Book Review: By Sea & Sky
BOOK REVIEW: BY SEA & SKY BY ANTOINE BANDELE
Piracy was the last option Zala had to get the needed ingredients to cure her husband’s severe disease. While she wasn’t skilled with a sword or magic, Zala usually got by with her wits. Unfortunately, wits alone wouldn’t stop her from running out of time. And when a strange airship approaches—unlike anything she’d ever seen before—she knew she’d need more than her usual tricks.
With my own novels containing sky pirates, I was curious to see if I could find any others and stumbled upon By Sea & Sky. The cover is gorgeous and immediately drew me in. Once I started reading, not only did I want to know more about what was going on, but I was so impressed that I needed to know more about the author too. I’ve gotten to know Antoine Bandele a bit (we share a love of cats and Avatar: The Last Airbender), and I’ve read another of his books, The Gatekeeper’s Staff (you can read my review here).
What I liked:
– Seeing both sides of the plot. The book has two opposing POVs: Zala with the pirates and Karim with the navy. Bandele does a great job of being unbiased in this approach, making me root for both sides of the war. (However, I admit to being more intrigued by Karim’s side…)
– The diverse cast. The book has not only different human cultures and identities, but different fantasy races as well, like the cat-like pakkas and faerie-like azizas.
– The action. The book opens with it and is jam-packed with it all throughout. The description during the fight scenes also made it easy to visualize.
– The ships. The shiiiiips! I love me some ships, so the descriptions used, the terms, the—the EVERYTHING. I easily fell in love.
What I didn’t like:
– Character development. We don’t get to see much of the character development, which was a little disappointing, especially with how I was more intrigued with Karim. We do start to get to know them, though, so hopefully there’s more development in the next book.
Overall:
– As someone who loves action, adventure, and pirates, I really enjoyed it, and I can’t wait to read more!
Have you read By Sea & Sky yet? Do you plan on reading it?
Raine