Review: Raleigh and the Pirates

Amazon  

It’s not often that we here at EBR take the opportunity to review a middle-grade book. And, frankly, when we do, it’s usually Vanessa that picks it up. I mean, there are a lot of books out there, and those written for adults keep us (me) pretty busy as it is. However, every once in a while, one will pop up and tell us to give it some attention — waving its wiggly bits and cawing like a crow come Halloween.

In this case, we had some friends recently get their first contract from a traditional publishing house for a story that they’d written, taking them one step further down the road of authordom.

We were pretty excited for them.

Still are. Thus, here we are.

Midshipman Anthony Raleigh serves on board the Pegasus, a freighter class spaceship, at the command of Captain Smith. He’s the youngest member of the crew, new to the ship, and hasn’t even really built any kind of rapport yet, when some kind of sleek warship filled with pirates overtakes them. Amidst the chaos, the captain instructs Anthony to take a shuttle and find help. Then he hands Anthony a security key for some secret cargo that was recently loaded onto their freighter and tells him to hurry. Anthony doesn’t want to leave his crewmates in a lurch, but he understands the importance of the mission the captain is handing him. On his way to the shuttle bay, he’s stopped by Master Chief Carven, who briefly questions him and then hands Anthony a stun-gun and his personal AI earpiece to help him on his way.

And, of course, everything from that point forward goes exactly to plan. I mean, obviously. Right?

No? Oh.

I had so much fun reading this one. Right from the word go, they’re under the gun (literally) and time is ticking. We get to know the individual characters in the heat of the moment. Anthony is both well-drawn and accurately portrayed for his age. He’s still just a kid after all, and while he does have responsibilities, the adults treat him as they should: they don’t downplay the danger, and they protect him from the word go.

There are a whole bunch of individual characters in this one. By-and-large, they stay distinct from one another. A few of them do get enough treatment to consider them secondary characters. These are all fun, human and alien alike. The AI was a hoot. Every time the concept of humor comes up in a review, I reiterate the fact that it’s hard. Because it is. But this time around, it got me. That AI is a legit pain-in-the-neck, and I love it.

If I’m being picky — and let’s face it, I have every right to be — I think the beginning was almost too fast. It felt pretty rough and rushed, and after finishing the chapter I was a little worried about whether I was going to like the book. At this point, it’s kind of a let-bygones-be-bygones case because of just how fabulously the rest of it turned out to be.

There are two aspects of the story in particular that really sealed the deal for me. The first is how it doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the danger and violence that come along with the situation. Having a bunch of military-trained pirates take over your ship is a recipe for certain death and destruction for at least some of those involved. The place where the story did hold back was when deciding to include any of that violence and potential gore on page. For some, that’ll kind of just come with the territory. I mean, this is a Middle Grade book, yeah? Still, with how some authors and publishers are pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable for younger and younger audiences these days, it was refreshing to see those pieces placed where they should be for this age group: off page.

The second thing that really made this story fabulous was when coming to those parts of the story where Anthony is all by himself and doesn’t know what to do. In those instances, it’d be way easy to decide that he was too scared, or too little, to make a difference. It’d be too easy to let the adults just figure things out for themselves. Instead, in every instance, when the MC came to a situation where the adults were in a pickle and he had the opportunity to do something about it, he made the choice to help. Things didn’t always turn out the way he wanted them to, but occasionally they did, and that meant a whole lot to this reader in particular.

Super excited to see where this series goes. I can easily give a hearty recommendation of this one for any kids interested in science fiction. Especially boys. Just like me, I think they’re going to love it.