The Family Sea

Piratica #3

by Tanith Lee

Presented most handsomely by the notorious author Tanith Lee, Piratica is her daring tale of a single-girl's adventure upon the high seas and is most definitely not what it says it is on the tin--this is a novel of great invention and bountiful surprises.

Taking place in a parallel world in the year Seventeen-Twelvety (approximately 1802) this almost historical adventure begins with 16-year-old Miss Artemesia Fitz-Willoughby Weatherhouse, or Art for short, coming to her senses in her select but dreary prison that is the Angels Academy for Young Ladies. She longs for the life her deceased mother Molly led and is determined to break out and rebel against her uneasy aristocratic father. Molly Faith was a notorious female pirate who coined and earned the feared nickname Piratica.

Taking a rare chance to escape her educational shackles, Art makes for Ports Mouth and the unruly inn where her mother's old shipmates congregate to drown their sorrows. Taking on her mother's mantle and battle cry--Art urges them to resurrect their former seafaring career of blaggardry and to strike out for further fame and infamy. It is at this juncture that Art learns a fearful and totally jaw-dropping truth about her infamous mother's past life. It's a twist so unexpectedly twisty that it may well be the twistiest turn a story has ever embarked upon.

This is a novel about which the reader cannot help but feel an enormous sense of fun and warmth. The author's editorial tongue is firmly in cheek throughout, but its rip-roaring spirited and pleasurable nevertheless. Suitable for readers aged 12 and over. --John McLay

Genres: Fantasy, Pirates, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Adventure, Novels, Childrens

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.

Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.

Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.

Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.

Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.

Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.

Reviews

[Eden · Rating 2 out of 5]

ART. FELIX. WHY????

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay I really enjoyed the first 2 books, like a lot. I loved the alternate universe and the humor was great. Then there was a third book. Honestly, I was pretty excited, Felix and Art having a kid is adorable, and a lot could be done with that. BUT SERIOUSLY THEY BREAK UP IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF CHAPTERS. Then there is a small glimmer of hope that they will get together again, when they find out about Felix's family, but no Art, the strong heroine is broken down and alone, and Felix is all ehh I don't give a shit about my WIFE. lets marry a queen. That is NOT okay. Also my second complant was there were too many characters. that I found were really minor, and randomly had huge roles. Like the cat, or the Percy girl/ Prince's random love story that had really nothing to do with the plot. Sorry for the rant, but I was just really disappointed because I loved the first two books so much.

[Lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Art Blastside aka Piratica is having a dramatic reversal of fortunes. Free England has decided that pirates are no longer "the thing" and should instead be prosecuted (be relieved of all their possessions) and encouraged to leave the country. On top of that, she has been suffering from post-partum depression to the point she wants nothing to do with her daughter, Africa (who she also thinks looks a LOT like Little Goldie Girl which only makes it worse). As she's deciding on a course of action, she is approached by a former crew member whose brother wants her to take him to The Treasured Isle. Citing an interest in the giant parrot skeleton, he is willing to finance the expedition and already has a ship and partial crew. Her past crew comes to her side, willing to support this new venture (even though the financer seems sketchy and possibly evil) but Art determines to accept his mission and leave Felix and Afra behind.

I'm not gonna sugar coat it, this was extremely disappointing and a major downer with questionable themes for a children's book. Art is in a very bad place mentally and Ebad and Felix are the only ones who really seem to notice and she abandons Felix before they have a chance to talk about it and gets separated from Ebad. Art and Felix are separated for like a week and both of them start making out with other people (yes, they are still married, by the way, and arguably still in love with each other). Art leaves her crew in a serious lurch and in the power of untrustworthy people, for what feels like a deus ex machina reason (and more an excuse to get her to France so she can fall for new guy, who thankfully she abandons in Italy, but the damage to my heart has been done). I picked this up hoping for a lighthearted, swashbuckling adventure with a childhood heroine, instead I got depression and overreaction from a far less clever than I remembered her, girl who is more in love with her legend than the people she claims to care for. I get the feeling Ms. Lee intended another (hopefully redemptive) book after this, but she killed her series with the bad plot choices in here. (I was seriously on the fence about if Art was going to commit suicide at the end of this story, I'm glad she didn't, but also pretty surprised she lived.) This gets two stars for Towser the cat, and the brief moments of swashbuckling and brilliance (which totally proved we could have gotten the fun story we all wanted; it was in there, wishing for a chance to shine).

Content notes: Mild, infrequent, old timey swearing. On page kissing, but nothing more; more objectionable is who is kissing whom. Multiple deaths happen slightly off page, the set up for the mode of death is described, the "camera" pans over as they head into their deaths, and comes back to find the aftermath that is only very generally described; drowning, crushing, swords/pistols and mobs are all causes of death, with peril from heights and pirates added in.

[Milliebot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright, I’ll admit I know next to nothing about the publishing world, but I’m mad that Dutton didn’t publish this in hardcover with the art that matches the first two! Nothing is worse than not being able own a matching series because some books simply don’t exist in that design! Argh! My solution is to also buy the Hodder paperbacks of the first two books so that I at least have one matching set. Not that I need an excuse to buy more Tanith books, or multiple copies of her books!

Right, on to the actual review. This book was bittersweet. It’s the end of a trilogy (and sadly with Tanith’s passing, no hope of it ever being revived -sob-) and it did not at all turn out how I expected.

There’s drama once more between Art and Felix regarding her obsession with the sea and her aversion to their daughter. To me, it seemed that Art was suffering from post-partum (I could be wrong), though there wasn’t a lot of depth brought into this aspect, perhaps because the novel is geared towards middle-grade/teens.

Man, it’s hard not to give away the plot. Let’s see…we get some new characters again, namely Moira, Queen of Scotland. I didn’t really care for her – she just didn’t leave an impression on me. And also for other reasons that are plot related that I won’t talk about.

It also seems that each book delves more into the viewpoints of characters aside from Art and I think we spent just as much time looking through the eyes of others than we did of Art, if not more. In this book, I’m not sure it worked as well though. I wasn’t excited by what other characters were experiencing through and I just wanted more Art.

The ending – ugh. Art is very changed from who she was at the start of the first book and it’s sad but in a good way. I was kind of left thinking “What? That’s it?!” and yet I enjoyed the slightly tortured feeling. Gaahd, I wish we could get more from this series, with a slightly older Art, like mid to late twenties. :[

This book was less atmospheric than its predecessors though, and that might be due to the constant location changes. I hate to say, but the finale was middle of the road for me. This is still an awesome, fun and witty series that I would recommend in a heartbeat, and I think the conclusion is worth reading, it’s just not as gripping.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was a really depressing way for what started as a lighthearted series to end. Art really seemed to lose her way in this book and it was frustrating. I wanted more fun swashbuckling and humorous pirate antics and what I got instead was a book full of sadness, frustration and annoyance. The only bright spot in this book is that Felix finally gets what he deserves after 3 books of Art treating him really badly. I really enjoyed how that part of the story ended, even if it was a little bit depressing after remembering the end of the first book. I am really happy for Felix and Afra. Art had a much more depressing end but in a way it makes sense for her character. It just felt sad that she lost herself along her journey and there was no happy ending for her. She seemed so lost at the end, it just felt sad to end that way.
This book also took a really long time to get into the exciting pirate parts of the book, well over halfway before pirate things happen. That was disappointing and not what I was expecting. 2/5 stars.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed Tanith Lee' s Piratica series but somehow this one fell a little flat towards the end. Although the ending was realistic and somewhat inevitable, it was dissatisfying not to read the happy ever after I was hoping for. A follow-up novel may be unlikely but it would be lovely to see where life led Piratica next.

[Aisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

blakh!

[Glitterfairy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, I didn't really get this book like I did the others. In many ways I'm stunned this is marketed to a teen audience as the plot twists and writing style seem clever enough to be studied intensively at tertiary level alone...

The previous Piratica books were like hopping onto the new ride at the amusement park and being taken on a ride like never before. Trippier than the light fantastic but brilliant all the same. This time I felt like the ride had started before I'd finished stepping in, and never really quite caught up through the rest of the book.

Thematically, it deviates slightly from the previous two books. Maybe that's what threw me off? I don't know. I'm always left with more questions than answers at the end of Lee's books but this time there are almost all questions and not nearly enough answers to satisfy my curiousity.

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tanith Lee seems to like her heroines to be very sad, and unlucky in love. This book felt a lot like the fourth Claidi Journals, at least in that respect. I'm really hoping things work out for Art in the next one. So there better be a next one!

[Clodagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I read this book before the others. Then i read books one and two, then three again, then one, and then two. Reading book three first really stuffed it all up for me.

[Lady Amber (The Batty Bluestocking) · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I had a time machine I would go back and tell myself not to read this book.

[Varadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is fine. Some of the plot is fun. But the Art/Felix and Moira drama is just. Exhausting. I am glad Felix married someone else.

I still love the first one so much.

[Velvetink]

*note to self.copy from Al. (i think the one I have is vol 1.)