Flood and Fire by Emily Diamand is the sequel to Raider's Ransom. It picks up pretty much right where the first book ends. Lilly Melkum, a fishergirl, is stranded in the middle of the ocean after a major sea battle. Pieces of ships are floating all around her as she tries to get Lexy, the Prime Minister's daughter, safely back to her home. Zeph, the pirate boy, returns home after the battle to find that he won't be able to take over as Boss as easily as he thought he would. His half brother Roba is putting up a fight for the title of Boss. But, to make matters worse, the other pirate clans are mad at the state the Families have been left in after the war that Zeph's father started. They want to make Zeph's entire family into slaves or wipe them out all together. In a moment of desperation, Zeph promises to find Lilly and give her and her computer to the pirates to save his Family. Lilly, meanwhile, is lost on the ocean, struggling to find a way out of the mess left after the sea battle. Her computer, or puter as she calls it, begins to complain of being too wet to work properly. Its battery is also running low, and it threatens to cease working if she is not careful.
In an attempt to reboot her computer, Lilly accidently activates a formerly unknown computer called the National Security Response, a computer that is programmed to restore England to the rightful government in the event of the downfall of the government. It is determined to do this at all costs, even at the cost of human lives. Once the knowledge of this computer is discovered, many people want to find it to use it for their own purposes. Lilly wants to find it to help reboot her computer, the pirates want it to help them win their war against the Pirme Minister, Scotland wants it to study it, and Zeph hopes it can be a way out of his promise to betray his friend. In the search for this computer, friendships are tested, new and old characters make an appearance, and help comes from unexpected places.
Like the first book in the series, the story is told in first person by both Lilly and Zeph. There is still the same confusion at the beginning of each chapter as to who is narrating that section. Also, like the first book, the story is told in present tense, which makes it a little confusing sometimes when they start telling the story at a later point and then tell what happened to get up to that point.
However, despite these points, it is a very engaging read. It has an interesting setting of being in the future but having the feel of being in the past with how people live. There is some advanced technology, but most people don't use and have never seen it. They are certain that it is evil and the cause of all the natural disasters that have happened in the world. It is not super predictable which makes the story interesting to read. Also, it's neat to see how the characters have changed over the course of the story, from the beginning of the first book to the end of the second book. It was a very good read.
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