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jgnoelle 's review for:
Serpent Sea
by Maiya Ibrahim
Serpent Sea is the sequel to Spice Road, which I enjoyed immensely (see my review). I enjoyed this book as well, although I did find it much more plot-driven than it's predecessor, which had all sorts of subtle character moments in it. This is despite the addition of Taha's POV in this book. I did like seeing inside his head since he was one of my favourite characters from Spice Road. However, his thoughts were much more straightforward and unconflicted then I expected, particularly with how much time he spent thinking about being secretly in love with Imani. They also abruptly revealed him to be much closer to his cousin Reza than seemed to be the case in Spice Road, to the point that he allowed that closeness to overshadow his blind devotion to his duty, which seemed out of character from his portrayal in the first book.
But the series is YA so I guess there's a limit to how convoluted it can get with the characters' emotions if it's meant to be relatable to teenagers. Also, we do need to move the plot along some kind of way. Serpent Sea had a lot of great action as the Harrowlanders pursued out their promised conquest of Qalia while Imani, Taha, Atheer, and company desperately tried to stop them. We got to learn more about Qayn, which further revealed more about the nature of magic and the monsters of the Sahir Desert, as well as how the magic spell protecting Qalia came to be in place. He and Imani also became much closer despite their ideological differences (the djinn and the djinn slayer), strengthening the love triangle between him, Imani, and Taha that began in the first book. While not a huge fan of love triangles, I do appreciate the author's handling of this one and really do feel like it could go either way.
I enjoyed all the sea battles, how the search for Qayn's magical crown led Imani to Harrowland to participate in a Hunger Games-esque fight to the death and how the two groups (Taha and Amira in one; Imani, Atheer, Qayn, and the crew of the Lion's Prize in the other) that were previously separated came back together just in time for this.
There was a twist near the end that I didn't expect, which was exciting, but even more enjoyable was the wedge it drove between Imani and Amira. As the younger sister and a non-warrior in addition, Amira has mostly been just a tag-along (and at times a hindrance) to all the action thus far. It's great to see her thinking independently and making decisions that effect the outcome of events, particularly in ways that run contrary to Imani's beliefs and goals. I'm looking forward to seeing how this trilogy ends.
But the series is YA so I guess there's a limit to how convoluted it can get with the characters' emotions if it's meant to be relatable to teenagers. Also, we do need to move the plot along some kind of way. Serpent Sea had a lot of great action as the Harrowlanders pursued out their promised conquest of Qalia while Imani, Taha, Atheer, and company desperately tried to stop them. We got to learn more about Qayn, which further revealed more about the nature of magic and the monsters of the Sahir Desert, as well as how the magic spell protecting Qalia came to be in place. He and Imani also became much closer despite their ideological differences (the djinn and the djinn slayer), strengthening the love triangle between him, Imani, and Taha that began in the first book. While not a huge fan of love triangles, I do appreciate the author's handling of this one and really do feel like it could go either way.
I enjoyed all the sea battles, how the search for Qayn's magical crown led Imani to Harrowland to participate in a Hunger Games-esque fight to the death and how the two groups (Taha and Amira in one; Imani, Atheer, Qayn, and the crew of the Lion's Prize in the other) that were previously separated came back together just in time for this.
There was a twist near the end that I didn't expect, which was exciting, but even more enjoyable was the wedge it drove between Imani and Amira. As the younger sister and a non-warrior in addition, Amira has mostly been just a tag-along (and at times a hindrance) to all the action thus far. It's great to see her thinking independently and making decisions that effect the outcome of events, particularly in ways that run contrary to Imani's beliefs and goals. I'm looking forward to seeing how this trilogy ends.