Raider's Ransom by Emily Diamand was a very good read. This book is very interesting. At first, it seems like it's a story that took place long ago, when pirates roamed the seven seas and attacked other vessels and cities to raid them for goods. But after reading for a while, it becomes apparent that this story actually takes place far in the future. The story happens in the year 2216. The world has had lots of flooding, and much of England has been destroyed. People in England believe that technology was the cause of all the terrible natural disasters that have happened in the world, and have tried to destroy them. The religion in England basically teaches that technology is bad, and if you use it, you'll be cursed. In Greater Scotland, they still use technology, but much of it has been destroyed by natural disasters and also by angry people during the time called the Collapse where people went around destroying computers and other technology.
The main character in this book is Lilly Melkum. She lives in a tiny fishing village, and has grown up without any knowledge of technology. All those things were destroyed long before she was born. She lives with her Granny and her seacat in a little hut up on a hill. She and her best friend, Andy, have always dreamed of buying a big boat when they grow up and sailing all over the place. This dream is crushed when raiders attack her village while she is away on a fishing trip.
The raiders come and kidnap the Prime Ministers daughter who was staying at their village with an aunt, and because of a rumor of a seacat in the village, they attack Lilly's house and kill her Granny. When Lilly returns, her world has been turned upside down. Her Granny is dead, and she moves in with Andy. But that's not the end of it. The Prime Minister blames the villagers for his daughter's kidnapping, and drafts most of the men, including Andy, into the army for an attack on the Raiders. The others, he holds prisoner and threatens to hang.
Lilly wants to do something to help, but she doesn't know how anyone will let her. She overhears a conversation between the Prime Minister and his sister, and also a seemingly impossible conversation between the Scottish Ambassador and an unknown person. She suddenly knows what she can do. She sets out with a stolen jewel, a letter, and a disguise on her little fishing boat with her seacat in tow to rescue the Prime Minister's daughter from the Raiders.
The other main character is Zeph, the son of the Raider Boss who has kidnapped the Prime Minister's father. His father wanted to start a war with the English, so he could wipe them out. Zeph runs into Lilly on her journey, and after a strange turn of events, they become friends. But Lilly doesn't really trust him, because he's a Raider, one of those people who killed her Granny.
Through thick mud, dangerous fog, storms, cannons, torture, ghosts, talking jewels, fake uncles, treason, capture, and treachery, it is interesting to watch how the relationship between Zeph and Lilly change over the course of the book.
There were a few things about the book that I didn't really like. The whole book is written in first person present tense. I've mentioned before that I'm not sure I really like reading books in present tense. They're a little harder to wrap your brain around what happens in what order, since everything is happening now. But the main problem was that it was written in first person from the point of view of two different people: Zeph and Lilly. While it was definitely interesting to see the story unfold from each of their perspectives, it was rather confusing to know who was speaking. They switched at new chapters, but not neccessarily every other one. I never knew who was speaking until part way through the first page of each chapter, since there wasn't anything that identified who was speaking at the beginning of each chapter.
The other thing I didn't like very much was the ending. It had a terrible cliffhanger ending. When I first saw the book, it appeared to be a stand alone book, but it turns out there's a sequel - which, luckily, has already been written.
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