Book summary of the author Struan Murray - Orphans of the tide. The summary contains: a short summary, a long summary, character descriptions, notes and food for thought questions.
About the Book
Title: Orphans of the Tide
Author: Struan Murray
Total Pages: 342
Date published: 2020
Language: English
Genre: Fantasy
Themes: Gods, religion/belief, and friendship.
Summary:
The world has been covered by the sea. People say that the world has been drowned by an evil
God. Almost nothing is left of land except the tops of very tall mountains. These mountains are
now islands. There is one very big island. This is where most people live. It is called: ‘The City’.
People say that it was a city even before the world was drowned. So, it is full of houses on top
of each other, with big buildings and cathedrals that existed a long time. Sometimes when the
tide is low, the sea leaves the houses below and you can walk in them. You can’t live in these
houses because the sea always comes back to reclaim them.
Since The City is full of buildings, the people have a hard time farming and hunting there. They
farm and hunt for food on the smaller islands nearby. Fishermen provide the rest of the food and
whalers hunt whales for supplies that people need in The City. There is no electricity. People
use whale oil to fuel lamps and machines. Whalers kill whales to provide the oil that is needed.
Whalers risk their lives every day to hunt the great animals and they are respected by people.
They are also called Whale Lords.
The other people that are respected and sometimes even feared are Inquisitors. They are like
police, but with much more power. They decide everything and no one ever fights them. They
enforce the law and can even execute people that they think is allied to the evil God. Some
years ago, the evil God came, and many people died because of it. The Inquisitors’ job is to
make sure it does not happen again.
The people in The City have adapted to the tides of the sea. There are people that have wealth,
there are working people and there are many orphans. Orphans are children who have lost their
parents. Some have lost their parents, because of sickness. Some have lost their parents to
dangerous jobs like whaling. And some have lost their parents when the evil God came.
Introducing Ellie Lancaster
Ellie Lancaster, her full name is Eleanor, is thirteen years old. She has blonde hair, green eyes
and a small nose that turns a little to the side. Ellie has always lived in The City. Her father died
when she was a baby and her mother passed away from an illness, when Ellie was eight years
old. A lot of people died of sickness in The City and people said it was because of the evil God.
Ellie and her little brother were sent to live in the orphanage. They lived there for years. Sadly,
her brother also passed away at the orphanage because of the sickness.
Important note: When Ellie’s brother got sick, Ellie was desperate to find a cure. She would
spend hours away from him to look for medicine. It was then, when she was away, that he died.
Ellie secretly feels shame and guilt that she wasn't with him when he died. Ellie has a difficult
time talking about it. Ellie was around ten years old when her brother died.
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, When Ellie becomes older, she is asked by city officials to take up her mother's work. Ellie’s
mother was Hannah Lancaster. She was an important inventor. Hannah invented many things,
like the oystercatcher machines. These machines climb the walls of The City that are too
dangerous for people to climb and collect oysters. The oysters are used for food.
Fishermen depend on the machines to get the oysters. But when the machines break, they don’t
know how to repair them. Ellie used to help her late mother make them, so she knows how to fix
them. Because she was asked to do this, Ellie no longer lives at the orphanage. She lives in her
mother’s old house and workshop. Thanks to her mother’s old notes and tools, Ellie can fix the
machines and officials pay her a small wage to live on her own.
Introducing Anna Stonewall
Anna Stonewall is Ellie's best friend from the orphanage. She is about the same age. She still
lives at the orphanage. Anna helps take care of many orphans. There are twenty-three orphans.
Some orphans are mentioned by name: Fry, Ibnet, Sarah, Emma, Ian, Edward, Agatha
Timpson, Callum and Trant.
Anna visits Ellie often and helps her run errands or repair machines. Anna is a fearless girl and
is of great support to Ellie in her most difficult time. Anna is described with curly red hair.
The story
One day, a whale has beached itself on top of one of the cathedrals. It probably swam up to The
City when the tide was high and when the sea fell away, it got stuck. Ellie is watching the dead
whale along with other people. She suddenly realizes that that the whale is dangerous.
Whalers have taught Ellie that when a whale starts to decay, it builds up gas inside. That can
make the whale carcass explode. Ellie asks Anna to bring a flensing tool from her mother’s
workshop. It is a special tool that can cut open the whale. Anna runs to get it.
Meanwhile, Ellie gets close to the whale. The animal opens its eye and sings a last song before
it dies. This surprises Ellie. She didn’t know the whale was still alive to that point. Anna brings
the flensing tool. Ellie thinks she hears something from inside the whale and starts to cut it.
Suddenly a human hand comes out of the belly of the whale and Ellie grabs hold of the hand to
help the person come out. It turns out to be a boy. He has black hair and grey-blue eyes. The
boy is confused. Ellie tries to understand how it is possible that he was in a whale belly.
“Where are my brothers and sisters?” the boy asks. Ellie doesn’t know what to say.
Anna decides that the boy should be named Seth because it sounds like the sea.
The people that are watching start to panic. A priest among the people thinks the boy is the
Enemy. This is a reincarnation of the evil God. Has the evil God come again to The City? An
Inquisitor comes to take Seth away. Ellie faces the Inquisitor. He is called Killian Hargrath.
“The boy is innocent,” Ellie says and tries to keep Seth safe, but Hargrath throws Ellie in the sea
and takes away the boy. “We’ll see about that,” he says. Ellie climbs out of the water but can’t
do anything else. Inquisitors can do as they like.
News travels fast about the boy and people are convinced he is the Enemy. People say that the
Enemy is the evil God. They say that the evil God tricked all the other Gods into drowning the
world and then the evil God drowned the Gods too. As the last God, he sometimes floats around
like a spirit. Then, he chooses a Vessel. It lives inside the Vessel’s mind, growing stronger until
it can burst out of the Vessel. This is called ‘Manifesting’. When the evil God manifests, it
destroys everything. This happened years ago. The people are still afraid. Inquisitors try to
locate the next Vessel and kill it before the evil God can manifest again.
It is said that Hargrath was there the last time the Enemy manifested, and he killed it, but not
before the Enemy killed many others. The Enemy took his left arm in that battle. Hargrath even
knew the Vessel. It was a good man, but still, the Enemy manifested inside of him.
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