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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

Raiders' Ransom by Emily Diamand