Raiders' Ransom

Raiders' Ransom #1

by Emily Diamand

Winner of the inaugural Chicken House/London Times Children's Fiction Competition, which called it "a funny, clever, towering adventure."

It's the 22nd century and, because of climate change, much of England is underwater. Poor Lilly is out fishing with her trusty sea-cat when greedy raiders pillage the town--and kidnap the prime minister's daughter. Her village blamed, Lilly decides to find the girl. Off she sails, in secret. And with a a mysterious talking jewel. "If I save his daughter," Lilly reasons, "the prime minister's sure to reward me." Little does Lilly know that it will take more than grit to outwit the tricky, treacherous piratical tribes!

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Middle Grade, Fiction

334 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2008

About the author

Emily Diamand found her way into authoring when her debut novel won the Times/Chicken House prize for children's fiction in 2008. Prior to that she had various jobs including environmental campaigner, organic farmer, surveyor of trees, brussels sprouts picker and pond digger.

Her first novel Flood Child (previously published as Reavers Ransom) was sold in eighteen languages, and was shortlisted for the Branford Boase award.

The US edition, Raiders Ransom, was a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2009 and the American Library Association's top 100 young adult fiction titles.

The sequel, Flood and Fire, was published in the UK in August 2010 and in the US and Germany in 2011.

Her new book Ways to See a Ghost was published in the UK in July 2013

Reviews

[Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im Jahre 2216: Lilly lebt mit ihrer Oma in einem Fischerdorf. Moderne Technik gibt es nicht mehr, nachdem das ganze Land überflutet wurde. Die Menschen leben hauptsächlich vom Fischen und müssen sich vor Piraten in Acht nehmen. Eines Tages passiert es dann: das Dorf wird von Piraten überfallen. Lilly hat den Überfall nicht mitbekommen, denn sie war gerade mit ihrem Boot draußen. Als sie zurückkommt, ist ihr Dorf zerstört und ihre Oma tot. Und dann wurde auch noch die Tochter des Premierministers von Piraten entführt! Der macht die Fischer selbst für den Überfall verantwortlich und nimmt alle Männer und Jungs gefangen; sie sollen für ihn gegen die Piraten kämpfen. Lilly möchte das verhindern und macht sich selbst auf die Suche nach der Tochter des Premierministers. Sie hofft, so die Dorfbewohner wieder frei zu bekommen...

Ein schönes Kinder- und Jugendbuch, was recht flüssig zu lesen ist. Allerdings hat mir die Sprache nicht immer gut gefallen. Vor allem die Ausdrucksweise lässt manchmal recht zu wünschen übrig für ein Kinderbuch.

[The Book Queen · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I rate books, I don't use the goodreads system. To me, a 1 star book is terrible, a 2 star is pretty bad, and a 3 star is okay. And that's pretty much the only way I can describe Flood Child: it was okay. The writing style isn't particularly interesting, the characters aren't really likeable, the plot is nothing special... but it was enough to keep me engaged for a couple of days. It was fine, really - it just didn't make me feel any emotions, so I haven't got much to say about it - besides the world-building. This was my main problem with the book, and I think that if the world-building had been better I might have rated this a bit higher. What I'm saying is this book really should be a 3 star, but the world-building drags it down.

Flood Child is a dystopian, and it suffers from a problem lots of dystopias have: it's not believable. I personally think that a dystopian novel is one of the hardest to write; the author has to construct a setting, a world, which the reader can not only believe is possible, but understand why the world turned out that way.

Flood Child doesn't achieve that. The story is set in England, 2216, almost exactly 200 years in the future. By this point, sea levels have risen enormously and much of the old England is underwater. Society has broken down; the Scottish have taken over much of England, leaving the remaining 'Last Ten Counties of England' under the control of a Prime Minister (the role of which appears to be hereditary). Scotland and England are at war and the country is ravaged by bloodthirsty reavers, who are at war with everyone. There's little mention of any other countries, but I'm guessing that they somehow amalgamated into larger countries, as 'Scandinavia' is referenced, and in the context it sounds like an individual state.

How on earth am I supposed to believe this?! This story takes place just 200 years in the future, and I'm expected to believe that water levels have risen to drown most of Britain, society has disintegrated, Scotland has taken over England, everyone is at war, and evil reavers ravage the country?! How am I expected to believe that Scotland is now a hub of technology, a stronghold of bizarre futuristic experiments and insanely developed computers, but the rest of England has reverted to talking and living like they're back in the Middle Ages? In this modern-day England, the priests effectively run the country, everyone appears to be illiterate, technology is denounced as evil, women are married off at the age of 12, the villagers depend on fishing and menial jobs in order to get by, and organised religion is once again in charge. Am I really supposed to believe that all of this has happened in 200 years? Is this really what you think the world is going to look like in 200 years?

Because I don't think so. Perhaps the story would have been better if it was set in an alternate universe, or maybe it should have been set in the Middle Ages, minus the computers and technology. But as a dystopia? No. Doesn't work.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in the UK as Reavers' Ransom, and then reprinted (also in the UK) as Flood Child, before being released here in the states as Raiders' Ransom, this debut novel from Emily Diamand was the winner of the initial Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition, set up to recognize emerging talent in the field. A dystopian tale set in a future Britain, one bitterly divided between three powers - a greatly weakened, technology-rejecting England, reduced to ten counties after the southern portion of the country was submerged in the waters that rose after the great "Collapse," and much of the north was incorporated into Greater Scotland; the chaotic western tidal marshes (once the coastal counties stretching from Kent to Norfolk) ruled by the fierce pirate Raider clans, descended from the families that fled London, when it was flooded out; and Greater Scotland, the technology-embracing nation to the north, now encompassing current-day Scotland, Wales, and much of northern England - it follows the story of an English fisher-girl named Lilly Melkun, who sets out to save her village from threatened destruction, when raiders kidnap the daughter of the Prime Minister, and treason is suspected; and Zephaniah bar Angel Isling, son of Medwin, the Boss of the Angel Isling Raider clan, who finds himself struggling throughout with the conflicting demands of his conscience, and his sense of loyalty to his family and people. As Lilly and Zeph cross paths, their fates, and the fate of young Alexandra (Lexy) Randall, the English Prime Minister's daughter held captive at Angel Isling, become hopelessly entangled...

Raiders' Ransom is a book I've been meaning to read since it first came out (here in the states, at any rate), so I was happy when it was chosen as our May selection over in The Children's Fiction Club to which I belong. It comes as no surprise to discover that its author studied environmental science, and is a committed environmental activist, as the world of the story is one in which the evils of global warming - particularly, the rising sea levels - play an extremely important role. I found the main premise here fascinating, and all too believable - it is not difficult at all to imagine some people rejecting all technology, after a disaster involving a worldwide computer collapse - and I appreciated many of the details of Lilly and Zeph's world, from the familiar but slightly transformed place-names, to the artifacts of the past dug up from old trash dumps and reused. The rare "Harry Potter" volumes, much desired by historians, brought a chuckle! The two main characters were both quite engaging - I did find it a little odd that the dust-jacket flap, and the book descriptions available online, made this sound like Lilly's story, rather than a dual-narrative tale involving two children's perspectives - and I loved Cat, Lilly's lovable Seacat, whose odd prescience, as it concerned the weather, was never fully explained in the story.

In sum: I enjoyed the story, was engaged by the characters, and found the world being depicted fascinating. I can't say that Raiders' Ransom grabbed hold of me as strongly as I'd hoped - it took far longer to get through it than I'd expected - but I was involved enough that I wanted to know what happened next, and will undoubtedly track down a copy of the sequel, Flood and Fire .

[Kribu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

Overall, not a bad children's adventure - the pace and the plot were okay - but just so... generic. Which something set in the far-future, after England's been flooded for a long time, shouldn't really be, but other than the going-on about the evils of the lost technology and the use of rockets & mention of solar sails, the entire thing could have been set at any point between, dunno, the 9th and the 19th century, or something.

I'd have appreciated some more background on the flood - just, what, was there some overnight flood that destroyed half of England or what? Without anyone noticing? Eh? Pretty soon in our current timeline?

I liked Lilly well enough - almost enough to have added a third star. She's a stock character (and an orphan, of course), but resourceful, good at heart, courageous and determined even when scared, all that; not a bad sort of stock character to have in a kids' book.

Zeph... Meh. Another stock character and one I liked a lot less: the uneducated son of a local raider boss who's been brought up to dream of being a mighty warrior and look down on slaves and lowborn people and foreigners and fishers and so on, and who through some trials and tribulations slowly starts realising that life ain't that simple and maybe there's more to things that that. Good message and all, but... I've seen this before. Over and over again. He just wasn't likeable enough for me to really care about his inner turmoil.

It's really not a bad book by any means, and I've read children's adventures that are a lot more tedious and moralising, but I can't really bring myself to rate this one as more than "it was ok".

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Kira M for TeensReadToo.com

Set in a post-apocalyptic England, Lilly Melkun has a fairly ordinary life. Each day, she and her seacat go out fishing and come back to a home-cooked supper that Granny has made. One day, however, when she returns home, she discovers the village has been ransacked by raiders, the visiting Prime Minister's daughter has been kidnapped, and Granny has been killed.

Angry at the villagers for not retaliating against the raiders, the Prime Minister shows up in the village, presses all able-bodied young men into fighting the war he wants to start, arrests all leaders in authority, and threatens to hang the lot of them if they turn out to be traitors.

When the Prime Minister's sister asks Lilly to come to her house in the village, she discovers that the raiders were after a jewel that the woman has from her husband. Determined to save the day, Lilly cuts off her hair in order to look like a boy, and steals the jewel and the letter explaining to whoever cares what the object is and why she has it.

Trouble finds her quickly, though, when Lilly arrives in London and gets pushed into the mud by the son of the raider who ransacked her village. Followed everywhere by the raider boy, she comes up with a plan involving befriending the boy in order to rescue the Prime Minister's daughter.

What will happen when the boy discovers what she's really up to? Will Lilly save the day and stop a war from killing off everyone she cares about?

RAIDERS' RANSOM is an action-packed adventure filled with humor, suspense, and even a talking head. The characters are endearing and entertaining. The plot is fast-paced and well-developed, with lots of twists and turns. Readers will enjoy the surprises that lie in store for them when they read this story.

Those who like fantasy, adventure, and science fiction will all have a hard time putting this book down - and will hope the author writes a sequel.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much when I was a kid, and I've just discovered it has a sequel?! Definitely need to re-read and get the second book.

[ZeilenZauber · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘*‘ Meine Meinung ‘*‘
Als Lilly von einem Fischzug in ihrem Boot heimschippert, sieht sie, dass Piraten ihr Dorf verwüstet haben, weil sie etwas suchten. Dabei fanden sie die Tochter des Premierministers, die sie mitnahmen. Dafür will der Premierminister das Dorf bestrafen, weil er ihm Kollaboration mit den Piraten vorwirft. Allerdings findet Lilly erst im Laufe ihrer Rettungsaktion heraus, dass nichts ist, wie es scheint und im Hintergrund viel geschieht, was die Dinge in einem anderen Licht erscheinen lässt.
Doch bei all den Intrigen und Verwirrungen, findet Lilly Freunde und erhält Unterstützung.
Der Hörer lernt die Figuren nach und nach kennen. Sie wurden der Zielgruppe entsprechend geschaffen und sind ziemlich einfach. Die Spannung wird nach und nach aufgebaut.
Die Autorin wollte den Klimawandel in Form der landesweiten Überschwemmung Englands thematisieren, doch das ist irgendwie nicht wirklich zum Tragen gekommen.
Die Story an sich ist hübsch gestaltet und die Piraten sind mal richtige Piraten und wenig weichgespült.
Sascha Icks und Stefan Kaminski lesen hervorragend. Sie vermitteln Gefühle und das Seelenleben der beiden Protagonisten. Ich konnte mit ihnen richtig in die Story eintauchen. Eins nervte allerdings. Einerseits wurden die englischen Begriffe auch englisch ausgesprochen, was mir gefallen hat. Andererseits gab es da aber auch Worte, die Deutsch betont wurden oder deutsche Worte wurden Englisch ausgesprochen. Mir ist klar, dass dies den 12- jährigen nicht auffällt, aber wenn schon, denn schon.
Es gab ein paar ironische Einfälle, die allerdings nur ein Erwachsener versteht und die auf unsere heutige Zeit abzielen.
Lasst mich mal überlegen, das Hörbuch hat mich gut unterhalten und ich gehöre nicht zur Zielgruppe. Aber mein Meckerpunkt wiegt recht schwer und ich vergebe 4 Flut-Sterne.

‘*‘ Klappentext ‘*‘
England im Jahre 2216. Die ehemals stolze Insel ist mächtig geschrumpft; das Meer hat sie zurückerobert und an den Küsten treiben sich blutrünstige Piraten herum. Als sie Lilly Melkuns Dorf überfallen, töten sie ihre Großmutter und rauben die im Küstenort lebende Tochter des Premierministers. Noch schlimmer: Die Dorfbewohner sollen für den Überfall büßen. Der Premierminister beschuldigt sie, gemeinsame Sache mit den Freibeutern zu machen. Lilly beschließt zu handeln: Einen mysteriösen Edelstein als Tauschpfand in der Tasche segelt sie den Piraten nach - und gerät direkt dem Nachwuchspiraten Zeph in die Arme ...

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you just want to read a book that starts off with a bang and then proceeds to run its legs off. A book that's able to work realistic emotions and characters into a narrative, while also advertising high-concept plotting. And if that same book just happens to contain preternaturally intelligent felines, snarky computers, futuristic barbarians, and a world underwater, all the better! Debut novelist Emily Diamand comes out swinging with such a book as that. Raiders' Ransom is a post-apocalyptic tale of a future Britain, but it eschews moralizing in favor of a slam-bang setting. Better make sure the edge of your seat is nicely padded. You and your kids are going to find yourselves perched there for the majority of this tale.

Thirteen-year-old Lilly's day was normal to begin with. She took her seacat (Cat) out for some fishing just as she always did. But on returning to her village, Lilly finds her Granny dead, the boats of her village destroyed, and the prime minister's daughter kidnapped. The culprits? Raiders. The year is 2216. Much of England is underwater with Greater Scotland laying claim to all but the last ten counties of England to the south. Like futuristic Vikings, Raiders haunt the coasts, and one of them is Zeph, son of the Angel Isling chief, heir to his power. When Lilly and Cat set off to find the prime minister's daughter and rescue her, they run into Zeph and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. To trade for the daughter, Lilly has taken a "jewel", a rare artificial intelligence system from the days before the world changed. Now everyone is fighting to get their hands on it, and Lilly and Zeph must outwit their enemies and survive their trials, if they want to get what they want. The real question is, do they even know what they want anymore?

The other day I was at a talk about children's literature and the speaker mentioned that what kids remember from book isn't metaphors or even (half the time) the author's name. It's usually characters and plots. It got me to thinking about this book. Diamand splits her point of view between two very different characters. There's Lilly on the one hand, under the distinct impression that she has a quest to fulfill, and there's Zeph on the other, just as certain that his future is as his father's heir. Lilly starts off a pretty upright citizen, but Zeph takes some reforming. He has a heart and a soul, but it's buried under a lot of cruelty taught to him by his pa. To become a man he has to be turned away by his father, and that's painful. You find yourself rooting for both characters, even when they're at odds with one another, because you honestly believe that they'll make the correct choices in the end. Add in one particularly snarky machine (who I hope we'll be seeing a lot more of in future books in the series) and then there are three "people" worth following.

The book avoids a lot of the mistakes post-apocalyptic novels usually make. For this story to work, the plot needs to take place not just in our future but also in our future's future. We have to believe that in the future there will come a time when gaming devices with artificial intelligences can create fantastic interactive games in three-dimensions. After that, the world collapses, the sea levels rise, and humanity is thrown into a new dark ages. Now what I particularly dislike is when an author establishes all this and then sets the book a measly 30 years in the future. What good does that do anyone? I suppose the idea is that if you do it only slightly in the future, kids can gasp and go, "Oh no! We better change our ways!" But Raiders' Ransom isn't some preachy tome. It's a swashbuckling adventure narrative and as such it makes sense to set it in 2216.

The future we see here has some similarities to the one in The Ear the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer. Both books involve clever children using a knowledge of the past to defeat a terrible present. Both involve scenes where old-time goods are recovered and reused. This is tastefully done, with the possible exception of a funny moment where a Mr. Saravanan says, "Be careful! . . . Those are Harry Potters. I have half a dozen historians fighting to get their hands on them." Ditto the mentions of Metallica and Manchester United.

And, of course, I like the cat. Cat is just one of a fine series of felines published in 2009 that act like their real-life counterparts. It would not be entirely insane to pair Raiders' Ransom with The Cats of Roxville Station by Jean Craighead George. In the George book, feral cats act and respond according to their instincts. In the Diamand book, Cat acts like a cat but has a certain intelligence that sets him apart. That intelligence will do you little good if you don't know how to interpret what he does. Example: Apparently when he's twitchy or nervous, that's bad. Best that you do what he indicates. At the same time, you can't read this book thinking that Cat's abilities are all in Lilly's head. At one point she is captured and Cat uses his talents to outwit the guard on duty in a truly inspired manner. It's a good book for cat lovers, really.

I'm calling this a book for the 10 and up crowd, but make no mistake that there are some dark elements at work here. The trial by knife where Lilly is questioned in a violent manner never leads to anything much more than psychological terror, but for the squeamish that might be enough. The fact that the poor little prime minister's daughter spends much of the book scared is a toughie too. Still, I've found that things like that tend to upset adult readers far more than children. Kids have tough emotional hides that we sometimes forget about when it comes to literature. Some concern has come up regarding the chief's concubine. Does her presence in the book make it difficult to read this to middle grade kids? I don't think so. She is always referred to as the man's wife. No overt sexual references are made (though there are plenty to read between the lines). Kids won't get what she is, only adults. But it's worth noting. As for the language, it's fine. Apparently while I'm sure that other words have been lost to the waves of time, there is one moment when Zeph refers to a wife as a "skank". So that word, of all terms, proves its longevity. Ditto futuristic sketchy slang like "find your plums" (you can pretty much figure it out within context).

I wouldn't say that this is a book for everything as it can prove to be a hard novel. But for any kid interested in action/adventure who isn't afraid of a little sci-fi as well, this is well worth seeking out. Fun, well-written, the whole nine yards. Diamand is a woman to keep your eyes pinned on from here on in.

Ages 10 and up.

[Emma Melling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a childhood favourite that I re-read because I was at my family home without any other new books to pick up. It is hard to rate because it is not really my cup of tea anymore (being fantasy/dystopia), but I can really appreciate how well written it is. The author is clearly an expert on climate issues, and the book felt incredibly well researched and fleshed out. It kind of scared me how pressing and poignant the climate issues in the book still are, probably more so now than when it was published in 2009. This is a cautionary tale of what could happen to the world if we do nothing to stop climate change. The little details and mentions of place names and objects from before 'the Collapse' actually sent shivers up my spine at times. I personally find the two main characters quite annoying, but they are 13 so I'm going to cut them some slack for constantly making stupid decisions. The best character was definitely the cat (but this is usually the case in any book). Overall a really good, very gripping book that I would definitely recommend, and I will be re-reading the sequel next.

[Monika Jaśkowiec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mega fajne, solidna fabuła i giga spoko pomysł na kreacje swiata. Szkoda tylko ze te dobre pomysly nie byly za dobrze rozwiniete. Relacje między bohaterami były dla mnie trochę za bardzo dopowiedziane, bohaterowie bardziej mówili że się przyjaźnią niż okazywali jakąkolwiek zażyłość. Chętnie się zabiorę za kontynuację.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow burning read . Can’t say it’s a good read but it’s an okay read. Lilly is a great character , feisty and she is the integral part of the book that keeps it interesting !

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first shelf I always check at the library is the recommended reads shelf in the children's wing. I have yet to be disappointed by what the staff have put there. My latest find this way is Raiders' Ransom by Emily Diamand, a near future young adult dystopian set in what remains of the flooded British isles.

The book begins with the raid on an outlying village and news that the Prime Minister's daughter has been kidnapped. Lilly's village is blamed and she feels like she has to do something to set things right. She sails off with her fishing cat to take a ransom to the raiders and rescue the Prime Minister's daughter.

Raiders' Ransom is set in the 22nd century in a world where the oceans have risen and technology has failed. The ecological disaster and failed technology is fairly typical in dystopian fiction. So often though the characters have no working memory or understanding of how this dystopia came about. Raiders' Ransom is different: Lilly and the others know what happened. They might not know everything but they have a much better sense of what has happened than the average dystopian character.

The only thing that confused me at first about the book was the alternating points of view. Most of the book is told from Lilly's point of view but some of the chapters are told from Zeph's. He a child growing up with the raiders. His chapters help explain what has become of the flooded areas and gives an interesting look at the history of the raiders and the fate of London.

There's a second book out, Flood and Fire. I am hoping to see it on the recommended shelf soon at my library. I'm itching to see what happens next.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lilly lives in a poor fishing village, and finds her world turned upside down when the Prime Minister's daughter is kidnapped, and her village is blamed. She sets out on her own with only her sea cat and a slightly annoying talking jewel as her companions to find the girl and clear her village's good name.
Told in alternating chapters from both Lilly's point of view and that of Zeph, a member of the elite "Family" whole befriends her this is an intriguing look at what extreme climate change could do to our planet. The story is set in 23rd century England, but it is almost unrecognizable to present day England. Most of the country is under water, and the people living in the last 10 counties live in poverty devoid of any technology. Scotland has the most technology, and is therefore the dominate power.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. This tale of a futuristic England, post-climate collapse started off interesting, but devolved with (for me) unbelievable elements. Diamand went to pains to create a beautifully rendered fishing village under attack, but it all went to pieces when the computer head appeared. This threw off the tone of the novel and made me a little disoriented. The melding of technology with a traditional, non-tech society didn't feel complete. I also got very confused between the two narrators' voices -- they didn't sound distinct enough and I had to pause at the beginning of each chapter to figure out who was speaking. Recommended for young fans of sea stories and swashbuckling who are willing to stick with a story.

[The Sweet Bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flood Child has a Twelfth Night kind of feeling to it. A girl cuts her hair off and pretends to be a boy to safe her village. I waited 200 pages for something to actually happen. It was good though. I enjoyed the story, even though at times there were things happening that didn't fit with the story I felt. I really wanted there to be a romantic aspect with Lilly and Zeph, and it seemed like there might be. Yet there wasn't. I'm just a sucker for anything romantic. Cute book. Could have been an amazing story with some revisions and plot/character developments. But good just the same. Interesting story. Not my favorite though.

[P.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

book 16 for 2010. It took me about 50 pages to get into the dual POV, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It's a great post-apocalyptic with the right touches of cool things from the past and a believable amount of society degradation. A bit violent in parts so I'd recommend it for readers 5th grade and up though this may vary depending on the kid.

[Amy Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a really good story but unfortunately the book is told in first person but by two different people. The book doesn't give any obvious indications of which person is telling that chapter. I find this too frustrating to finish the book sadly

[Cristina Ursu · Rating 3 out of 5]

O istorie mediocră despre și dedicată copiilor. Limbaj sofisticat din domeniul maritim, însă sec din domeniul sufletului. Nu m-a impresionat.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily Diamand’s ‘Flood Child’ tells a tale of adventure from two alternating perspectives: Lilly’s and Zeph’s. The story takes place in post-apocalyptic Britain, in the year 2216, where much of the nation has been submerged in water. The civilization we know of is lost and from this ruined realm emerged a divided Britain with factions that war against each other. After the reavers (pirates) kidnap the Prime Minister’s daughter, Lilly is forced to take matters into her own hands to save her village from being wrongly condemned by the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Zeph is the son of the reaver boss who seeks his father’s approval but gets entangled in helping a fisher boy, who is none other than Lilly in disguise.

What I liked about ‘Flood Child’ is how conversational the story was relayed. By this I refer to the language usage and tone- it was colloquial- which gave a noticeable quirk to the characters’ speech and therefore hinted at their personality and perhaps even class. This was most noticeable with the protagonists, Lilly and Zeph. However, it was difficult to read in the beginning as I often stumbled and had to re-read passages to thoroughly understand what was happening. For readers who are not familiar with English dialects, this might deter them from the novel completely. Words such as ‘ent’ are used to substitute ‘aren’t’ but dialectal terms like ‘mog’ (which Zeph often used to refer to Cat) might confuse readers as it did me in the beginning.

My favourite character in the book would be the sassy computer jewel, PSAI, whose grumpiness I found endearing. He was by far more entertaining compared to the other characters. This is because, despite the alternating perspectives and the increased chance of creating character dimension, I failed to relate to either of the two.

For me, Lilly’s character was quite average and plain: there just weren’t many defining moments which left a deep impact. Yes, she was brave to try and save her own village by initially going on the quest alone and yes, she went through a lot of frightening trials along the way, but hardly any of these situations made me empathise with her and her predicament. Zeph, on the other hand, was slightly more interesting as his fixation on proving his worth to his father really cemented his determination. He was immature, hot-headed and flawed which made his character more colourful and real.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, though the world building was slightly confusing. Even now, I’m still unsure as to who the reavers are meant to represent geographically. Regardless, I would recommend this book to young teens or fans of adventure and the post-apocalyptic genre. In fact, I find that this novel presents loose similarities to Philip Reeve’s ‘Mortal Engines’ series, so fans of this world might enjoy his work also.

I would rate this book 4/5 stars and most certainly look forward to reading its sequel, ‘Flood and Fire’.

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s Good About It

I’m on a bit of a Dystopia kick at the moment. What with Hunger Games and Uglies and writing my own Dystopian future novel, I’m demolishing any YA novel with a hint of Future Gone to Hell. Naturally, when I saw this on the shelf in the library, I couldn’t resist. Despite having an already substantial reading list of my own books…

And it didn’t disappoint.

Generally I think there are two kinds of Dystopia – technology gone crazy like Uglies, or return to the past where a technological breakdown plunges everyone into the dark ages. Flood Child is the latter.

The world Lilly Melkun lives in is a barbaric, harsh world, where peasants struggle to get by as raiders smash their boats and destroy their livelihoods. The priests speak of the time of ‘puters’ as a period of great excess and evil, responsible for the flooded plight of the current people.

It’s a world easy to imagine, what with global warming and melting ice caps, which makes it a rather frightening one to read about.

I liked the characters, and the choice to have both a fisher village girl and a Reaver (sort of like a pirate) boy telling the story as a dual narrative made it a much richer story. Without Zeph’s point of view it would have been easy for the Reavers to become evil charicatures, but in creating him as a sympathetic character, Emily Diamand challenges the reader to overturn any preconceptions. Which I think is a really important thing in children’s literature – learning that there is always another side to the story.

What’s Not So Good

The phonetic dialect, while not overbearing, won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s not ridiculous, but things like ‘ent’ instead of ‘isn’t’ are common in both speech and the prose (as it’s a first person perspective, it is at least the character’s voice) and the initial transistion from Lilly’s perspective to Zeph’s confused me, until I realised the drawing at the head of the chapter changed with the different characters – a cat for Lilly a knife for Zeph. Once I’d twigged that I was with a new character, it was fine. The book doesn’t struggle to differentiate the voice of the characters, and they never sound the same.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5 stars)
This was a really cool setting. Futuristic London, but most of the buildings are under water and things are in ruins... They don't really have much knowledge on technology, it's now considered taboo stuff. It's funny how so much of our modern stuff is considered "old fashioned" in their future. Things like our clothes and tech, they just stopped using it all lol...
I really like the characters. Pirates, royalty, and fisherfolk... My favorite is the "uncle", he was fantastic and quirky. Very funny... Probably had the best dialogue of all the characters.
It's an exciting read! I look forward to book 2.


**SPOILERS**

It's kind of funny that a war was started over a computer game. They don't realize it's not a super war computer, just a game. Book 2 should be pretty interesting. I did like the AI's personality. Poor thing didn't know it was alone and that they can't charge it yet. They'll have to journey to one of the old factories, assuming they aren't all submerged...

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

The whole world building was really well thought out. Even the whole story idea concept was really well done. But (the dreaded but) I was just bored reading it. I could blame it on the characters, that I didn’t really get to know them and found pretty much all of them annoying. Bar the cat because well it a cat. Or I could blame it on the fact that the world building could have gone into so much more detail, it would have been fascination to know how it all happened to make the new world. It wasn’t really anything specific that stood out that just made me bored.

The whole two main characters meeting up, felt very sudden and a bit jarring. One minute one is at home and the other is at sea. Then bang both in same place, same time instantly. There were two other places where it felt like chunks of the story had been removed, then just slapped together.

Either way I am a bit annoyed with myself that I didn’t like it that much. But I have to be honest and this is just my own opinion.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so hard to rate. On the one hand, the basic premise was interesting, the voice engaging, and the storytelling excellent. On the other hand--and I know suspending one's disbelief is kind of a crucial point of fiction--I just couldn't buy the idea that only two hundred years in the future, England has descended into the Dark Ages, complete with a controlling church, witch hunts, suspicion of anything "ghostly," and Viking-esque raids, while the rest of the world, as far as the reader can tell, is civilized (we at least get a sense of Scotland being a more refined, relatively advanced society). Even considering flooding from global warming (a reasonable assertion), I found the world of this novel to be a bit too much of a stretch.

That said, I did enjoy the story. It's a sci-fi that reads like a fantasy, which is pretty cool, and there was a lot there to hold my interest to the gripping end. I just wasn't into it enough to pick up the sequel.

[Kamonwan Keawkram · Rating 4 out of 5]

สนุกสมเป็นหนังสือวรรณกรรม ถ้าพูดถึงเรื่องของการผจญภัยที่เด็กคนหนึ่งจะทำเพราะคิดว่าอาจจะช่วยเหลือคนอื่นๆได้ เพียงแต่การแบ่งชนชั้นที่เทียบเท่ากับสมัยยุคกลางปนกับการล่มสลายหลังน้ำท่วมโลกที่เทคโนโลยีทั้งหมดสูญสิ้นไม่มีอะไรเหลือนับร้อยปีก็ถือว่าเป็นความเป็นไปได้อย่างหนึ่ง แต่อาจจะทำให้เด็กๆไม่สนุกกับมันเท่าไหร่ และเพราะมีเรื่องเกี่ยวกับสงคราม การใช้อาวุธ และความตายอาจจะต้องจำกัดเรตอายุผู้อ่านไว้ที่ 18+ ด้วยเพื่อให้ไม่เป็นการสร้างความเข้าใจผิดๆในกลุ่มเด็กที่เล็กเกินไป

[Ayeza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is fantaboulus . I have the double cover on one. This is a story about a little girl named lilli melken. She lives with her grandmother. But one day the reavers attack her village and kidnap priminsters daughter. But they kill no one but one person.... Granny melken. ... Lillie's village is blamed for the kidnap. So Lillie sets out to find the girl. But she gets into bigger mischief....................

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to my kids but they turned out to be a bit young for it. They liked it, but it was very violent. However I found myself really liking it too! It was such an interesting setting and the plot and characters were very well written.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bearing in mind this book was written for children, it was OK. It is an easy read with likeable characters, could have had a little more depth to the story but then probably wouldn't have worked so well as a children's book.

[Marleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The bones of the story are not bad, but it lacks world building, character building and character motives that take up more than just one sentence. In sort for me the story lacks dimension. And the book being writen mostly in an accent didn't make it any nicer to read either.

[Capnniknak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took some time to get into this, and very nearly gave up at the start but the adventure get underway after the first few chapters. It’s fun and imaginative yet foreboding in a serious way which way perhaps impact kids more than adults actually. That’s the power of fiction.

[Aaron Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story featuring a set of realistic characters who win both your respect and heart. Their struggles in a blighted world are endlessly intriguing as is the world itself, unfolding subtly in the backdrop of the new conflict consuming them.