La carta esférica (The Nautical Chart) Book

This was actually quite the disappointing novel. This is my third from Perez-Reverte, and the other two were significantly better. His voice is definitely there. As soon as I began reading, I recognized his voice. His writing transports the reader into another time and place, accompanied by a mysteriously intriguing aura that his words produce; an apprehensive, curious, but always with a tinge of the medieval. The problem here was the plot. It was not really interesting at all, did not really seem to go anywhere, and was pretty much completely predictable from the beginning of the book. In fact, it would have been completely predictable by synopsis alone.

To summarize this in a couple paragraphs. Coy is a dedicated, heartfelt, relentless, and seasoned sailor, more comfortable at sea on the high water than on land socializing with others. As a consequence of some negligence on a previous expedition, he has been grounded to land for a few years. Living off of savings, unemployed, and at a loss with what to do with his days, he fortunately (unfortunately?) meets a beautiful woman by the name Tánger Soto (by her father, whom sailed the seas near Tangier in South Africa). He becomes knowingly have sex with her, which leads to him knowingly being foolish enough to be willing to follow her to the ends of the earth, simply for the possibility of spending more time with her. This is despite the less than ideal treatment he receives from her, which in a word, is bitchy. He follows after her as if he has no power over his own mind, pretty much doing anything he is told.

As for Tánger, despite her past that may contribute to the way she uses coping mechanisms to defend herself from the weekend and am is society, she had no call to be so fearless toward those being genuinely unselfish in their "relationship" with her. Worst yet, she offers no apologies for the way she acts. She is the unspoken leader of this expedition, in search of the sunken ship, Dei Gloria. It is supposedly full of clear cut emeralds, worth somewhere in the hundred millions. Tánger has had her heart set on this since she was a little girl, and clearly willing to do whatever it takes. She unashamedly manipulates Coy into taking her there, purposefully withholding the cards she finds most valuable, revealing others intermittently. But only by her agenda. And when she showed some vulnerability, reaching out to him, Coy "has never before felt like he was raped by a woman". She makes love to him, someone she is fully aware is in love with her, without even looking at him, but through him. Selfishly. This, among so many other things, makes her a completely unlikeable protagonist, which does not bode well for a reader trying to connect with the characters.

Other characters are a couple treasure hunters trying to stop the two of them (a subplot of violence), scholars and professors in cartography and nautical studies, and El Piloto, the captain of the
Sailboat they take. The rest of the many hundreds of pages is full of nautical terms, cartography vernacular, and fictional historical information on the Jesuit ship. Read: uninteresting. Unless one is very familiar with the terms, or has a higher than average interest in both fields. Even then, they are not explain to the reader are very well. It was like academic writing, where it was assumed the reader was already knowledgeable in the basics. Like most of the population, I know close to nothing about these fields, and my excitement to learn more about it and be immersed in the world so that I would have a better grasp on the subculture was defused rather quickly. Most of it went over my head. I began to be greatly relieved whenever the specific discussions of longitude, latitude, knots, ships, etcetera ended and returned to story narration. But it was not long before the academic discussions began again in earnest.

A few hundred pages later, the team of three is still searching. Whether they actually find the sunken ship full of emeralds in the end is actually irrelevant. Each of the characters has their own reasons for being on the expedition, none of which the riches from The Dei Gloria can fulfill for them. As soon as the three amigos commenced with their final expedition- their final attempt- to uncover the lost ship, I thoroughly loved what I was reading. If only the rest of the book was not lackluster in comparison. Things moved along for these last thirty or so pages at a satisfying pace, with substantial suspense, and concluded with an ending that I really appreciated. many may have seen this as an unsatisfactory, sad ending. on the contrary, I found it not only inevitable, but one of the books where a fairy tale ending of any sort would have only made it that much worse.

Although much of the writing and story conclusion compensated for other less stellar aspects, readers would be better served trying another of his works. Unless a reader has an abnormal affinity for the nautical, try Perez-Reverte's "The Fencing Master".