Piratica: Piratica - Softcover

Lee, Tanith

3.64

3,112 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340854456 ISBN 13: 9780340854457

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books, 2004

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Trapped in the dreary Angels Academy for Young Maidens by her tyrant father, 17-year-old Artemesia Blastside (Art to her friends) dreams of the seafaring life she once led with her mother, a notorious pirate, killed six years before by an untimely cannonblast.

Unaware that her memories of glamorous characters and high adventure are not what they seem, she seizes her chance to escape. Now she's off in search of her mother's old crew, her heart set on the High Seas, the Blue Indies of the Caribbean, and on treasure Beyond the Dreams of Avarice. Careering through the haunts of highwaymen, pirates and smugglers Art sweeps a motley and unwilling crew into the treasure hunt of all time, and does her best to win her mother's crown as the feared and famous PIRATICA.

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Review:

Presented most handsomely by the notorious author Tanith Lee, Piratica is her daring tale of a single-girl's adventure upon the high seas and is most definitely not what it says it is on the tin--this is a novel of great invention and bountiful surprises.

Taking place in a parallel world in the year Seventeen-Twelvety (approximately 1802) this almost historical adventure begins with 16-year-old Miss Artemesia Fitz-Willoughby Weatherhouse, or Art for short, coming to her senses in her select but dreary prison that is the Angels Academy for Young Ladies. She longs for the life her deceased mother Molly led and is determined to break out and rebel against her uneasy aristocratic father. Molly Faith was a notorious female pirate who coined and earned the feared nickname Piratica.

Taking a rare chance to escape her educational shackles, Art makes for Ports Mouth and the unruly inn where her mother's old shipmates congregate to drown their sorrows. Taking on her mother's mantle and battle cry--Art urges them to resurrect their former seafaring career of blaggardry and to strike out for further fame and infamy. It is at this juncture that Art learns a fearful and totally jaw-dropping truth about her infamous mother's past life. It's a twist so unexpectedly twisty that it may well be the twistiest turn a story has ever embarked upon.

This is a novel about which the reader cannot help but feel an enormous sense of fun and warmth. The author's editorial tongue is firmly in cheek throughout, but its rip-roaring spirited and pleasurable nevertheless. Suitable for readers aged 12 and over. --John McLay

Review:

A glorious roustabout of a tale, full of yummy set pieces and terrific adventures, unbelievable in a most satisfying way. The language is rip-roaring or glides like a seagull, as needed. And the thrilling d�nouement is romantic as heck. (Kirkus Review: Starred)

a rollicking read. Road adventure, sea voyage and treasure hunt in one. (Irish Times)

A hilarious romp. (The Bookseller)

On recent evidence, pirate stories look like being the next big thing. If so, may they all be as much fun as this one, by the Cat's Elbows! (Jan Mark, The Guardian)

... a wonderfully rumbustious fantasy that is as clever as it is entertaining. (The Independent)

Tanith Lee restores one's faith in fiction as the expression of imagination and original thought. (The Guardian)

Swashbuckling for the over-10s (The Daily Telegraph)

'A twisting, exciting and daring adventure' (Newcastle Upon Tyne Evening Chronicle)

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