I wasn't aware there were still sailing boats plying the seventeen seas. I didn't know there was a place called Old Town, charming except for being enclosed, and the smell of the corpses littering the docks and the gibbet, and I certainly didn't know anything of how a manic collector of mice could incite such a rollicking adventure as pirates face off at sea, giants and erratic submariners join the fray, and political shenanigans and curses engage all, with a young girl thrust into the centre of the action in a nice, tomboyish way.