Emily Skrutskie

For the first couple of chapters of Bonds of Brass, I was settling in for an enjoyable, four-star read: a pulpy, Star Wars-inflected space opera in which a young military cadet, Ettian, finds out that his best friend (and maybe boyfriend), Gal, is secretly the heir to the empire responsible for the death of Ettian's parents and the destruction of his whole society. Emily Skrutskie kicks off the novel with a starfighter skirmish that's a lot of fun to read, and throughout Bonds of Brass she show more writes some decent action-adventure scenes.

But.

But.

Look, it's the 2984th month of the pandemic. I wasn't asking a lot of this book: just for it to be a fun and escapist read with some queer romance and maybe some laser swords or something. My needs aren't extravagant! But this is a lazily written book, as if Skrutskie decided that people would pick it up solely on the promise that it would give them the romantic relationship between Star Wars' Finn and Poe that they'd wanted to see, only thinly-veiled. Why, then, bother to put any craft into it if you know the marketing will help you find a ready fanbase?

That lack of craft starts to become apparent after those first few chapters, and the whole book becomes steadily more exasperating after that. There's absolutely no chemistry between Gal and Ettian, with Ettian thinking a lot about the fact that he likes Gal but never really showing it through his emotions or actions. Why did they ever like one another? Honestly, having read all 300+ pages of this book, I'm fucked if I know, beyond "Ettian liked that one paper Gal wrote for a class that one time that argued for minimising civilian casualties."

And maybe I'm being reductive here, but that seems less compelling than the fact that Gal's parents are, again, responsible for the death of Ettian's parents and the destruction of his whole society.

None of the actions or reactions of the POV character, Ettian, made much sense, particularly in light of the end "twist" (which is so clunkily signposted that I figured it out around about chapter 5 or 6—out of 31).

Nor did the actions of most people whom Gal and Ettian encountered. The plot depends on a lot of people whom we're told are battle-hardened veterans being shockingly gullible, if not outright stupid, and one character whom we're repeatedly told is a pacifist, the galaxy's best hope for peace, acting like an outright sociopath.

Add in the facts that Skrutskie adopts an attitude towards imperialism which could most charitably be described as muddled, displays a real limited understanding of trauma or politics, and emphasises "blood" as justifying people's claims on power in ways that are highly uncomfortable, and you end up with a book that I can't recommend. I won't be reading the rest of this trilogy—for all those reasons, and because I'm quite certain that I can already predict how the third book will end.

Disappointing. show less

This book was honestly such a surprise! I picked it up because I saw a good review, and thought it sounded vaguely interesting. Like, ALL I knew coming in was sapphic pirates, and something about sea monster trainers.

Which sounds amazing, of course! It was enough to make me pick this book up after seeing only one review, which I rarely do. But still, I went in with exactly zero expectations.

And then the beginning was a bit slow...

But this book blew me out of the water! (I'm sorry, bad ocean show more puns... I can't help it...)

I LOVED this book! It was SO good! And I haven't stopped flailing about it and yelling at everyone to read it ever since!

Okay so the CHARACTERS!!!

Cas was an awesome protagonist! I really liked her, and something about her voice was just... really refreshing to read. She was just... I don't even know. She wasn't perfect. She wanted to stay alive, and she sometimes went against everything she'd been taught in order to do so. But she wasn't selfish or anything either. She was just... I don't really know how to explain it (by which I mean I read this too long ago and only half remember...). But I loved her. A lot.

Swift was also amazing! Swift was honestly my absolute favourite! She was so hard and prickly and rude, but she had a heart of gold inside, and I just adored her! Also her snark and sass was great!

The other side characters were great too! I just... don't remember any names, so I can't really offer much more in the way of details. But they were great.

And the ROMANCE!
It was adorable. And look, just don't question my definition of 'adorable', okay? They were adorable as they spat insults at each other and threatened to murder each other, and they were even more adorable when they had their soft, sweet, touching moments. And AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

The world-building was good too. It wasn't as developed as it could have been, but the book was really short, so it was pretty good for it's length, and I'm hoping we'll learn more in book two as well. And the development truly was good, just not spectacular.

Plus the plot was fast paced and I couldn't put it down.

All in all, this was an amazing book, and I would like the sequel RIGHT THIS SECOND PLEASE?!?!

***Initial Reaction, June 1, 2018***

SO. GOOD. Can I have the sequel RIGHT NOW please?!?! RTC. show less

I decided to stop reading this at least 2 times, and then managed to continue, so I guess that means that the characters and storyline were actually pretty decent. Mostly, the things that didn't appeal to me are pretty specific to me -- I don't really enjoy anti-heroes, I just didn't like these characters very much, I had a very hard time believing in the nobility of the graft that the main characters were known for, I wasn't won over to the idea that everyone on the Justice wanted out of show more the Justice, I didn't care about the weird interpersonal relationships that were crucial to the story, I didn't care about Murdoch's personal journey because I didn't find it very interesting, I don't think that thieving is righteous, and almost everything that was in it about swords seemed unrealistic to me (a swordsperson). So.... meh. It's not terrible if you love a heist book. Not my cup of tea. show less

The Edge of the Abyss is the high octane sequel to the fabulous The Abyss Surrounds Us. Bad news? You have to read the books in order. So if you aren’t familiar with The Abyss Surrounds Us, grab yourself a copy before diving into The Edge of the Abyss. And do pick up a copy, particularly if sea monsters, pirates and f/f romance sound at all up your alley.

Also, spoilers will follow for The Abyss Surrounds Us. So beware!

At the end of The Abyss Surrounds Us, Cassandra Leung chose the pirate show more captain Santa Elena over her former loyalties on the shore. She is shaken and adrift, and it isn’t helping that her relationship with Swift is rocky since Santa Elena told her that Swift killed Durga, the sea monster Cas grew up with. But Cas has bigger problems than her personal life. Turns out, many of the stolen Reckoner pups have survived and thrived on their own, endangering the entire ecosystem of the NeoPacific and every ship who travels its waters.

The Edge of the Abyss grabbed me from the get go, with a stunning attack from a rogue Reckoner. The pacing stayed fast and the action consistently pleasing. However, the romance drama did start to wear on me. The relationship between Cas and Swift is obviously complicated, but at some point I started to get tired of the back and forth. It felt like there always had to be new hurdles to them being together, which is something pretty common in a lot of stories. Thankfully, just when I was thinking I couldn’t take much more of the romance angst, the sea monster angst took precedence.

Aside from some of her deliberating over Swift, I did like Cas’s arc here. A lot of it was with her dealing with the fall out of her decision at the end of the last book. Where is she going now? What is her place in the world? Plus, she’s feeling like she’s betrayed her family and lost them forever. It felt like her connection to her family was more prominent here than in the first book.

Cas’s connection to her family actually ties into one of the larger themes of The Edge of the Abyss – community and interdependence. The rouge Reckoners are a threat to the entire Neopacific and all the different cultures and communities that rely on it, both land and shore. The pirates and the shore-dwellers might be at odds, but their survival comes from the same place. Can Cas convince the pirates to deal with the threat for the good of everyone? And can she herself destroy sea monsters when she’s spent her life raising them?

See, this is one of the things I love about this duology. It’s a ton of fun but it also manages to be deep and meaningful. It’s a rare book that manages to strike that balance, but The Edge of the Abyss does it in spades. This duology has been one of the best YA series I’ve encountered in years, and I totally recommend it!

Aside from getting worn out by the romance drama, I only have one criticism. It’s a huge spoiler, but I couldn’t live with myself if I published a review that didn’t discuss it. Don’t read any farther in this review if you don’t want to see it.

All, right are all the spoiler adverse people gone? Yes? Okay, so here it is. Santa Elena dies during the climax of the novel. Her death feels tragically random, which I believe is the point, but some things about it didn’t sit right with me. Mostly, it felt like she was dying so that Swift could take center stage as a leader and eventually the new captain of the Minnow. Which basically meant that a WOC was dying so that a white girl could take her place. Yikes.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review. show less