Mariah Mundi and the ship of fools by G.P. Taylor

Faber and Faber, 2010. ISBN 978 0571251889.
Upper Primary and Lower Secondary . Highly recommended. Mariah Mundi and Captain Charity have left the Bureau of Antiquities to travel on the Triton in the race against the Ketos across the Atlantic. An attempt on Mariah's life in the train on the way to the dock begins the intrigue. Everything is larger than expected. The Triton 'was nine hundred feet long and two hundred wide. It towered above the dock cranes as high as St Paul's Cathedral' p12. This was a unusual adventure for Captain Charity knew or suspected all that was going to happen but Mariah sits in the reader's place and we see the catastrophe unfold before our eyes.
Full of modern technology and ideas this is an adventure for readers who love the challenge of the future and the unknown. It's an exotic and excitingly gripping story, with many unexpected twists and turns. The finale has to be read to be believed. Perhaps this is our future?
This is a very good read, especially for children who love the challenge of words and ideas. It is quite an extraordinary adventure with wonderfully seemingly impossibly situations which resolve in quite an unexpected and original way.
Sue Nosworthy