The Price of Freedom (Pirates of the Caribbean) by A. C. Crispin is a PotC tie-in telling Jack Sparrow's back-story. It was already known that the Black Pearl was originally known as the Wicked Wench but was sunk and burned. Jack made a deal with Davy Jones to raise it. We also know that Jack's father was the Keeper of the Code and that Jack was branded as a pirate after failing to deliver a load of slaves. This novel was written to fill in the details.
The plot mainly follows Jack as he goes from first mate on an East India Trading Company ship to captain of the Wicked Wench. There are a lot of flashbacks to Jack's earlier life on Shipwreck Island explaining how he came to leave it. Jack is working for Cutler Becket and we get his back-story as well. For good measure, there is a princess from a lost colony of Egypt who is searching for her lost father and brother.
The book has several familiar cameos. There is also a pirate princess and a group of rouge pirates who do not follow the code.
It isn't a bad book but it has one major flaw - the main character just doesn't feel like Jack Sparrow. He's too nice and totally trustworthy. He plans things out ahead of time.
As pirate books go, it isn't bad. The author did a lot of research although there are some anachronisms lie the use of a Blackwall Frigate which was designed in 1830. Several other details are better researched and it provides a nice explanation for some of Jack's appearance in the movies.
I suggest waiting for paperback.
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