Scan barcode
A review by siavahda
The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson
3.0
The first thing you need to know about The Forever Sea is that the setting is pretty incredible: in Kindred’s world, land is surrounded by the Forever Sea – an endless ocean of giant-sized grass, flowers with magical properties, and wild creatures that can tear ships apart. Because yes, despite the sea being made of grass, ships do sail it – using magical fires which are controlled with bones.
Are you wowed yet? Because you really should be. The worldbuilding is a wonder – simultaneously out-of-this-world, but with a culture familiar enough to not feel alien. It’s a delicate line to walk, but Johnson manages it deftly. And so much thought has gone into this! The hearthfires that power ships are an excellent example – they’re fueled with bones, but not just any bones. They must be the bones of a dead captain – presumably something to do with the mysterious, secret ritual that makes a sailor into a captain: it’s not as simple as someone just buying their own ship and putting on a captain’s hat. And it gets even more intricate, because it’s not as simple as putting bones on the fire – a Hearthkeeper builds, well, ‘builds’ out of the bones, and the different builds make a ship go up or down, left or right, faster or slower. Ships on the Forever Sea do have sails, but no steering wheel or rudder (as far as I could tell): it’s all down to the mysterious flames.
Flames which sing, if you’re able to hear them.
The problem is that the story doesn’t really live up to the world Johnson’s created. At first, it looks promising; we’re introduced to Kindred, Hearthkeeper of The Errant, as the ship flees from pirates, racing to reach Arcadia before the pirates can take them down. We quickly learn that Kindred has a relationship to the hearthfire that other Hearthkeepers don’t, and that they don’t understand or believe in, but that gives her a deeper understanding of the flames and how to work with them. And Arcadia, when they reach it, is a beautifully fleshed-out island where the people live by night and walk slow to conserve all the water they can. The initial conflict, in fact, is fueled by the scarcity of water – or rather, the man who’s taken advantage of that scarcity to somehow build up a monopoly, which in turn has given him control of the city-island’s politics and laws.
Honestly, the book is really strong throughout this part; it’s a very good beginning, with detailed worldbuilding and believable conflict, sketching out the characters and the culture they come from. The scene where Kindred learns of her grandmother’s ‘death’, and mourns with her grandmother’s crew, is beautiful and poignant; and the subsequent battle where Kindred and her fellow crew are driven out over a mistake/conspiracy about water supplies is powerful and cinematic in the best way.
But after that, it really starts to fall apart. Although the worldbuilding remains incredible, the characters wash out to 2-dimensional figures, and the various subplots are resolved mostly by incredible coincidence or too-simple solutions. Kindred becomes obsessed with following her grandmother down under the Forever Sea, but Johnson doesn’t really make this believable at all; never once did I understand why Kindred wanted this, and wanted it so badly, when her entire world insists that it’s death. I was shocked when she, in a move that seemed uncharacteristic of her, lied and manipulated her fellow crew into taking a more dangerous route when the captain is out of commission; something that is apparently motivated by her desire to go to the Deeps, except…that’s not where they’re going. Kindred directs them to the Once-City, a mythical giant tree/pirate city/titanic ship, because…? It’s not really clear. She associates the Once-City with her desire for the Deeps, but why isn’t really explained, nor why she thinks it’s okay to lie and manipulate her friends in the way that she does.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
Are you wowed yet? Because you really should be. The worldbuilding is a wonder – simultaneously out-of-this-world, but with a culture familiar enough to not feel alien. It’s a delicate line to walk, but Johnson manages it deftly. And so much thought has gone into this! The hearthfires that power ships are an excellent example – they’re fueled with bones, but not just any bones. They must be the bones of a dead captain – presumably something to do with the mysterious, secret ritual that makes a sailor into a captain: it’s not as simple as someone just buying their own ship and putting on a captain’s hat. And it gets even more intricate, because it’s not as simple as putting bones on the fire – a Hearthkeeper builds, well, ‘builds’ out of the bones, and the different builds make a ship go up or down, left or right, faster or slower. Ships on the Forever Sea do have sails, but no steering wheel or rudder (as far as I could tell): it’s all down to the mysterious flames.
Flames which sing, if you’re able to hear them.
The problem is that the story doesn’t really live up to the world Johnson’s created. At first, it looks promising; we’re introduced to Kindred, Hearthkeeper of The Errant, as the ship flees from pirates, racing to reach Arcadia before the pirates can take them down. We quickly learn that Kindred has a relationship to the hearthfire that other Hearthkeepers don’t, and that they don’t understand or believe in, but that gives her a deeper understanding of the flames and how to work with them. And Arcadia, when they reach it, is a beautifully fleshed-out island where the people live by night and walk slow to conserve all the water they can. The initial conflict, in fact, is fueled by the scarcity of water – or rather, the man who’s taken advantage of that scarcity to somehow build up a monopoly, which in turn has given him control of the city-island’s politics and laws.
Honestly, the book is really strong throughout this part; it’s a very good beginning, with detailed worldbuilding and believable conflict, sketching out the characters and the culture they come from. The scene where Kindred learns of her grandmother’s ‘death’, and mourns with her grandmother’s crew, is beautiful and poignant; and the subsequent battle where Kindred and her fellow crew are driven out over a mistake/conspiracy about water supplies is powerful and cinematic in the best way.
But after that, it really starts to fall apart. Although the worldbuilding remains incredible, the characters wash out to 2-dimensional figures, and the various subplots are resolved mostly by incredible coincidence or too-simple solutions. Kindred becomes obsessed with following her grandmother down under the Forever Sea, but Johnson doesn’t really make this believable at all; never once did I understand why Kindred wanted this, and wanted it so badly, when her entire world insists that it’s death. I was shocked when she, in a move that seemed uncharacteristic of her, lied and manipulated her fellow crew into taking a more dangerous route when the captain is out of commission; something that is apparently motivated by her desire to go to the Deeps, except…that’s not where they’re going. Kindred directs them to the Once-City, a mythical giant tree/pirate city/titanic ship, because…? It’s not really clear. She associates the Once-City with her desire for the Deeps, but why isn’t really explained, nor why she thinks it’s okay to lie and manipulate her friends in the way that she does.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!