By Sea & Sky: An Esowon Story

Didn’t Work for Me on Several Levels When I saw this audiobook at one of my favorite book review sites, the idea of a fantasy story with sky pirates intrigued me. Unfortunately, the book lacked on so many fronts. There were a lot of characters, races, and species to keep track of—too many—so many that the author didn't really give any of them a growth arc, which I think is necessary for any fiction. Frankly, the characters felt two-dimensional, and the author didn't really make them interesting enough to care about and root for—again, something I think is necessary for fiction. As to the plot, there didn't seem to be much to it but extended fight scenes. They remind me of the "it's-all-about-the-action" testosterone-driven movies that my ex sometimes liked to watch, the ones where there is a lot of fighting or exploding cars but not much in the way of characterization or plot. This appears to be a complex world, but the author didn't do much true world-building. Of course, I don't like information dumps in any novel book, but with a complicated world like this one, the author needed to do some world-building throughout, or it just creates confusion or undermines full immersion into the book’s world. I wasn't particularly wild about the narrator, either. To me, the main character is the woman in search of her husband, yet the book is narrated by a man. It just didn't feel right, though, of course, his voice did go with the fight scenes! I also didn't like some voice affectations he gave to some unique races and species; some were hard to understand or just were too odd. Because of all these issues, I do not feel like I can recommend this book. I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

By Sea & Sky: An Esowon Story is a captivating fantasy adventure that transports you to a vibrant and imaginative world filled with pirates, sea monsters, and magic. The characters are well-developed and the plot is full of twists and turns