kerstin Perils of Sea and Sky — Lilian Horn
It’s my stop on Escapist Book Tours, and I had the lovely fortune of reading and reviewing Perils of Sea and Sky. For the sake of transparency, I didn’t need to read the blurb—I was sold on magic, airships, and “perils,” so the entire book outside of that was full of potential surprises, lol
That said, Perils of Sea and Sky has airships, airship smugglers, unlikely friends, and lots of bad luck and shenanigans. If it were a DnD game, each player would roll poorly—in other words, the makings of my kind of story.
Overall, the book is quick and easy read. You have a badass female captain, a young “paper-pusher” lawyer, and a crew of angry smugglers heading off to look for a missing crew of (presumably) angry people. This requires entering the Grey Veil, from which no one ever really returns. Of course, they run into a few… well, difficulties along the way. I do like how we have non-typical MCs, like in a crew of seasoned smugglers, we follow a young lawyer named Nelson, as well as Rosanne, captain of the Red Queen. I enjoyed the bit of a steampunk feel as well.
There are some things that didn’t quite click with me, which mostly boils down to personal preference. What was a little difficult for me was the telling, especially at the beginning. Information was kind of unloaded with no real direction, which made it a little hard for me to find the heart of the story. Like my mind went chasing these pieces of info, and I had no real “anchor” into the story until about a fourth into the book. Readers who like lots of description in their worldbuilding will appreciate this more, though!
This means for me, the impact of the characters was a little weaker. For example, we are told a few times (instead of shown) that Captain Drackenheart has a terrifying reputation, so by the time we spend time with her—especially since she was so easily swayed by Nelson lol—I didn’t really get where the reputation came from. I think I would have liked more layers to the characters to anchor me into the story. Readers who prefer action and description may think otherwise, though!
If quick airship adventures sound right up your alley, give it a try!
