Young Artemesia, the daughter of a pirate queen, gets more than she bargained for when she escapes from a finishing school and commands her mother's old crew to take to the open seas.

Art Blastside ought to be happy. She has escaped the hangman's noose, become a national celebrity, and married her true love. But life ashore is far too dull for a pirate queen. So Art jumps at the chance to go back to sea. England is at war with the French, and the government wants Piratica and her crew to harass the enemy. But Art's legendary luck may be running out. Her chief rival, Little Goldie Girl, has sworn revenge. Powerful storms are brewing in the Atlantic. A deadly ship with a vendetta against all pirates is haunting the coasts. And Art is sailing straight into the most colossal naval battle ever fought. Full of madcap action and limitless imagination, this dramatic sequel to Piratica is a captivating blend of adventure and romance.

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