weakspot. I love to dive deep into the fictional world of the movies I love since I bought as a kid all those Star Wars collectibles that explained you the silliest details behind everything. To me this was a joyful guilty pleasure.
PD: I loved that the author tried to explain all the MICHAEL BAY EXPLOSIONS with "Aw, well, there was a keg of Rum there, you see? That's the reason why everything explodes in this movie. Yeah. Rum. Highly flammable."
I mean, don't you have a special movie that you love and barely has any merchandise or recognition? You love the world and every detail in it, but there's no material outside the movie so you have to fill the gaps on your own. I loved Cutthroat Island, flawed as it is, since I was a kid. So reading this was like finding a secret door in a room you've been living in your whole life.
Don't get me wrong, the novel is crap if we have to judge it outside the movie. There are so many mistakes that even I, a non native, noticed. But the beautiful thing is that it allows you to know more. From movie plotholes I've never thought about (like what happens with Reed after the battle or the whole backstory behind the treasure hunt) silly geeky details (like the cool story behind Dawg's neck scar) or deleted scenes that I know were filmed and I hope to see in a future 30th aniversary special edition (Morgan's interrogation after discovering the treasure or a final duel that shows the demise of Governor Ainslee)
As I said, it's my geeky weakspot. I love to dive deep into the fictional world of the movies I love since I bought as a kid all those Star Wars collectibles that explained you the silliest details behind everything. To me this was a joyful guilty pleasure.
PD: I loved that the author tried to explain all the MICHAEL BAY EXPLOSIONS with "Aw, well, there was a keg of Rum there, you see? That's the reason why everything explodes in this movie. Yeah. Rum. Highly flammable."
August 3, 2013
Cutthroat Island: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun
Cutthroat Island By John Gregory Betancourt
Yes. Another novel from church book give away. This time the novel is called Cutthroat Island and it is written by John Gregory Betancourt. Well I call it a novel, but I’m not sure it really counts. It is a novelization of the screenplay to apparently a old movie I never seen with the same title. So it is a movie tie in. I typically don’t read these things, but if its free. Why not?
Anyways. What is the story? The story focuses on a woman pirate Morgan who upon her father’s death inherits the crew and pirate ship he once had. He was killed by her evil uncle Dawg, who is looking for Cutthroat Island and it’s mysterious treasure. Each of his brothers has a piece to the map, so the evil Dawg (who never was given any pieces) is killing his brother for these pieces. Meanwhile Morgan is trying to find the treasure first by stealing the pieces of the maps before her uncle finds them. But because the map is written in Latin, she finds she must break a Latin reading con man/thief out of prison who is William Shaw. Together Will and Morgan go on a adventure to find this treasure and fight Dawg along the way.
So I’ll start with good. It’s a pirate book. There are so few of these so I’m glad when I find a pirate book in general. It also has a lot of adventure.
The bad? The book is very shallow. Both the character and story is. It moves quickly and refuses to give is detail during action scenes. There is a complete lack of ambitions and character depth. There is a subplot which is this story between Shaw and Morgan. It is so flat, empty and emotionless. It just seems to fly out of nowhere. I wasn’t quite sure why this happened. The story had everything going for it. I’m guessing it because it is a movie tie. And oddly enough there were typos. Not a big complaint. Often times I never do because I care more about the story than grammar. Also as a self publish author I understand how hard editing could be. But this had a lot of typos. But it was a movie tie in so I feel that there was little effort involved. Very odd.
Overall, the control story is good and fair. But the lack of detail and character development pulls it down. This makes it very mediocre when it could have been something much greater.
2 smoothie out of four.
Overall Rating: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun.
P.S. Like books? Then check out my book and ebook website, Lelue's Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/
Cutthroat Island By John Gregory Betancourt
Yes. Another novel from church book give away. This time the novel is called Cutthroat Island and it is written by John Gregory Betancourt. Well I call it a novel, but I’m not sure it really counts. It is a novelization of the screenplay to apparently a old movie I never seen with the same title. So it is a movie tie in. I typically don’t read these things, but if its free. Why not?
Anyways. What is the story? The story focuses on a woman pirate Morgan who upon her father’s death inherits the crew and pirate ship he once had. He was killed by her evil uncle Dawg, who is looking for Cutthroat Island and it’s mysterious treasure. Each of his brothers has a piece to the map, so the evil Dawg (who never was given any pieces) is killing his brother for these pieces. Meanwhile Morgan is trying to find the treasure first by stealing the pieces of the maps before her uncle finds them. But because the map is written in Latin, she finds she must break a Latin reading con man/thief out of prison who is William Shaw. Together Will and Morgan go on a adventure to find this treasure and fight Dawg along the way.
So I’ll start with good. It’s a pirate book. There are so few of these so I’m glad when I find a pirate book in general. It also has a lot of adventure.
The bad? The book is very shallow. Both the character and story is. It moves quickly and refuses to give is detail during action scenes. There is a complete lack of ambitions and character depth. There is a subplot which is this story between Shaw and Morgan. It is so flat, empty and emotionless. It just seems to fly out of nowhere. I wasn’t quite sure why this happened. The story had everything going for it. I’m guessing it because it is a movie tie. And oddly enough there were typos. Not a big complaint. Often times I never do because I care more about the story than grammar. Also as a self publish author I understand how hard editing could be. But this had a lot of typos. But it was a movie tie in so I feel that there was little effort involved. Very odd.
Overall, the control story is good and fair. But the lack of detail and character development pulls it down. This makes it very mediocre when it could have been something much greater.
2 smoothie out of four.
Overall Rating: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun.
P.S. Like books? Then check out my book and ebook website, Lelue's Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/
November 7, 2023
[Can't find the script option, so I'm gonna put this here, because hey, Every Reading Matters™.]
"He could charm the bark off a tree, and probably has. [...] He's never entered a room without a scheme in his head and a story on his lips."
One of my all-time favourite movies, the script felt like a retelling of sorts, but rougher and crueler. More realistic in its own fantasy, if that makes sense. The characters felt more fleshed-out than in the movie, the pacing faster but deeper, denser at the same time, as if the movie was wine but this previous version was honey.
The protagonist couple's dynamic is much more equal in this version, they feel like the same brand of rotten; poetic. He is less of a Flynn Ryder, she is more of a Katherine Lindsay.
Pity King Charles only got mentioned onced, and not even by name.
"He could charm the bark off a tree, and probably has. [...] He's never entered a room without a scheme in his head and a story on his lips."
One of my all-time favourite movies, the script felt like a retelling of sorts, but rougher and crueler. More realistic in its own fantasy, if that makes sense. The characters felt more fleshed-out than in the movie, the pacing faster but deeper, denser at the same time, as if the movie was wine but this previous version was honey.
The protagonist couple's dynamic is much more equal in this version, they feel like the same brand of rotten; poetic. He is less of a Flynn Ryder, she is more of a Katherine Lindsay.
Pity King Charles only got mentioned onced, and not even by name.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews