Piratica

Tanith Lee (author)

Hodder Children's Books, UK: 2004; 370pp

ISBN: 0340854456

Note: extension vocabulary

Genre: adventure

Issues: crime, identity, justice, relationships, values

At the age of sixteen, following a severe knock on the head, Artemisia finally remembers her mother. It is then that she decides to leave Angels Academy for Young Maidens and seek out her dead mother's pirate crew.

Artemisia becomes Art Blastside, a pirate captain with grace, daring, style and, unusually for her profession, mercy. She takes as her example Piratica, as her mother, Molly Faith, was known. At first all goes remarkably easily and successfully; but perhaps her memory has played her false. Was her mother really a pirate? And if not, how has Art managed to become such a skilled swords-woman, such a daring adventurer, such a clever tactician and sailor?

Written in third person with Art's being the dominant perspective, this is a wonderfully readable piratical tale from Tanith Lee. The language - especially the dialogue - is somewhat stylised, which younger readers may find confusing, but it simply adds to the sense of high adventure.

What perhaps appeals most about this novel is the unpredictability of characters. Art's pirate crew are completely atypical - perhaps because of their original training - and their capacity for drama makes even the most dangerous situation seem rather comical. Lee, by creating Little Goldie and her crew as a foil to Art, shows the cruelty and brutality that is the more common reality of the usually romanticised view of pirates. Felix, too, acts as a constant reminder of those who are affected, even at a distance, by the theft and murder of piracy. In many ways Lee uses the novel to explore the contradiction between film and stage piracy (thoroughly romanticised, Erol Flynn type characters) and the criminality of the pirate trade as it really was - and still is, in some countries.

Art Blastside is a character who will appeal to both boys and girls because, as with so many ‘sheroes', as Tamora Pierce (Alanna the Lioness Quartet) calls them, she has cast aside her femininity in order to be accepted as a leader. There are some curious - and perhaps unintentional - social and gender stereotypes underlying this novel. Little Goldie is the classic female beauty who is deadly and deceitful. Goldie is also a comment on the gullibility of men, older men especially, for a pretty face and speeches that appeal to their patriarchal sense of importance. Art rejects her femininity only because of what it stands for in her eyes and by the standards of her society - dresses and feminine behaviour indicates a submission to a patriarchal society and its control of women.

On the other hand, Felix is the stereotypically handsome charmer but is atypical in his gentleness and pacifism, almost to an extreme. There is a lovely suggestion of gay partners with two of the pirates, a partnership which is so accepted by the crew and Art that it is only apparent in the two characters' interactions. Finally, Lee makes a scathing comment on a society that judges so much by appearance rather than personality and morality when, at the conclusion of Piratica, the worst criminal gets off without even a reprimand, and the ethical Art is condemned virtually without a hearing.

A swashbuckling adventure that should appeal to both boys and girls, this is light, rather than deep reading, but a very entertaining novel - the first in a fairly long series.