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A review by wormys_queue
The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson
4.0
Great debut novel, that manages to translate our current climate crisis into a fantastic setting, where the name giving sea basically is an ocean made up from plants, that is not only the main mean of transport but also the main ressource people live from. What seems like an idyllic scenery though is threatened by the Grey, a mysterious disease that has befallen the plant live and thereby poses an immediate threat for humanity's existance. Only that like in the real world, humanity has better things to do than to save themselves. Power mongering, Greed and sheer desperation lead different factions to fight against each other, hellbent on saving themselves even at the cost of other peoples' life.
Ships sailing on that sea are powered by hearthfires, magical fires kept going and controlled by the hearthfire keepers. Kindred Greyreach is such a keeper that is hellbent on finding her legendary grandmother, the Marchess, that apparently commited suicide by stepping out into the sea. But a note she leaves to Kindred suggests that there might be more to this and that the Marchess might still be a live. On her journey to find her grandmother, Kindred has to constantly decide whom to trust, whom to be loyal too and whom to fight against. Only to find out that in the end, the squabbles she gets involved in mean nothing and that there's much more at stake than just who comes out victorious of the human-made chaos.
I really loved reading that book even if it took my a while because I got distracted by other shing things. The setting is fantastic, the characters memorable and even with all the action going on, the book has what I might describe best as a melancholic, poetic undertone, that I really love in my readings. Not everything is perfect though. Especially in the beginning, Kindred herself is a bit too reckless for my taste, constantly putting other peoples' life at risk without even thinking of asking them first. And when that earns her the enmity of other people, it's suddenly those that are despicted as irresponsible in their wrath, and even if they find peace in the end, it kinda feels to me that this could have been handled a bit more carefully throughout the course of the book.
But to be honest, that's minor nitpicking. I can't wait for [b:The Endless Song|60224574|The Endless Song (The Forever Sea, #2)|Joshua Phillip Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643295100l/60224574._SY75_.jpg|94970538], the second part of this saga (announced for october), and I'll certainly keep an eye out for what Johnson does in the future.
Ships sailing on that sea are powered by hearthfires, magical fires kept going and controlled by the hearthfire keepers. Kindred Greyreach is such a keeper that is hellbent on finding her legendary grandmother, the Marchess, that apparently commited suicide by stepping out into the sea. But a note she leaves to Kindred suggests that there might be more to this and that the Marchess might still be a live. On her journey to find her grandmother, Kindred has to constantly decide whom to trust, whom to be loyal too and whom to fight against. Only to find out that in the end, the squabbles she gets involved in mean nothing and that there's much more at stake than just who comes out victorious of the human-made chaos.
I really loved reading that book even if it took my a while because I got distracted by other shing things. The setting is fantastic, the characters memorable and even with all the action going on, the book has what I might describe best as a melancholic, poetic undertone, that I really love in my readings. Not everything is perfect though. Especially in the beginning, Kindred herself is a bit too reckless for my taste, constantly putting other peoples' life at risk without even thinking of asking them first. And when that earns her the enmity of other people, it's suddenly those that are despicted as irresponsible in their wrath, and even if they find peace in the end, it kinda feels to me that this could have been handled a bit more carefully throughout the course of the book.
But to be honest, that's minor nitpicking. I can't wait for [b:The Endless Song|60224574|The Endless Song (The Forever Sea, #2)|Joshua Phillip Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643295100l/60224574._SY75_.jpg|94970538], the second part of this saga (announced for october), and I'll certainly keep an eye out for what Johnson does in the future.