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A review by e_flah
The Sin in the Steel by Ryan Van Loan
Did not finish book. Stopped at 73%.
The Sin in the Steel started out really promising. The dynamic between brilliant, detached Buc and the strong, kind Eld grabbed my attention from the beginning. It isn't quite a Sherlock and Watson vibe as thankfully Buc is more aware of how the world works than Sherlock typically is. The balance between Buc and Eld is great, though, and kept me invested in the story for at least the first hundred pages.
The two main things I struggled with in The Sin in the Steel were the world-building and the character development. I'm pretty open to different world-building methods, particularly in debuts, as long as it's done in a way where I have a sufficient sense of how the world works. I was baffled about the various religious groups and their politics, which initially seemed insignificant but was getting increasingly more important as the book went on. If I don't understand some of the key players in a world, it's hard to feel invested in the stakes of the story.
The number one reason I set this book aside was the character development. The archetypes Buc and Eld fit into appeal to me enough that I didn't need a ton of additional character development at the beginning to have a fun time. As the book went on, though, I started to care less and less about these characters. With Buc in particular it seemed like there just wasn't more to her than the genius who doesn't communicate plans and pretends not to care about people but does. As most of the book is narrated from Buc's perspective, this ended up making for a frustrating reading experience. Her tragic backstory kept being teased as the reason for Buc's behavior. I don't like when trauma is set up to be a plot device and/or character development reveal, which is where it felt like this was headed. We still hadn't gotten the reason for Buc's behavior when I set the book down at 73%.
I liked the concept of a dynamic duo solving mysteries on pirate ships but sadly the execution just did not work for me.
The two main things I struggled with in The Sin in the Steel were the world-building and the character development. I'm pretty open to different world-building methods, particularly in debuts, as long as it's done in a way where I have a sufficient sense of how the world works. I was baffled about the various religious groups and their politics, which initially seemed insignificant but was getting increasingly more important as the book went on. If I don't understand some of the key players in a world, it's hard to feel invested in the stakes of the story.
The number one reason I set this book aside was the character development. The archetypes Buc and Eld fit into appeal to me enough that I didn't need a ton of additional character development at the beginning to have a fun time. As the book went on, though, I started to care less and less about these characters. With Buc in particular it seemed like there just wasn't more to her than the genius who doesn't communicate plans and pretends not to care about people but does. As most of the book is narrated from Buc's perspective, this ended up making for a frustrating reading experience. Her tragic backstory kept being teased as the reason for Buc's behavior. I don't like when trauma is set up to be a plot device and/or character development reveal, which is where it felt like this was headed. We still hadn't gotten the reason for Buc's behavior when I set the book down at 73%.
I liked the concept of a dynamic duo solving mysteries on pirate ships but sadly the execution just did not work for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, War, and Gun violence