Justin Somper – Vampirates: Tide of Terror

35. Vampirates: Tide of Terror by Justin Somper (2006)
Vampirates, Book 2

Read my review of:
– Book 1: Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean

Length: 459 pages
Genre: Young Adult/Mid-Grade; Fantasy

Started: 28 March 2009
Finished: 29 March 2009

How long has it been on my TBR pile? N/A
Verdict? N/A

Who wants to spend time
at Pirate Academy?
(But the plot moves slow.)

Summary: Connor and Grace Tempest are now both safe aboard the Diablo following their separation. But life aboard a pirate ship is never truly safe, as they find out when a raid on another ship goes wrong. Grace, determined to keep her brother from being another young casualty, engineers a visit for the twins to the Pirate Academy, where she hopes he will be kept out of trouble and in school. However, Grace herself is in peril from another source – she is constantly having visions of the Vampirate ship, where something is terribly wrong with the beings she’s grown to care about… and the visions are getting more and more real. And, of course, Sidorio is still out there, still thirsting for blood – hers, and anyone else’s.

Review: Tide of Terror (and the whole Vampirates series, really, is fun, light reading, but there’s not much here to really knock my socks off. While there are some hints of greater moral complexity and some people who obviously have hidden agendas, things are still skewed a little simple for my tastes. Admittedly, this book is geared towards the 10-12 year old crowd, and not jaded old me, but let’s give the kids some credit. It doesn’t have to be full-blown horror, but the dangerous, climactic situations still don’t feel particularly perilous, and I’m pretty sure it’s not just adult readers who find the plot twists predictable. Kids are probably more likely to appreciate the adventure and the “coolness” of the whole enterprise, however, while the charm of the vampire pirates has mostly worn off for me, leaving me waiting around for the plot teases to stop and for things to actually get moving. But no such luck – answers about what’s really going on are still thin on the ground (and the fact that they take place in 2505 is still completely unexplained), and some judicious editing could probably have pared these books down or even combined them. (As a side note, while there are now ninja pirates, there’s still no sign of LOLcats. Maybe in the third book…) 3 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: These books are inoffensive and fun enough, but at the length they’re running, they’re starting to wear out their welcome for adult readers. Pirate and/or vampire-obsessed kids are probably going to devour them, however.

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Links: Justin Somper’s home page

Other Reviews: Becky’s Book Reviews
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First Line: Sunset. A deserted cove. The waves reach out hungrily for the sand, which changes hue from white to honey gold to fiery amber as the sun grows weary and dips down into the inky waters.

Vocab: (see the whole list)

• p. 250: “Now, the child held a daisho in each hand and a broad smile broke out his face.” – the traditional weapons of the samurai, consisting of a long sword for man-to-man combat, and a shorter sword for close combat.
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