Review by Eric
Feb 8, 2022(Review for entire series)
I don't normally like fantasy books where the author feels the need to invent names for things we have perfectly good words for, and I also don't normally care for grittier/grimdarkier fantasy, but I really liked these. The writing was smart, the worldbuilding was interesting (with one caveat below), and I thought it was a solid "fantasy world pirate" series. I particularly liked the various fall-and-rise redemption arcs and anti-redemption arcs (falls from grace?), some of them totally unexpected until the very end of the third book.
Caveat (spoilers): The one thing that kind of took me out of it was that all of the arakeesians described in the series, every single one, seem to be massively larger than the ones used to make even the largest ships. Many of them are described as having heads larger than the entirety of Tide Child (which is described as mounting an arakeesian head, or at least beak, as its prow/ram). I get that the author wanted them to be colossal, fantastical things, but given that these were the source of all of the boneships, you would think ones small enough to actually make boneships out of would at least make an appearance.
It's a very minor nit in the scheme of things.
(Review for entire series)
I don't normally like fantasy books where the author feels the need to invent names for things we have perfectly good words for, and I also don't normally care for grittier/grimdarkier fantasy, but I really liked these. The writing was smart, the worldbuilding was interesting (with one caveat below), and I thought it was a solid "fantasy world pirate" series. I particularly liked the various fall-and-rise redemption arcs and anti-redemption arcs (falls from grace?), some of them totally unexpected until the very end of the third book.
Caveat (spoilers): The one thing that kind of took me out of it was that all of the arakeesians described in the series, every single one, seem to be massively larger than the ones used to make even the largest ships. Many of them are described as having heads larger than the entirety of Tide Child (which is described as mounting an arakeesian head, or at least beak, as its prow/ram). I get that the author wanted them to be colossal, fantastical things, but given that these were the source of all of the boneships, you would think ones small enough to actually make boneships out of would at least make an appearance.
It's a very minor nit in the scheme of things.
