Piratica [Mass Market Paperback]

You've read the blurb - Art turns into a pirate and sails the high seas, convinced that she is after all, daughter of Piratica. There are some interesting little twists and turns of the plot, and not until close to the end is the denuement.

This is a brillantly executed tale of adventure and derring do!

Art is so well conceived and written, full of normal human frailties and doubts but determined to soldier on through life.

She meets up with, and robs a very handsome young gentleman who accompanies them - albeit unwillingly at first and later out of curiosity, we are told...

So, ingredients - high seas, adventure, lost loves, new faces, wicked enemies and a dog - what more could you possibly need for a wonderful story?...!!

Artemesia Fitz-Willoughby Weatherhouse was practicing grace and deportment, as befits a fine young lady of early 19th-century British society, when a clumsy tumble down the stairs restored lost recollections of her youth. Now 16, she suddenly remembers the accident six years earlier when an exploding cannon on her mother's pirate ship robbed her of both her memories and her mom. No longer content to be a "lady" -- and thoroughly despising the father whose only wish for her was to suppress her natural instincts and personality -- Artemesia escapes her rigid school and seeks some means to resume her former life.

After an unexpected encounter with a notorious English highwayman, Artemesia makes her way to a seedy dockside tavern, where she finds a large portion of her mother's former crew making a bare living as coffee salesmen. But they, though pleased to see this younger model of their beloved former leader, have more memories of hers to restore -- particularly those proving that Art's version of events were never true. They weren't pirates, the crewmen insist, but actors portraying pirates on stage. Their popular productions -- with Art's mother always starring in the lead role of the good-spirited and merciful pirate queen Piratica -- were so realistic that they had impressed on young Art's mind memories more vivid than the truth.

Or did they? Tanith Lee's young-adult novel "Piratica" has a good many twists and turns in the plot before readers discover the real story of this young girl's past. But, until they surface, Art isn't content to pass her time in that seedy pub; instead, she -- now using the name Art Blastside -- leads her acting troupe to sea, where they commandeer a ship and make their fiction into reality under her mother's trademark black-on-pink Jolly Roger.

Compared to some of Lee's other, more mature fiction, "Piratica" is a trifle awkward and oddly paced, and its heroine is just a little bit too good at everything she tries to do. Acting solely on memories from, in some cases, her infancy, she demonstrates unparalleled skill at seamanship and knowledge of the sea. Her crew, meanwhile, is presented as a tight collection of actors who, once prodded by their 16-year-old captain, excel at all things nautical. It stretches even the most pliable limits of belief.

Not that "Piratica" isn't an enjoyable read. It is, and I was never tempted to cast it aside; Lee's mastery of character and plot are too deft not to hold my interest. Still, a far better example of young-girl-as-pirate fiction can be found in the pages of L.A. Meyers' excellent "Bloody Jack" series, which I heartily recommend. Even so, I am sure I'll want to read "Piratica II" if the opportunity presents itself.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(net) editor

First, let's get something straight. In order to enjoy Piratica, you must suspend reality. Half of the things that happen in this book would never work in real life. So if you're looking for a deep, intellectual novel, you will be seriously disappointed.

If, however, you are searching for a book that will make you laugh out loud even on repeat readings, where fantasic adventures are possible and an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl can become a heroine, then this book will be a joy for you. It's also my personal favorite of Tanith Lee's books.

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