Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure Upon the High Seas

Art Blastside had been born and bred to a life on the High Seas. Her mother was the famous lady pirate, Molly Faith, known as Piratica, whose code of honour saw that she never took a life. Art could remember Molly carrying her on deck during a storm and telling her "Don't ever be afraid of the sea. She's the best friend our kind have got", just as a great, green salt wave swamped the decks and soaked them. But Molly had died on board her ship, the Unwelcome Stranger, when a canon exploded, and Art had been rescued by her father.

So what was sixteen year old Artemesia now doing balancing books on her head, at the Angels Academy for Young Maidens?

Set in a parallel universe where England is a republic, and France is a monarchy, this story show more is full of swashbuckling adventure, and not just one, but three pirate queens. Not to mention a highwaywoman. There are chases and fights, mystery and derring-do, and, of course, a pirate treasure hunt.

This story grabbed my attention and held it through a rollicking, roller coaster of a ride, with the plot twists and turns coming thick and fast from the beginning to right at the end. I liked the capable young heroine and her determination to follow in Piratica's footsteps, even when she found herself in the middle of a rather unusual adventure.

The plot was tightly woven (though it does have its share of coincidences to help it along) and the adventure would appeal to both genders across a wide age group. However, younger readers (8-10) might find the more formal Regency style used in speech a little difficult. show less

"All the world's a stage, and all men and women are merely players"

Detta är ett perfekt citat för att sammanfatta den här boken där verklighet och teater blandas friskt och gränserna däremellan suddas ut.

Mer specifikt handlar den om 16-åriga Artemisia Blastside som bor i en värld som ungefär liknar vårt 1700-1800 hundraltal. När hon en dag slog huvudet i en ledstångsstolpe på det fina flickinternat där hon går MINS hon plötsligen. Hon minns allt; hennes piratmamma, hennes pråliga besättning och framför allt deras äventyr på de sju haven. Beslutsamt tar hon sig ut från det fängelse som flickskolan innebär och börja leta efter de piratäventyr och skatter som hon mest av allt eftertraktar.

En riktig äventyrsbok show more med en härlig hjältinna, som mest av allt liknar huvudpersonen i en pjäs (men detta lär vara meningen). Äventyr, hemligheter, den hårfina skillnaden mellan teater och verklighet och inte minst vikten av att leva som man tror är bärande i den här berättelsen. En äventyrsbok som inte gör en besviken, men också så mycket mer. show less

Piratica by Tanith Lee is a swashbuckling tale of piracy. Artemesia is, at 16, a student at a hoity-toity girl's school when a bump on the head brings her back memories of life aboard a pirate ship. Artemesia's mother was a pirate queen known as Piratica and Arty sailed with her and her band of pirates getting gold and treasure. Piratica is famous not only for her great treasure but for her morality; she wins through trickery and will not kill or sink ships. Arty escapes from school, seeks out the pirate crew (now advertising coffee), steals a ship, and sets out on her piratical career.

The journey is buffeted by different plot winds: there seems to be a traitor on board, Piratica was not the pirate Arty thought she was, there is a show more rival girl pirate who does not live by Piratica's genteel rules chasing after the ship for her own reasons, and the British Navy is on a mission to bring the new Piratica to justice.

This is a quick moving, engaging story which called up lots of energy from me for the characters and plot. I was pulled directly into the story and swung this way and that as her life changed and she worked her way to a clear view of who she was. While there are idiotic adults, they are not the norm (sort of like real life) and while Artemesia's father is a sexist idiot over concerned with what other people think and how much he can control people associated with him there are concerned and justice minded adults who look at the individual rather than at the generalization.

At the end, one character gets away with evil because she acts simpering and girly and appeals to the gender limitations of the social era. This is not fair but it does sometimes happen in real life. Appealing to those mores/limitations does not make her a happier person, though it saves her life, and it doesn't change who she was as a pirate. She has ruled through fear and abuse of power and has no friends or allies among the other pirates. show less

This review and others posted over at my blog.

Tanith has created a semi-Victorian (Regency? I don’t know time periods, sorry!) world in the year of Seventeen-Twelvety (how awesome is that?!) which somewhat resembles the actual year of 1802. This world primarily differs from our own in how the countries are laid out and there’s a handy map in the front that I actually referenced for once. But because this is Tanith and I am a flappy-handed fangirl for everything she’s written (ugh except Greyglass -tosses if off a cliff-) I felt there was something subtle about her world that differed from an actual historic period. I can’t explain this further and likely I am crazy.

Art is fantastic. She’s bold and witty and smart and super show more talented at being a pirate, despite not having been one for the past six years. She could potentially suffer from special snowflake syndrome, but she doesn’t because she has to work to win over her crew and she doesn’t have the shining, sapphire eyes and porcelain doll-like features of your usual heroine. And oh, the sun doesn’t shine out of her ass. Anyway! She’s a great lead, but her crew is small enough that most of them actually (I think I’m saying this word too much in this review, but I’m too lazy to change it) feel different and developed, where they could easily have fallen to the wayside (portside?)

There’s a lot to the plot that I can’t talk about or I’ll spoil the fun, but from the moment Art rediscovers her crew and takes on her new life as a pirate, I had this underlying sense of something more. I knew something else was up and it was a nice feeling, knowing that the plot had another element that wasn’t being revealed, even though the plot was acting like everything had been revealed.

Look, I have a hard time analyzing Tanith’s work because I am super biased. But I can say, if you’re looking for a witty, semi-middle-grade-semi-teen pirate adventure with swashbuckling, a fantastically charming ragtag group of pirates, talented parrot and dog companions, a strong female lead and totally hawt boi, but no love triangles and no breaths being held unbeknownst to the holder, then Piratica may be just what you’re looking for! I can’t wait to read the other two books! show less

This is the first of Tanith Lee's books I have read and it proved to be most enjoyable. She has a poetic style that may not be easily read by some young readers, but those who can adapt to her style will enjoy a novel with a memorable plot and characters.

I was really excited when this book came out. I fully expected to totally love it - Lee is one of my favorite authors, so.. Lee and pirates? How could it go wrong?
I'm not quite sure, but somehow it does.
Set in a 'slightly parallel world' in 1802 (which basically means that place names are spelled wrong: the river Thamis flows through Lundun, for example), 'Piratica' gives us a young woman named Artemisia, who, while studying deportment at her girls' school, falls and hits her head. After this blow, Artemisia experiences a rush of memory that convinces her that before her father locked her away in the school, she was a pirate, sailing the seven seas with her captain mother, Piratica. Inspired, she runs away from school and finds her show more mother's old compatriots - who turn out to be members of an acting company who had put on a successful play about pirates.
Undaunted, Artemisia, taking the name Art Blastside, convinces the actors to steal a ship, and embark on an adventure in search of treasure - which, unfortunately, is already being sought by some 'real' pirates.

Lee usually excels at creating a dreamlike atmosphere in her work, but in this book, the events are more absurdist than dreamlike. It's obviously not supposed to be realistic - but somehow I wanted the narrative to have more internal logic than it did. Maybe it was just my mood.
I was also just rather annoyed by the issue of "Is Artemisia crazy or not...?" It was sort of like I kept wanting the book to just settle down into being the silly adventure romp for teenagers that it's being marketed as - but these quirks and kinks kept coming up distractingly. Which sound like it might be interesting - but I didn't find it so. show less

I picked up this book both because I enjoy pirate stories and because the title promised educated, intelligent writing. "Piratica" is a lovely Greek-inspired word that clearly means "things concerning pirates", a neuter plural, and it obviously seemed a fitting title for a book like this. In my mind, such a weighty title for a YA novel promised a mock-serious style and a good deal of fun.

So, I went into this book with high expections. These expecations were perhaps built on a somewhat flimsy foundation, especially since I had had mixed experiences with Tanith Lee before. I had read and quite enjoyed one of her YA books when I was a youth myself, and this had prompted me to pick up one of her adult books as well. If only I had known the show more word "whore", I might have realized from the back cover that that book wasn't for me. I remember that there were some pretty shocking scenes of a young boy forced into prostitution, but over time I had partially dismissed my negative impressions of that book, convincing myself that I was traumatized only because my youthful naiveté had left me entirely unprepared for such adult content.

Fast-forward 10 to 15 years, when I came across this book for $1 at a sale. I figured I could give Tanith Lee another chance, since this was another YA one and I had liked her YA work before. Plus, I was caught by the allure of the title.

Ultimately, though, it was the title that betrayed the book, and I didn't get very far at all before I had to put the book down in disgust. It may seem like a trivial thing, but I just couldn't stand to read on after it was revealed that Piratica is the name of a women. It's just utterly inappropriate. How could I keep turning the pages when I would be forced to encounter a woman named "things concerning pirates"?

Lame names had already seemed to be the order of the day, with a city called Lundun to indicate that we weren't quite in the real world. That was okay, though, because at least it didn't scream of ignorance and misuse of language. I expect an author to have a good command of English, and at least to avoid using words based in other languages if they have no idea of the implications. But this book, while seeming to promise a certain level of erudition, turned out to be a false friend. The hint of Greek was there only to be abused. Expecting further cruel torture of undeserving words in the pages to come, I set the book down and have finally concluded that I won't be picking it up again. show less