SAIL by James Patterson

[sailordave]

I sorta like his books, but this one had some real goofs in it.

First, the Step Dad flies his new wife and her 3 kids AND all their luggage for a 2 month cruise to the boat in his CESSNA SKYHAWK. Hmmmm. FIVE people AND gear in a FOUR seat airplane. Riiiiiggghhtt.

Then the boat is at sea. The "hero" goes topside to see the person on watch. Senses a storm is coming (unforecast). So he goes fwd to raise the SEA ANCHOR???? Okay, so suspend for a moment the fact that they should be SAILING at sea. MAYBE they just decided to park the boat for a break. But then after getting the "sea anchor" up, he goes to REEF the mainsail. Hmmmm, guess they weren't "anchored" afterall.
It goes downhill even further from there.

Oh, and the StepDad is one of the bad guys.

[dtpeterson]

A little research goes a long way to believability in a book. Thanks for the heads-up on this one....I'll steer clear.

[Faster]

Those kinds of errors are annoying and unnecessary... Lately Patterson's books all list a co-author as well, I suspect that he may just read them and put his name to them.

[camaraderie]

Ha...just read this myself. I really like a lot of Patterson's books but this one had me shaking my head.

Another error...this is supposed to be a Morris yacht. The engine water intake line is sabotaged and the boat nearly floods...no mention of simply turning off the sea ****! The hero substitutes a piece of FUEL line to repair the break!

[berkshire1]

I can't comment on sailing too much because I am such a newbie. I love it when I topic comes up that I can comment on.
I am a writer with 2 books published. One is a best seller. I went on a book tour in 2005 and met John Grisham. We had a long talk about writing.
He said most well known authors come up with the basic story then pass off the research and actual writing to someone else.
I think Patterson has done that with this one.
They do this at the request of publishers because the actual author needs to be out promoting. That's how the publishes make their money. Sales not writing.
Sad but true.

[sailingdog]

It is very sad when authors don't do their basic research... makes the book a lot less believable in the long run...

[therapy23]

It is true garbage.

[sailordave]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Ha...just read this myself. I really like a lot of Patterson's books but this one had me shaking my head.

Another error...this is supposed to be a Morris yacht. The engine water intake line is sabotaged and the boat nearly floods...no mention of simply turning off the sea ****! The hero substitutes a piece of FUEL line to repair the break!

Oh yeah, forgot that part. And they were "sailing" at the time; why the hell not just shut the damn seacock???


BTW if you like Airplane novels, John Nance writes really good stuff. I've been amazed at how accurate they are. An acquaintance of mine knew him through work and I told her to tell him THUMBS UP!

[NOLAsailing]

I got this atrocity for Christmas. It's absolutely unreadable.

[bljones]

James Patterson has become a publisher's dream- a writer who has no pretensions about his place in the literary world. He knows that he is a brand, and has adapted to that reality by basically creating a pulp fiction sweatshop. He comes up with an idea, and has a team of junior scribes who flesh out his outlines. Thus a James Patterson novel is just like any mass produced product- quick, cheap, familiar, and quality control gets a little sloppier with each new release.