Piratica: Return To Parrot Island - Softcover

Lee, Tanith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340893575 ISBN 13: 9780340893579

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books, 2006

Synopsis

Art Blastside in her second daring adventure upon the high seas in search of missing treasure - and into the greatest sea battle of all time.

Having escaped the dreary Angels Academy for Young Maidens, 17-year-old Artemesia Blastside has rediscovered her mother's old friends and welded them into a formidable, motley crew of pirates. After successfully leading them through the haunts of highwaymen, pirates and smugglers in the treasure hunt of all time, Art has won her mother's crown as the famous PIRATICA. She is now the most admired pirate in England. And England is in the grip of piratomania.

But treasure snatched from her grasp still beckons from Parrot Island - and so it's time to lead the next high-sea adventure and try to reclaim what was almost hers. At her side is the gorgeous Felix Phoenix; and in her way, across war-torn seas, is the dastardly and monstrous Little Goldie Girl.

And on the horizon is the greatest sea battle of all time ...

About this title

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 great adventure ... the language is highly imaginative ... Adults and children alike can become immersed in this complex, distincitve and vividly depicted creation.' (Reviews)

PIRATICA:

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 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 dénouement is romantic as heck. (Kirkus Review: Starred)

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

... 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)

'A twisting, exciting and daring adventure' (Newcastle Upon Tyne Evening Chronicle, July 06)

'an entertaining story' (Image)

'a wonderfully swash-buckling story' (JNM Book Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0340893575
• ISBN 13: 9780340893579
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384