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princessleopard's review
4.0
I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
The good: the world is intriguing, airships are always fun, I'm super curious as to what the heck happened with the ocean and what all the stuff with the gods are, strong female characters abound (and lead the story, for the most part!), lots of action, and definitely plenty of room to grow as the series moves forward. I'm super curious to learn more about Gin and her mission, and more about the world overall.
The bad: The worldbuilding does end up feeling lacking, and leaves us with a lot of questions. In some instances, it's a good thing - I suspect a lot of these questions are fairly pivotal to the rest of the series - but it was a little frustrating when certain details were omitted. The book follows the characters' thoughts so closely that it seems weird for them not to ponder some of these things themselves, or just fill us in with background knowledge. I also found Rachel's character to be frustrating, as she's just a little too keen to blow her stack at every opportunity. Gin is the *much* more interesting character, and I really would have preferred to follow her POV. There's also a minor antagonist who gets killed off in this that I think would have been more fun to keep around, especially considering his ties with Gin - but that's pure personal preference.
Overall, though, this is a pretty good effort for what I understand to be a debut novel, and I would be curious about the rest of the series.
The good: the world is intriguing, airships are always fun, I'm super curious as to what the heck happened with the ocean and what all the stuff with the gods are, strong female characters abound (and lead the story, for the most part!), lots of action, and definitely plenty of room to grow as the series moves forward. I'm super curious to learn more about Gin and her mission, and more about the world overall.
The bad: The worldbuilding does end up feeling lacking, and leaves us with a lot of questions. In some instances, it's a good thing - I suspect a lot of these questions are fairly pivotal to the rest of the series - but it was a little frustrating when certain details were omitted. The book follows the characters' thoughts so closely that it seems weird for them not to ponder some of these things themselves, or just fill us in with background knowledge. I also found Rachel's character to be frustrating, as she's just a little too keen to blow her stack at every opportunity. Gin is the *much* more interesting character, and I really would have preferred to follow her POV. There's also a minor antagonist who gets killed off in this that I think would have been more fun to keep around, especially considering his ties with Gin - but that's pure personal preference.
Overall, though, this is a pretty good effort for what I understand to be a debut novel, and I would be curious about the rest of the series.
mschley's review
3.0
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I have mixed feelings about this book, there were things I like and other things I really didn’t care for. A fantasy novel with air ships, pirates, a mysterious past Calamity that changed the world, and a magical object all mixed together should be peak reading, but for some reason I just couldn’t make myself like one of the main characters. There was just something about Rachel Masters, Church Inquisitor, that rubbed me the wrong way and I had a hard time rooting for her. Genevieve Jones, or Gin, is a completely different story. I found myself constantly trying to read ahead and get back to her point of view. I would be all over an entire story written about the moody and lethal pirate captain who obviously is much more than that and has a crazy interesting past. She could have carried the book all by herself, in my opinion. Regardless of quibbles over characters, it was an enjoyable fantasy adventure in the skies.
I have mixed feelings about this book, there were things I like and other things I really didn’t care for. A fantasy novel with air ships, pirates, a mysterious past Calamity that changed the world, and a magical object all mixed together should be peak reading, but for some reason I just couldn’t make myself like one of the main characters. There was just something about Rachel Masters, Church Inquisitor, that rubbed me the wrong way and I had a hard time rooting for her. Genevieve Jones, or Gin, is a completely different story. I found myself constantly trying to read ahead and get back to her point of view. I would be all over an entire story written about the moody and lethal pirate captain who obviously is much more than that and has a crazy interesting past. She could have carried the book all by herself, in my opinion. Regardless of quibbles over characters, it was an enjoyable fantasy adventure in the skies.
erikasarutobi's review
2.0
2.5 stars.
This was such a drag 75% of the time it took for me to read it that I had a reading slump because of it.
The premise of the story was interesting but I couldn't enjoy it because of the minimal world building and some of the characters. I found the sypnosis to be more interesting than the book with all honesty.
There's a few POVs but it mostly focuses on Rachel which I disliked and found Gin to be more interesting honestly.
I hate how many names were used for the characters. It keeps going between their titles and their names every paragraph, it's so annoying how the author can't decide what to call them in each and every paragraph. So much unnecessary commas too.
I found Rachel to be so incompetent in almost everything besides her stubbornness and being angry at everything. Besides those, I felt like she barely had any character traits besides her wild hair mentioned here and there. Her childish complaints and bossiness in the beginning was annoying. I don't even know any background story about her besides her wanting to have her own ship.
If the book was focused more on Gin, I think the book would have been perfect. She has some actual background story and a legacy she was forced to carry which made her extremely interesting despite it being rarely mentioned. I really like her personality as well as how great she is at commanding her ship plus her tactics that saves them almost everytime.
As for Lalita, I felt like she was useless 95% of the time and I hated how she was stubborn on helping with stuff she barely had no knowledge about which was endangering the whole crew more than helping.
The bad guys were your usual troupe and was cliche. As for the ship, it went through many things but SURPRISINGLY it never run out on ammo no matter how many shots were fired as well as the crew being an endless supply at that.
I wished that the author focused more on the world building because there was minimal information. The only thing you know as to how the world came to be the way it is, is that Talon fought the old gods and he became a "God" when he defeated them and left to Paradise. There was a mention about how he had disciples once and never again. The sword had a bit of background story that I found interesting but was never touched upon again. Besides these problems, the writing style was good.
Take a shot everytime the 3 ladies fall.
Overall, the book has lost its potential when the author chose Rachel to be the main character instead of Gin in my opinion. I'm not interested in continuing if it's not focused more on Gin so I'll give the next book a try when it comes.
Thank you BookSirens for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.
This was such a drag 75% of the time it took for me to read it that I had a reading slump because of it.
The premise of the story was interesting but I couldn't enjoy it because of the minimal world building and some of the characters. I found the sypnosis to be more interesting than the book with all honesty.
There's a few POVs but it mostly focuses on Rachel which I disliked and found Gin to be more interesting honestly.
I hate how many names were used for the characters. It keeps going between their titles and their names every paragraph, it's so annoying how the author can't decide what to call them in each and every paragraph. So much unnecessary commas too.
I found Rachel to be so incompetent in almost everything besides her stubbornness and being angry at everything. Besides those, I felt like she barely had any character traits besides her wild hair mentioned here and there. Her childish complaints and bossiness in the beginning was annoying. I don't even know any background story about her besides her wanting to have her own ship.
If the book was focused more on Gin, I think the book would have been perfect. She has some actual background story and a legacy she was forced to carry which made her extremely interesting despite it being rarely mentioned. I really like her personality as well as how great she is at commanding her ship plus her tactics that saves them almost everytime.
As for Lalita, I felt like she was useless 95% of the time and I hated how she was stubborn on helping with stuff she barely had no knowledge about which was endangering the whole crew more than helping.
The bad guys were your usual troupe and was cliche. As for the ship, it went through many things but SURPRISINGLY it never run out on ammo no matter how many shots were fired as well as the crew being an endless supply at that.
I wished that the author focused more on the world building because there was minimal information. The only thing you know as to how the world came to be the way it is, is that Talon fought the old gods and he became a "God" when he defeated them and left to Paradise. There was a mention about how he had disciples once and never again. The sword had a bit of background story that I found interesting but was never touched upon again. Besides these problems, the writing style was good.
Take a shot everytime the 3 ladies fall.
Overall, the book has lost its potential when the author chose Rachel to be the main character instead of Gin in my opinion. I'm not interested in continuing if it's not focused more on Gin so I'll give the next book a try when it comes.
Thank you BookSirens for providing me with the digital copy for an honest review.
natachareads's review
3.0
Rating: 3.5
Original review on my blog: https://wp.me/pbesru-9m
Disclaimer : I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
When I read the synopsis for this book it immediately drew my attention. Pirates, flying ships, magic, strong female characters, what more could I want? This is a debut novel, and the first book in a series, so it had some issue but as an overall enjoyment, I wasn't disappointed.
Things I liked:
-As I mentioned before the concept of the story and the world created by the author to me were really unique and interesting.
-The story had a fair amount of action and interesting turns and it kept my attention throughout.
-Genevieve. I really liked this character. She was very interesting and mysterious and I liked her personality.
-The writing was simple and easy and you could see that the author put a lot of love and attention into it. Jamie Mauchline tries to immerse you in the story and make you feel and live what the characters are going through.
Things I didn't like:
I mention above that the author tries very hard to immerse you in the story and make you feel what the characters are feeling, which is created but there is a but...
-The first "but" is the fact that there are only so many ways to describe once feeling. Which mean that after a certain point things got repetitive. I counted at least 4 times the sentence "pinched the bridge of his/her nose".
-The second one is that I felt like the story was lacking in world-building. We know the basics so we can follow the story but I feel that so many things are just mentioned and that it. I would have loved to see less feeling and actions tag and more details on the world.
-I feel like the characters (except maybe Gin) and the relationship between characters was a little superficial. Especially the "bad guys" they felt like their only motivation was that they wanted power... You need more than to have a great and interesting villain.
-We have multiple POV, which I like, but... Sometimes we had the bad guys POV that most of the time gave away twist, betrayals and details that could have been used later on as great plot twists.
Despite some of the issue I mention overall I enjoyed reading this book. I believe this author has potential and I would probably continue with the series.
Original review on my blog: https://wp.me/pbesru-9m
Disclaimer : I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
When I read the synopsis for this book it immediately drew my attention. Pirates, flying ships, magic, strong female characters, what more could I want? This is a debut novel, and the first book in a series, so it had some issue but as an overall enjoyment, I wasn't disappointed.
Things I liked:
-As I mentioned before the concept of the story and the world created by the author to me were really unique and interesting.
-The story had a fair amount of action and interesting turns and it kept my attention throughout.
-Genevieve. I really liked this character. She was very interesting and mysterious and I liked her personality.
-The writing was simple and easy and you could see that the author put a lot of love and attention into it. Jamie Mauchline tries to immerse you in the story and make you feel and live what the characters are going through.
Things I didn't like:
I mention above that the author tries very hard to immerse you in the story and make you feel what the characters are feeling, which is created but there is a but...
-The first "but" is the fact that there are only so many ways to describe once feeling. Which mean that after a certain point things got repetitive. I counted at least 4 times the sentence "pinched the bridge of his/her nose".
-The second one is that I felt like the story was lacking in world-building. We know the basics so we can follow the story but I feel that so many things are just mentioned and that it. I would have loved to see less feeling and actions tag and more details on the world.
-I feel like the characters (except maybe Gin) and the relationship between characters was a little superficial. Especially the "bad guys" they felt like their only motivation was that they wanted power... You need more than to have a great and interesting villain.
-We have multiple POV, which I like, but... Sometimes we had the bad guys POV that most of the time gave away twist, betrayals and details that could have been used later on as great plot twists.
Despite some of the issue I mention overall I enjoyed reading this book. I believe this author has potential and I would probably continue with the series.
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