Ship of Smoke and Steel
By: Django Wexler
An enormous and seemingly impossible ship full of sacrifices. Commanded by an unseen Captain and a vicious crew. Guarded by “angels” who won’t let you leave once you board.
Action, violence, love and lust, betrayal and a fight for survival against a series of strange creatures including giant man-eating crabs.
I really think someone should get into the book tourism business because this would make a great cruise.
As a book I come down somewhere in the middle. I did enjoy it more than I thought I would mainly because I started thinking of it more along the lines of a big summer action movie and that made it work for me.
Isoka is our main character and she’s pretty typical. A young brutal badass who kills as easily as she breaths and is blackmailed onto the ship to take command or her sister dies.
Oh, she’s also magic. Most of the people on the ship have access to some sort of magic which is basically why they all get sacrificed to it. I wasn’t big on Isoka. Seen one badass you’ve seen most of them at this point.
I did appreciate Meroe- also known as the Princess Isoka goes gaga over. She’s a character that reminded me a lot of book Sansa. One I think we need more of overall but especially in this type of action-filled survival novel. She’s smart but she’s not a killer she’s brave enough to pull some creatures jaws apart to save a friend from being eaten but she’s not challenging the crew and cutting down soldiers left and right. Meroe goes for brains, kindness and diplomacy which I loved!
Ship of Smoke and Steel is a bit of a balancing act. The parts I enjoyed and appreciated against the things that annoyed me. Wexler uses rot to replace fuck- both the curse and the action and then he way, way over does it. And I am not one to mind the made up curse word. I still toss off a frak now and again but it was a bit much even for me.
Also I really don’t like that cover which I weird to admit because it definitely has things in common with the Red Sister trilogy covers which I love.
Eh, sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Grade: B
Recommend: Sure. It’s a perfect summer vacation/beach read. Take it for what it is a fun action book with some nice representation. It’s enjoyable. But I’m not even sure I’ll continue on with the series.
I would totally go on a themed cruise or ride however!
I really liked Wexler’s adult fantasy books but ended up taking a pass on this one. I guess it seemed a little too…run-of-the-mill YA fantasy for me? Especially with Isoka being the typical stabby female character. I do like the sound of Meroe, though!
I agree with Kathy, it seems run of the mill, maybe a book focusing on a character like Meroe would be fascinating! The feminine characters actually are more interesting to read about now. Katniss started the trend with the strong female heroine, but I am yet to find a character that is on par with Katniss – my goodness she blows all the clones out of the water and she was interesting because she was human!