I saw the cover one day while browsing Amazon for books and knew I needed to read it. Unfortunately I was on a book buying ban so I could only save it to come back to. Then in May I saw people making lists of Black books and was disappointed because all books on the lists were the ones easily searchable. So mainstream Black books that were heavily marked by publishers and already bestsellers or the 2020 Black YA fantasies(which I love but come on ya'll!). Some people act like Black books don't exist if they aren't on every book list and white platforms aren't talking about them. So your girl created a list of Black books Twitter wasn't hyping which kinda went viral on Book Twitter with 2.9k retweets and 4.8k likes at this time.
Antoine Bandele reached out to me and offered me an arc of his upcoming story and of course I was happy to read it. Who can resist that cover? I was even more excited that he offered an audiobook arc so I could listen to it.
If you're into audiobooks and interested in purchasing this book as an audiobook purchase it from his Author's direct page.
https://shop.authors-direct.com/collections/bandele-books
I think the audiobook really added an extra element to the story. Before each chapter there were sounds that set the mood. Sometimes it would be seagulls squawking, swords clashing, or waves rocking. It made it easier for you to imagine what was going on during the moment.
I really enjoyed just sitting back and listening to Zala and Karim's tale. And I liked that the story immediately opens with some action. I immediately felt like I was on the ship in the middle of battle. In the audio version it's easy to picture what's happening because you hear the crowd yelling and swords clashing. It then goes right into pirates and merchants battling each other. Pirate novels usually aren't my thing but this was very entertaining. The world building was pretty strong. There's a lot of African/Caribbean mythology that's weaved in effortlessly.
Zala and her husband Jelani are pirates and she spends this story fighting to get him back after he is captured by a Vaaji army airship. On the opposite end is Karim who is an officer on the airship where Jelani is being held hostage. He becomes captain after the captain is injured and cannot complete the mission.
This book was a journey with an expansive cast and an even larger world to explore. The writing is very descriptive and it's easy to picture what each character looks like from the way they are described. And the story is not all fast paced action. There are slower more emotional points that allow you to connect with the characters and understand what they really have at stake. And following someone from each side of the battle really gives you a full perspective.
The story does end in a way that sets it up for the 2nd book while making you wonder what will happen next.
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