In my early teens, I spent much of my time in a fantasy world. If I wasn't shooting through hyperspace with Han Solo at my side, I was swashbuckling my way around the seven seas, and had I written down my piratical woolgathering, the resulting book would (hopefully) have been along the lines of Pirates! by Celia Rees. This is every would-be-teenage-female-pirate's dream. An orphaned young girl, escaping the marriage arranged for her by her tyrannical elder brothers and ugly step-mother, young Nancy Kington, runs away with her ex-slave and best friend, Minerva Sharpe, to find their fortunes and lost loves on the high seas. They master swordsmanship and sailing, are accepted and respected by their fellow crewmen, and, on the whole, manage to remain unmolested. Of course, this is a romantic codswallop, but it's well-written romantic codswallop. Loved every word! ( )

too swashbuckling for me. ( )

Richie's Picks: PIRATES! by Celia Rees, Bloomsbury, October 2003, ISBN 1-58234-816-2
"I was of a roving frame of mind, even as a child, and for years my fancy had been to set sail on one of my father's ships. One grey summer morning, in 1722, my wish was granted, but not quite in the way that I would have wanted."

Celia Rees's PIRATES! is a spicy blend of adventure, history, greed, loyalty, danger, sisterhood, (and pants), involving two young women--one who has been born into wealth in Britain, the other into slavery in Jamaica--in the early 1700s.

Nancy Kington, the wealthy merchant's daughter whose mother died giving birth to her, narrates the story. It begins with the sordid events through which her brother's gambling costs the family its fortune and how, shortly thereafter on his death bed, Nancy's father schemes with her brothers to restore their wealth. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Nancy is made the bartering chip for consummating that deal.

"My father was a sugar merchant and a trader in slaves. He owned plantations in Jamaica, and that's where I was bound, but I had not been told the why or wherefore of it. My father's dying wish, that was all my brothers would say. I was not yet sixteen years old, and a girl, so I was neither asked, nor consulted. They assumed I was stupid. But I am far from that. I knew enough not to trust either of them and time was to prove me right. They had sold me as surely as any African they trafficked from the coast of Guinea."

Nancy is a teenager you've gotta love. In contrast to the typical upbringing of British females of the time, she's been taught to read by Robert, the slave her father has brought back from his Jamaican holdings to maintain the household. ("My father saw no reason to pay a houseful of women to sit about clacking and gossiping and eating his food, their backsides getting fatter by the day.") Nancy's taught herself to letter and number by repeatedly copying documents in her father's office. She's picked up fencing from her big brother. Thanks to her father's permissiveness, she's grown up strong and feisty, romping in the sunshine on the quayside of Bristol:

"He was an indulgent parent, some might say too indulgent, for he left me to do as I liked. I consequently ran wild, spending most of my time getting into mischief with the other children of the port.
"I did not want for playmates. Docks and ships attract children like a shambles attracts flies. I led them on with my pockets full of glistening chunks of white sugar and dark crumbling Muscovado done up in twisted paper. 'Spice,' they called it. 'Got any spice, Nancy?' We made play things out of whatever we found: swarming over barrels, playing king-of-the-castle, making seesaws with planks, rolling barrel hoops along with staves, swinging from nets, climbing ropes and rat lines."

When she arrives at her family's Jamaican plantations, she learns the real human cost of that sugar and "spice" whose sale had provided her comfortable childhood. And then, along with the adolescent slave girl Minerva Sharpe, whose job it is to care for her, Nancy discovers the heavy personal price that has been struck on her shoulder in exchange for allowing her brothers to maintain their privileged economic position. Neither willing to accept the deal worked out without her consent, nor willing to allow the behavior of the plantation's white men toward Minerva--who has rapidly become like a sister to her--the two young women together embark upon a path that eventually leads to a career "on the account," a euphemism for piracy.

We follow Nancy and Minerva, both pursuing and being pursued, as they sail across the high seas, in and out of colonies and islands, storms, African settlements, and confederacies, accompanied by a spectacular collection of daring and dangerous characters.

" 'I put my faith in the stones,' he smiled at me across the table. 'They do not fade, they do not rot, and they do not lose their value. They are light to carry and easy to keep close.' He patted his pocket. 'They will never let you down.' "

Put your faith in Celia Rees's PIRATES! You'll love the rollicking adventures of these 18th century spice girls! (And for those of you who fancy setting sail for LA or Toronto in search of convention plunder, be sure to aim your sights on the Bloomsbury booth, for PIRATES! is a real jewel that will not let you down.)

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com ( )

This was the first pirate fiction I read and it has me hooked. The story follows young Nancy Kingston and her adventures on the high seas. In the book you see her step out of the gender roles of the time, which i love. If you love historical fistion I think you'll like it too. ( )

This review contains plot details.

Pirates! is a young adult novel about Nancy Kingston, an upper class girl with no worries in the world until, one day, a story hits wiping out her family fortune. In the aftermath of the storm, her father passes away but not before setting up a plot to marry her of to rich man with a dark reputation. Rather then marrying this man, Nancy finds herself running of to sea with a pirate crew.

I enjoyed the first half of this book a lot, it had a lot of good setup. Nancy is shown as a free spirit who isn't afraid to defy her gender role and has strong ideas about what she wants but it loyal and caring. Her world comes crashing around her and she does the best to cope, even as she realises how the men around her have betrayed her.

The second half, I had some problems. A lot of them come down to the two girls here and how they're portrated. We have the two women, Nancy and Minerva. It's blatantly obvious from when Minerva steps onto the page that she's Nancy's illegitimate sister, so that big dramatic revelation later is a bit of an anti-climax. When Nancy joins a pirate ship as crew, Minerva comes with her. Minerva, the back girl, takes to the sea like a good one. She does real sailors jobs like climbing up in the rigging and seems to be respected by the men. She also acts as a companion and carer for Nancy, offering sage advice and soothing her nerves. Nancy, by comparison, doesn't seem to do anything around the ship other then keep books and hang out with the surgeon. Her role in the various plots and battels seems to be to sit still and look pretty. In fact, several times her role is shown as expressedly that, such as in the final fight where Nancy looks pretty and Minerva chops of a man's head and becomes a pirate queen. This is present right from the moment they join the pirate ship where Nancy is tested by having to care for a wounded sailor and Minerva has to shoot things. And, of course, Minerva inevitably falls in love with the black man on ship and has a baby and goes of to live in a village, while Nancy returns to England to marry her love and presumably live a comfortable life on her profits from piracy.

So racism and some sexism. I spent most of the second half of the book hoping Nancy would show some of the backbone she'd shown in the first half of the book and gone out and done something, anything other then wishing for her lost love and looking sad. It wasn't helped by the fact that I hated the lost love. When he shows up half way through the plot he acts like he owns Nancy, like she's property. Not nice. I also took exception to Nancy's worrying specific prophetic dreams.

I waited for most of the second half for Nancy to show some fire, to do something for herself, but she never does. The only decision she seems to make entirely for herself in the second half is to go home and get married. Good start but faltered in the end. ( )