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A review by tani
Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler
5.0
I think Django Wexler is officially one of my favorite authors. I loved his Shadow Campaigns series. And now, having hesitated over reading this book because I was cautious of the YA label, I find that I completely loved it!
The book features Isoka, a former street child who's worked her way up to the status of ward boss through virtue of her adept abilities in the Well of Melos (aka combat magic) and her own ruthless. She's a hard character to like, especially at first. As I mentioned, she's ruthless. Her past has given her a brutal practicality that can be hard to empathize with at times. However, she really grew on me as the story progressed. She's a character with someone to protect, which is a trope I really like. I also really enjoyed the relationships that she develops throughout the book, especially with Meroe, one of the other main characters. And speaking of Meroe, she is also fantastic. She's such a strong and principled character, and I loved her to little bits.
Another aspect I really liked was the action. There are lots of fights throughout the book, and I thought Wexler did a great job with all of them. Each fight has a different issue, often focusing around Isoka learning a new way of using her powers, which is a kind of gradual change that I really enjoy. All of the fights are very urgent as well, with characters living and dying based on the results. It could have been really repetitive, but I actually enjoyed it a lot.
The final thing that really stood out to me about this book was the pace of events. Although I found the beginning a touch slow because I was having trouble connecting to Isoka, once things started rolling, I felt like they really started rolling. I read most of the book in two big gulps, not wanting to put it down, even when my brain didn't really want to compute words any longer. Things go wrong often, and the characters are left to just do the best that they're able.
If there's one area that I thought could use some improvement, it was the magic system. Although the magic system is pretty neat, the details of everything remain fairly sketchy throughout the story, partially because the characters themselves just don't really know. Basically, there are different wells of magic, which focus on different areas, like fire or combat. The level of proficiency a person has with their well is just a matter of luck of the draw, and it seems like a large number of people have no magic at all. I really hope that the next book delves more into the details of this, especially the well of Eddica. There's definitely a lot left to be learned, and I'm really looking forward to getting into it.
The book features Isoka, a former street child who's worked her way up to the status of ward boss through virtue of her adept abilities in the Well of Melos (aka combat magic) and her own ruthless. She's a hard character to like, especially at first. As I mentioned, she's ruthless. Her past has given her a brutal practicality that can be hard to empathize with at times. However, she really grew on me as the story progressed. She's a character with someone to protect, which is a trope I really like. I also really enjoyed the relationships that she develops throughout the book, especially with Meroe, one of the other main characters. And speaking of Meroe, she is also fantastic. She's such a strong and principled character, and I loved her to little bits.
Another aspect I really liked was the action. There are lots of fights throughout the book, and I thought Wexler did a great job with all of them. Each fight has a different issue, often focusing around Isoka learning a new way of using her powers, which is a kind of gradual change that I really enjoy. All of the fights are very urgent as well, with characters living and dying based on the results. It could have been really repetitive, but I actually enjoyed it a lot.
The final thing that really stood out to me about this book was the pace of events. Although I found the beginning a touch slow because I was having trouble connecting to Isoka, once things started rolling, I felt like they really started rolling. I read most of the book in two big gulps, not wanting to put it down, even when my brain didn't really want to compute words any longer. Things go wrong often, and the characters are left to just do the best that they're able.
If there's one area that I thought could use some improvement, it was the magic system. Although the magic system is pretty neat, the details of everything remain fairly sketchy throughout the story, partially because the characters themselves just don't really know. Basically, there are different wells of magic, which focus on different areas, like fire or combat. The level of proficiency a person has with their well is just a matter of luck of the draw, and it seems like a large number of people have no magic at all. I really hope that the next book delves more into the details of this, especially the well of Eddica. There's definitely a lot left to be learned, and I'm really looking forward to getting into it.