Well, that wasn't what I expected at all. This book looks like a light and fluffy kids' adventure story, but it really isn't. About the first half was strongly reminiscent of Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, and a bit of Lord of the Flies. Nothing good ever happened to the main character, or the people around him. People naturally tend toward evil, not bravery and decency, like Egg. There was a lot of overt violence, but also some implied very nasty violence, which would make me want to bump this up to a higher age demographic. The second half picked up in that there was a lot more action and conflict, but Egg's life didn't get a whole lot better. I kind of want to read the sequel in hopes that things will get better for him. But I've tried that before, and it doesn't usually work. I did enjoy the pirates in the second half of the book--Healy's odd version of integrity intrigues me, and Egg's harvester-pirates, while not exactly bone-deep loyal, do seem realistic. If I do read the second book, it will be because I want to find out what happens to Egg, the backstory behind Healy, and what happens to the Natives. But with how depressing and off-putting the first 150 pages of the first book were, I'm just not sure I'm going to have the motivation to read the second.