ABOUT
Title: Seafire
Author: Natalie C. Parker
Series: Seafire #1
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: August 28th 2018
Synopsis:
After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, whose lives have been turned upside down by Aric and his men. The crew has one misson: stay alive, and take down Aric's armed and armored fleet.
But when Caledonia's best friend and second-in-command just barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether or not to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric Athair once and for all...or will he threaten everything the women of the Mors Navis have worked for?
I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Seafire follows Caledonia Styx and her all-female crew aboard the Mors Navis. She has built her crew based upon the fact that they have all had their lives upturned by the Bullets -- a fleet of pirates headed by the ruthless and domineering Aric Althair. Caledonia was lured into revealing the position of her ship when she was fourteen and now she trusts only her sisters with her life on the back of the ocean. The Mors Navis' mission is to take down Aric Althair and the Bullets one piece at a time. However, when Caledonia's second in command, Pisces, escapes death with the help of a Bullet wanting to defect, everything is called into question. He has information that is vital to Caledonia and Pisces, but he's also a Bullet which is questionable enough in itself. What will Caledonia do, with this Bullet aboard her ship?
I really freaking enjoyed this book. This is probably my favourite feminist fantasy book I've read so far. But also it's not really fantasy and more steampunk-y/dystopian? There's a lot of mention of tech being used in this book by all of the various pirates and stuff. There's so so much action in this book which of course, with ya girl being highly visual with action, was a problem for me. But I could still feel the tension and adrenaline as these scenes happened!
I really love Caledonia's character. She was fourteen when her entire family and crew were killed aboard the Ghost, leaving just her and Pisces alive. In the years following, she's built herself an all female crew with all of them having been touched by Aric and the Bullets' reign of terror in some shape or form. She does not take her job as captain lightly and carries the burden of being the leader of a crew who would die for her. She has created several rules to be put in place for her crew to keep them safe even when her crew insists that if she only trusted them more, the rules would be obsolete. They trust Caledonia implicitly to make the best decision for her crew. She has a lot in her past that informs who she is presently as we read the book and I really enjoyed reading her character. Caledonia's crew is pretty diverse as well, with all sorts of women on board from a mute Japanese girl who's a good healer to more rough-and-tumble girls who have hearts of gold.
The world that we are immersed in through Seafire is really interesting as it makes use of so much technology that I was a little confused at first since pirate books tend to take on that "golden age of piracy" vibe or more fantasy leanings. However, there are some indications that maybe this is kind of dystopian in a very vague and distant way? Either way, the technology makes for some interesting problems for our Mors Navis crew. In fact, with the tech, it's almost kind of One Piece-y? Except Seafire is much less whimsical than the aforementioned manga.
Overall, I definitely get a vibe from this book that it's setting up a larger world and there's more in store for Caledonia Styx. I can't wait to see what she gets up to next.
Happy Reading!
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