Piratica

Ideas about Piratica by Tanith Lee

Inside cover reads:
"Artemesia spent her childhood on a pirate ship, and she's sick of practicing deportment at the Angels Academy for Young Maidens. Escaping, she sets out to find her mother's crew and breezily commands them out to sea. Fiery Art. soon shapes her men into the cleverest pirate band afloat. And then they meet the dread ship Enemy and her beautiful, treacherous captain, Goldie Girl. The Seven Seas aren't quite alrge enough for two pirate queens--Arit will have to wage the battle of her life to win her mother's title... and the race for the greatest treasure in pirate lore."

My Rxn:
This REEKS of cheese. With an intro like that, how can this book be anything but hokey, saccharine, "yay for her cause she's a girl and she's going to conquer the world" crap!? I dunno... but I'm kind of already liking it because the first sentence reads:
"One day when she was sixteen, Art remembered her mother. It happened because Art fell down a flight of steps and hit her head on a wooden bannister carved in the shape of an eagle" (3). HEH.

it's kind of a disappointment.... i mean, it's a great little story, full of swashbuckling girl power, a smart-ass parrot, and a good swear word here and there... it's got awesome imagery and word play... it even swells with a complicated, intelligent protagonist who is clever enough to solve her own problems. she leads a ragamuffin crew and wins the game....
but

i
just
don't
like
it.


perhaps i'm judging too harshly... perhaps i'm comparing it to Rees' Pirates!.... it's not a difficult read... i just really didn't want to keep reading it. i wasn't really excited about it, either. however, these are my personal opinions. i think that it is a good story. it's well written, and there are some nice quotes in it... i think students might enjoy it... girls for it's girl power, and guys for the swear words. heh.... so it wins the word nerd seal of approval. It's still a good book, whether I like it or not.

quotes that made me like most of it:

"Miss Eble was one of the Academy's teachers. The kind of teacher who never learned anything herself. Or taught anything, except sarcasm and fear" (4). I'll use sarcasm... but fear sucks. i see no point to it.

"Madam, what is this nonsense you're spouting like an unblocked drain?" (5) HAH!

"Morning opened the doors of the sky" (96).

"There was a razor's glint in the green eyes now" (139).

"Unwelcome was turning, pivoting like an athlete on one foot" (158). Kind of kills the setting... this makes me think of basketball... and i don't want to think about basketball whilst reading about pirates.

"Flame or fiery steam fiendishly lit the underdeck through its ports" (158). Nice consonance.

"Stars undid their doors" (205). love that.