Seafire, by Natalie C. Parker

Seafire, by Natalie C. Parker, is a new YA speculative fiction story of a crew of female pirates who are fighting in a post-Apocalyptic world not for gold and glory, but to strike back at the asshole oppressors, patriarchal violent men with a leader who's the sort who wants to hold everyone in an iron fist, etc.  Caledonia, the main character, had to watch as her family's ship was destroyed by the Bullets (the oppressors soldiers)...and she had to live with the guilt that it was she who betrayed them (which she kind of did, though not on purpose).  But Caledonia and her friend and childhood shipmate Pieces decided to fight back.  They found other strong, smart young woman, rebuilt the ship, and took to the seas themselves, attacking the Bullets whenever possible.  But they are of course fighting against overwhelming odds, and don't even dream of "victory."  Yet as events unfold and they pass from danger into danger, still fighting back, they begin to think that hope might not be as impossible as it seemed....

I very much enjoyed the all female, found family of the crew.  Since there were 52 of them, we don't get to meet them all personally, just those who are close to Caledonia, but the ones we meet are interesting and unique, and contribute to the functioning of the ship and its missions each according to their strengths.  At times reading this I was reminded a little bit of classic naval warefare fiction (like the Hornblower books)--tricks and guile and strategy are more important than brute force of arms.  Yet Caledonia is no Hornblower--she doesn't rise to that level of brilliance, and it is her crew that comes forward with the ideas and initiatives needed (which is fine-go crew!).

Tension specific to the story (as opposed to the evil bad guy they have to fight tension) is provided when a young Bullet soldier begs for sanctuary.  Caledonia has his life in her hands, and it is hard for her not to kill him outright.  As well as providing moral and ethical struggle to the plot, this provides a romance sub-thread....a pleasing one, that I did not object to, though I found the relationships between the women, including one murmur of a lesbian relationship, more interesting because less predictable..

I didn't think this was the greatest book since sliced bread, mostly because I was frustrated by a fuzziness to the worldbuilding (I like more history, more backstory to how the bad guys came to power, the sort of thing that lets one imagine how they can be overthrown), and I was also frustrated that the women weren't thinking about end goals (being pirates is all very well, but where does it get you?), but this certainly leaves the story wide open for sequels!