Skyfarer by Joseph Brassey

[The Big Peat]

This is getting a reluctant three stars. And by reluctant, I mean I don't know if I want to give it two stars or four. I'm pretty sure it's not a three, but I don't see how else to resolve that.

So lets start with the Good.

The Good is that the Unabashed Fun meter was turned all the way up to 11. Skyfarer is primarily the tale of Aimee de Laurent, an aristocratic portalmage who's turned her back on the high life in favour of the sky high life and all the freedom that comes with it.

Brassey mentions that Aimee went to charm school - the whole damn book went to charm school. It's got a big heart, big fantastical ideas, some good lines and a page turning plot.

Speaking of the ideas - most reviews will call out the obvious inspiration of the ideas. Quite right too. But, despite wearing its influences on its sleeve super obviously, Skyfarer still feels like one of the freshest things I've read in a while. Maybe that's just my reading habits; maybe the genre could stand to have more computer game inspired optimistic romps.

Now let's move on to the Ugly - what didn't work for me.

And that's a lot of Brassey's writing style. It contains more Telling and more Info Dumps than I've seen in a long, long time. It's too much for me. And I think the animus for these things found in writing communities is way overblown. It does make the writing style super easy to follow and quick to read mind, but sometimes it grated too much to read quickly.

Beyond being Aimee's story, this is the story of bad guy Azrael. Trying not to give spoilers, but he has a very Kylo Ren feel to him. I don't like Kylo Ren, and I like homages even less. It's the one part of the book that doesn't feel fresh.

I'd also add that covering Azrael robbed pages from the things that I was interested in and that I felt badly needed them. Maybe Brassey had too much story for the pages; maybe he didn't want to get too in depth (except when writing duels ), which leads me to what I'd consider just Bad.

And the Bad for me is the crew dynamics. Those small ship stories live and die by the crew dynamics. Skyfarer didn't give me those because Aimee barely spent any quality time with them. Maybe I was mis-sold the book by friends, but that Firefly feel was a big part of why I picked this up and I didn't get it.


So a very mixed bag. This is the curate's egg that Faberge would have made. But still a debut of great promise - Brassey can smooth out his style, but good luck to any author trying to acquire his sense of fun!

 

[awesomesauce]

And the Bad for me is the crew dynamics. Those small ship stories live and die by the crew dynamics. Skyfarer didn't give me those because Aimee barely spent any quality time with them.

Also the part where, as the brand spanking new apprentice navigator fresh out of school and on her first mission ever, when her boss is wounded, she just takes command for herself and starts giving orders. And the crew just goes along with it. Like all these experienced sky sailors who've been a functioning team way before Aimee showed up are just sitting on their thumbs wondering what do we do now until Aimee takes charge for them? I don't think so. That feather right there broke the suspension bridge over my River of Disbelief. Hard.