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A review by landminecat
Clash of the Sky Galleons by Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell
3.0
This was an enjoyable read for the inventiveness of the world and the tension in the story, but I can't say that it was particularly well written.
Also, as I probably complained about in the first 2 of the trilogy, I really wish Maris had been up there as an equal co-protaganist rather than a sidekick, and there is still a very large majority of the main characters being men, but at least she was here and not completely useless in this book.
Overall it was fun and inventive, and the flaws didn't ruin it. It was very good as a book to read as some shallow entertainment for fun, but it lacks anything to make it truly memorable* or emotionally impactful.
*I refer here only to the plot and characters - the world-building is very memorable, creative, and unique, and that is a large part of what kept this at a 3-star review instead of 2.
Spoiler
There are some character deaths which just don't have impact. The crew of the ship are fun background characters with limited development, then you get one scene to show how close two of them are, and a chapter or two later, one dies. It's like that one scene of bonding was just shoved in to make the death more impactful, but it doesn't really work because the story has moved on as quickly as the deaths happened. In one case the character who would be most affected by the death also dies within a minute of the first death - nobody else in the crew had the same bond. It seems the deaths are just to add to the brutal and gruesome nature of the world, and don't do anything for the development of other characters. The plot moves on, and the absence of the dead is hardly noticeable. At one point I had to flick back through the pages to even remember who it was who died, so it can't have been an impactful member of the cast...Also, as I probably complained about in the first 2 of the trilogy, I really wish Maris had been up there as an equal co-protaganist rather than a sidekick, and there is still a very large majority of the main characters being men, but at least she was here and not completely useless in this book.
Overall it was fun and inventive, and the flaws didn't ruin it. It was very good as a book to read as some shallow entertainment for fun, but it lacks anything to make it truly memorable* or emotionally impactful.
*I refer here only to the plot and characters - the world-building is very memorable, creative, and unique, and that is a large part of what kept this at a 3-star review instead of 2.