It's Like a Theme Party

For some reason, on my trip before last to the library I checked out a huge cache of books with a nautical theme.  I don't remember why - maybe it just so happened that those were the only ones on my to-read list that were available for checkout at the library branch I wanted to go to.  I was a bit worried at the time that checking out so many books on the same theme might backfire on me.  I mean, how many pirate books can you read in a row before you get sick of them and say enough already?  Strangely, though, what I actually said after reading them all was Give me more!  So I went to the library again and checked out as many more as I could find.  Here's the rundown:

I actually wrote a full-length review of The Beholder by Anna Bright.  I published it back in September, but in case you missed it, you can find it here.

I was really looking forward to reading Dark Shores, by Danielle L. Jensen, because, look at that cover.   Unfortunately, this book was a weird mix of alternate history and historical fantasy and it didn't work AT ALL.  I didn't get very far into it, mainly because it was stupid.  Really.  It takes place in a fictional empire, but it is actually totally completely based on ancient Rome.  I mean, everything about it says Roman Empire.  But then there is a ship full of women sailors from across the sea, from a place that nobody in the east knows about, and they have these gods that like, interact with the people and there is a magical sea creature who is the consort of one of the goddesses who follows the ship around as it sails, yada, yada, yada.  Not only does the fantasy aspect not mix well with the history part, but the author can't even get her history straight - she makes a comment right off the bat about some guy's toga gaping and revealing too much, not even realizing that men wore tunics under their togas.  In my opinion, if you are going to write historical fantasy (even historical-ish), you might want to have some clue what you are talking about!  Anyway, that's my rant.  I don't recommend you read this book.  Ever.  For any reason.

The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe, by Ally Condie, wasn't exactly nautical, and it didn't exactly have a ship, nor did it exactly have pirates per se.  What it did have is an armored river barge (okay, they called it a ship) that dredged gold from the river bottom, and raiders who were intent on taking over said river vessel.  So, close enough.  I really enjoyed it.  It was kind of steampunkish, but not in the alternate history sort of way.  More like in the post-apocalyptic-without-the-actual-apocalypse sort of way.  Sort of like the Fever Crumb trilogy only not so much so.  It seemed to be set in the future, but wasn't really science fiction-ish (except for a very tiny part near the very end), because instead of advancing technologically, the people in the story had kind of regressed.  Anyway, the story is about a teenage girl who becomes captain of the barge, and it is sort of a coming of age/coming to terms kind of story.  (In case you haven't figured it out yet, it is pretty hard to classify!)  It is written in a very simple style, something like The Boneless Mercies, and the simplicity packs as much of a punch in this one as in the other.  You should read it.   (Reading Level: 4.3 / Middle Grade +)

I had been waiting a long, long time to read Daughter of the Siren Queen by Tricia Levenseller.  I read the first book in the series more than two years ago (see mini review here), right after it was published, which meant that I had to wait almost a year for the sequel, and then it was so popular that there were never any copies in the library!  Well, I know why it was so popular.  After reading the first book, everyone was anxious to see the relationship between the two main characters blossom into a proper romance, which it of course does in the second installment.  This book delivered everything that the first one gave us, and just as well, too.  So, if you like stories with kick-butt teenage pirate girls, and somehow haven't managed to read this one yet, go out and grab a copy already!    (Reading Level: 4.6 / Upper Grades)

The Dust of 100 Dogs, by A. S. King, is another book that had been on my to-read list for ages and ages.  (And ages!)  For some reason, I kept passing it by.  Silly me, you'd think I would have learned my lesson by  now.  I loved this book!   It is about a teenage pirate girl (yes, she was kick-butt, too) who is cursed to live 100 lives as a dog.  (This is probably why I never actually read it before  now!)  So, that part isn't even really in the story, except that the heroine periodically mentions the lessons she learned while a dog, and there are these clever interspersed chapters that are all about raising dogs, but if you are paying attention, you discover are totally relevant to that particular point in the story.  Brilliant!  So, the story takes place in the present, after the girl is reincarnated in modern times with all of her memories intact, and then it has flashbacks to her pirate days, so it is kind of like reading a contemporary fiction book and a historical fiction book all mashed up together.  The only part about it that I didn't like was the skeevy character that seems to take up way too much of the story, but by the end you realize why he is in there and that makes it forgivable.  Much of the book reads like adult fiction, though, so this is not one for the younger teens.    (Reading Level: 5.3 / Upper Grades)

Seafire is another book that fits in with the nautical theme, but not so well in a particular genre.  It is about a teenage ship captain and her crew of girl sailors, who are trying to wreak havoc on the fleet of some ruthless overlord who takes boys as tribute and turns them into drug-addicted sailors on his ships which rule pretty much the entire area covered in this story.  The story itself is pretty much timeless and placeless, although it does mention old tech, so I'm guessing it would fit into whatever genre The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe actually belongs in.   It is written by Natalie C. Parker, who wrote another book that I just loved (see my review here), and this one is done just as well.  I especially liked the way that the author approached the relationships of the characters - very ambiguous, which allows the reader to interpret things any way they want.  I definitely recommend you give this one a try, but you might want to wait several months - it is the first book in a trilogy and it is going to be nearly a year's wait before the next installment becomes available.    (Reading Level: 5.8 / Middle Grade +)


So, even though the first two books I tried to read were some of the worst books I've ever encountered, the next four were Great (with a capital G, see?), so I went back to the library to see if I could find any more for this theme party thing I had going on.  As it turns out, I must have exhausted the good ones in my first haul, because it was pretty slim pickin's at the library and I ended up with some real doozies:

I checked out The Girl From Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig, even though the title was just plain stupid, because it was supposed to be about a teenage girl and her father who can sail their ship to any place and time, real or imaginary, mind you) for which they have a map.  The only catch is, once they've used a map, it cannot be used again.  It had intrigue, and a mystery, and some action,  a sort-of love triangle, and a bit of family drama.  The concept was great, the writing was great, the characters were great, pretty much everything about it was great.  (I actually ordered my own copy, so you know it was great!)    (Reading Level: 5.2 / Upper Grades)

Ship of Smoke and Steel, by Django Wexler, was supposed to be another book about a girl pirate, but in the purely fantasy genre instead of historical fiction/ fantasy.  I say supposed to be, because I didn't get far enough to even get a hint that something like that might be happening.  After the first two chapters I decided the book just wasn't for me.  I really, really hated the style of writing.  That's it.  So I'm not going to recommend that you steer clear of it, because maybe you will actually like it.

I thought that The Left-Handed Fate was going to be good.  It is a historical fiction piece set during some war between Britain and France in (I think) the early 1800's.  It should have been full of mystery and intrigue and action and all that good stuff.  But when I got ready to check it out, I realized that it was shelved in the juvenile fiction section, which didn't sound too promising, but hey, you never know when a book for younger readers will keep you interested so I gave it a try.  I didn't stick with it for very long.  It was quite boring.  On top of that, two of the main characters, a boy and a girl who were (if I remember correctly) maybe around fourteen or fifteen years old, kept doing this quasi-flirting kind of thing, but since this is juvenile fiction it was really toned down and annoying.  If the author had just turned it into a book for sightly older readers, it probably would have been great.  So, if you like juvenile historical fiction, this might be a good pick for you, but if you are bored or annoyed by books for that age group, I'd say you should definitely skip it.   (Reading Level: 5.8 / Middle Grades)

I got through one chapter of Devon Taylor's The Soul Keepers.  I didn't mind the concept - a teenage boy dies and ends up being chosen to serve on the evolved version of Charon's boat, as a sort of ferryman for the dead.  Actually, the blurb for the book sounded fantastic.  Unfortunately, it had the same style of writing as Ship of Smoke and Steel.  (Dare I say it?  I think the best way to describe it is that it felt like it was written for junior high boys.  Only junior high boys, and nobody else.  Of course, I am not now nor have I ever been a junior high boy, so I guess it's possible I have no idea what I'm talking about!) Anyway, there was no way I would have made it through 300 pages of that, so it was ANOTHER book abandoned.

The last book I had left from my nautical haul was Icebreaker by Lian Tanner.  This was also a juvenile fiction book, so once again I checked it out with considerable trepidation, but I had read a book by the same author to my son when he was a little kid and we both loved it, so I decided to give it a try.  By the time I was two or three chapters in, I was afraid I was going to have to abandon it as well, but after a couple of more chapters I really started to enjoy it.  The concept was fresh and original (It would really take too long to explain, so read the Goodreads blurb here.), and although I found the characters to be very stereotypical and even somewhat annoying at first, after awhile each one's unique voice became apparent and I remembered why I had enjoyed Tanner's first book so much.  And, since it is a book intended for younger readers, it of course has a very important message (or two!) written into it.  This is a great book to read to kids, but one that is also quite enjoyable for readers of all ages.  And as a bonus, if you like it, there is a sequel.  Yay!   (Reading Level: 5.3 / Middle Grades)


So it looks like the books I checked out were either really great, or really NOT.  I think some authors out there (let me clarify - good authors) should write some more pirate-y type books, because even after reading so many in a row, I still didn't get my fill.  Of course, Seafire has two more books in the series coming out in the next year or so, and I have since discovered that Icebreaker and The Girl from Everywhere both also have a sequel, so that's something at least, but if anyone out there has any recommendations for me, leave a comment!