Flood and Fire

Starred review from May 1, 2011

Set in 23rd-century post-apocalyptic Lunden, this electrifying sequel to Diamand's Raiders' Ransom (2009) is a thrill ride from start to finish.

In alternating chapters, readers hear from former fisher-girl Lilly, whose mission is to return her friend Lexy to her father, the Prime Minister of England, and from raider Zeph, who is being forced to betray Lexy and Lilly in order to save all of the Angel Island raiders from a gruesome execution. Divided loyalties and cross-purposes abound as the three young people try to figure out how they and their precarious friendships can survive a world in turmoil. Even PSAI, supposedly the world's only remaining computer, winds up with an identity crisis when he meets and is downloaded by a military supercomputer. Lilly, Lexy, Zeph and PSAI will all have to make hard choices and sacrifices to survive the violent conflicts escalating around them. To create a world in which unlikely friendships like theirs can flourish, they will have to do even more. Are they up to the challenge? Alas, readers will have to wait.

The rare combination of action at breakneck speed and significant, believable character development makes this just about impossible to put down. (Science fiction. 9-14)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011

Gr 5-8-In this follow-up to Raiders' Ransom (Scholastic, 2009), readers are plunged right back into the action as Lilly and Lexy try to escape raider territory and sail home to Lilly's fishing village. Instead, they travel to Cambridge and then to London, where a battle between the English and the Viking-like raiders is raging. Much of 23rd-century England is under water, and technology, being blamed for the breakdown of society, was banned long ago and is considered evil. Yet because of its power and rarity, Lilly's late-21st-century gaming console is an object of desire for the raiders, and Lilly's raider friend Zeph is forced to choose between his loyalty to his friends and to his Family. Readers will sympathize with his dilemma but it's the fast-moving plot and the wild-and-woolly post-technological setting that will keep the pages turning. The game console AI, a conceited and high-maintenance personality, provides invaluable assistance and comic relief, and its aid in battling a malfunctioning military computer's marauding robots results in a vivid finale against the backdrop of a flooded but still-vibrant London. Fans of the first book will be satisfied with this exciting sequel.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
Grades 4-7 Lilly, Zeph, and Lexy are back in this continuation of the story begun in Raiders' Ransom (2009). With his father dead, Zeph is fighting for leadership of his Raider family. Having rescued Lexy, Lilly is trying to keep her and PSAI, the secret game-playing computer, safe. PSAI's connection to a Ministry of Defense computer sparks events that threaten the world, and the role this machine plays in that struggle will be much appreciated by the audience. Though it's not a stand-alone, there is much to enjoy here by fans anxious to find out the fates of the the three friends and their crazy computer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)