theshaggyshepherd's review against another edition
4.0
The Black Coast // by Mike Brooks
The Black Coast is one of those books that all of a sudden popped up all over Twitter as my favorite SFF reviewers started to get their hands on it. Of course, I didn't want to be left out so I made sure to get in on the action as well. I'm really glad I did because even though it wasn't entirely perfect for me, it still had some very interesting aspects to it that I'm excited to explore more when the series continues.
The biggest thing that stands out about this book is the attention to detail when it came to the different cultures that we were introduced to. After reading an article about the world-building by the author himself, I realized that the big goal for this book for him was to write those different cultures with varying language structures that could be used in the English language but would be easy to tell apart from each other without having to resort to borrowing words from other languages or making up an entirely new one. One people, the Tjakorshi, use English the way we are used to ourselves. The Naridans, who feel strongly about identifying their own roles in relation to the people they are interacting with, do not use the personal pronouns "I" and "me." That in itself did not bother me so much but rather that someone would refer to themselves as "this man" but then in the same sentence use "we" as well. It didn't feel inclusive of themselves but rather as if they were talking about a man separate from the group referred to as we. This also though made a little more sense after reading the above mentioned article. The most interesting language device for me though was how he decided to distinguish between different genders in the city of Kiburu ce Alaba. The use of diacritics allows people to identify themselves on a spectrum of gender (or as non agender) or to keep their identity to themselves if they so wish. I don't want to take too much space to talk about the use of language here but this is definitely something I very much enjoyed once I thought about and evaluated it more in relation to the story itself.
Something else that was different about this story was the focus on finding similarities in each other's cultures and trying to live together in peace rather than conquering and destroying each other. While I wasn't 100% happy with its execution, it stills was a nice change of pace compared to a lot of other books lately. In some areas, this took away a little bit from the believability, for example when a previously much feared person showed a lot of unexpected mercy. Don't get me wrong. There is still a lot of violence in this book. We are after all talking about nations full of warriors and soldiers. But it really was nice to see an author attempt to reach a goal of unity rather conquest for once.
These two things really propelled the story forward for me and kept me glued to the pages. But there were a couple of things that I felt would've benefitted from some more fine-tuning. A language example that has nothing to do with the cultural differences but rather is something that probably stood out to me because English is my second language: Saana's speech patterns felt inconsistent. Most of the time, it is obvious that the Naridan language is new to her by the simple sentence structures she uses, but every once in a while she would use much more complicated words and sentence structures that stood out in a big contrast. In the same vein, for the most part, the languages felt like they often do in fantasy books: while not necessary medieval, definitely still older. Here and there though, very modern phrases found their way into the book, which just didn't seem to fit well. The dialogue overall felt a little choppy. It didn't always flow as well as it could have and it sometimes seemed to hinder the characters more than help. Their conversations really pulled me out of the story a few times, both due to their flow as well as their word choices.
The author tried to cover a lot of different things in his book. Some are popular fantasy genre-related things, such as dragons and honor, while others were current issues in our own society, such as LGBTQIA+ rights and gender identity. All of these are things I enjoy reading about but I felt as if they were covered mostly superficially and that it was more important to get them in there at all rather than explore their importance more deeply. I also sometimes felt that their priorities were a little... off? Two of the main characters seemed to enjoy arguing over little things while ignoring the big glaring issues that would've helped them prepare their peoples more for upcoming conflict. What I did find awesome though was that there wasn't one nation that was accepting of all kinds of people and therefore portrayed as "the best" out of the three. Each country had something they were accepting of but also biased against, showing that nobody is perfect and that there are things to learn for everybody.
Overall, I am really glad to have read this book. It took me a couple of days to really get my thoughts together. Reading up on the author's process also helped put things into perspective for me. It makes me want to look into more authors' writing processes because there are probably more things I have missed that may influence my opinion of their works. Contrary to popular belief, we reviewers aren't perfect either (I kid I kid). I do want to take this moment to point out though that I don't consider myself a member of the LGBTQIA+ community so take my opinion on those aspects of this book with a grain of salt. The plot for this book is really intriguing. The author has shown that he puts a lot of thought into his work and I am looking forward to see what he presents to us in the next book of this series!
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Black Coast is one of those books that all of a sudden popped up all over Twitter as my favorite SFF reviewers started to get their hands on it. Of course, I didn't want to be left out so I made sure to get in on the action as well. I'm really glad I did because even though it wasn't entirely perfect for me, it still had some very interesting aspects to it that I'm excited to explore more when the series continues.
The biggest thing that stands out about this book is the attention to detail when it came to the different cultures that we were introduced to. After reading an article about the world-building by the author himself, I realized that the big goal for this book for him was to write those different cultures with varying language structures that could be used in the English language but would be easy to tell apart from each other without having to resort to borrowing words from other languages or making up an entirely new one. One people, the Tjakorshi, use English the way we are used to ourselves. The Naridans, who feel strongly about identifying their own roles in relation to the people they are interacting with, do not use the personal pronouns "I" and "me." That in itself did not bother me so much but rather that someone would refer to themselves as "this man" but then in the same sentence use "we" as well. It didn't feel inclusive of themselves but rather as if they were talking about a man separate from the group referred to as we. This also though made a little more sense after reading the above mentioned article. The most interesting language device for me though was how he decided to distinguish between different genders in the city of Kiburu ce Alaba. The use of diacritics allows people to identify themselves on a spectrum of gender (or as non agender) or to keep their identity to themselves if they so wish. I don't want to take too much space to talk about the use of language here but this is definitely something I very much enjoyed once I thought about and evaluated it more in relation to the story itself.
Something else that was different about this story was the focus on finding similarities in each other's cultures and trying to live together in peace rather than conquering and destroying each other. While I wasn't 100% happy with its execution, it stills was a nice change of pace compared to a lot of other books lately. In some areas, this took away a little bit from the believability, for example when a previously much feared person showed a lot of unexpected mercy. Don't get me wrong. There is still a lot of violence in this book. We are after all talking about nations full of warriors and soldiers. But it really was nice to see an author attempt to reach a goal of unity rather conquest for once.
These two things really propelled the story forward for me and kept me glued to the pages. But there were a couple of things that I felt would've benefitted from some more fine-tuning. A language example that has nothing to do with the cultural differences but rather is something that probably stood out to me because English is my second language: Saana's speech patterns felt inconsistent. Most of the time, it is obvious that the Naridan language is new to her by the simple sentence structures she uses, but every once in a while she would use much more complicated words and sentence structures that stood out in a big contrast. In the same vein, for the most part, the languages felt like they often do in fantasy books: while not necessary medieval, definitely still older. Here and there though, very modern phrases found their way into the book, which just didn't seem to fit well. The dialogue overall felt a little choppy. It didn't always flow as well as it could have and it sometimes seemed to hinder the characters more than help. Their conversations really pulled me out of the story a few times, both due to their flow as well as their word choices.
The author tried to cover a lot of different things in his book. Some are popular fantasy genre-related things, such as dragons and honor, while others were current issues in our own society, such as LGBTQIA+ rights and gender identity. All of these are things I enjoy reading about but I felt as if they were covered mostly superficially and that it was more important to get them in there at all rather than explore their importance more deeply. I also sometimes felt that their priorities were a little... off? Two of the main characters seemed to enjoy arguing over little things while ignoring the big glaring issues that would've helped them prepare their peoples more for upcoming conflict. What I did find awesome though was that there wasn't one nation that was accepting of all kinds of people and therefore portrayed as "the best" out of the three. Each country had something they were accepting of but also biased against, showing that nobody is perfect and that there are things to learn for everybody.
Overall, I am really glad to have read this book. It took me a couple of days to really get my thoughts together. Reading up on the author's process also helped put things into perspective for me. It makes me want to look into more authors' writing processes because there are probably more things I have missed that may influence my opinion of their works. Contrary to popular belief, we reviewers aren't perfect either (I kid I kid). I do want to take this moment to point out though that I don't consider myself a member of the LGBTQIA+ community so take my opinion on those aspects of this book with a grain of salt. The plot for this book is really intriguing. The author has shown that he puts a lot of thought into his work and I am looking forward to see what he presents to us in the next book of this series!
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.
paracyclops's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
A tense, exciting epic fantasy thrill-ride, with engaging characters and thoughtful, plausible worldbuilding. Mike Brooks takes the opportunity to imagine a variety of cultural constructions of gender and sexuality, overlaying them on a variety of social structures, and creates a very rich, multi-ethnic world in the process. He also makes the effort to get the details right in things like combat and material culture, which can be a major pitfall for me, when I'm reading epic fantasy. Nothing kills the immersion faster than the author wrongly assuming that I as a reader won't notice that they haven't researched something. It's great to find a writer who does sweat the details, and I consequently enjoyed this book from beginning to end.
rhysciar's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
This was an awesome book. I've wanted to read this from a long time ago, and I have to admit, this was solely a cover buy for me, but I'm glad I did it, because I absolutely loved this novel. It's fast paced, there's no bulls*itting, something is always happening. It's a mixture of middle age fantasy with dragons and with vikings, so blood is inevitable.
The characters are great, Saana and Daimon are interesting people, though mainly because of their differences in their culture. Also the plot is exciting, though it can seem average and ordinary in the beginning. Luckily some plot twists are helping it, so it becomes very exciting.
One uniqueness is how this book handles gender. Every culture has its own way to it, one differentiates genders with pronouncing the pronouns differently, one speaks in third person, the other has liberal views, etc. This was very unique to me too, but in the end, part of it became just too much. I'm pretty sure I already know one of the main plot twists of the trilogy so far just because of this, but overall luckily it didn't ruin the book.
So all in all, I loved The Black Coast. I think this is a pretty solid, very fast paced fantasy book, and I'm eager to see where all the characters will land, what will happen to them. It has some GoT vibes, but it's way different than that.
Absolutely recommended.
The characters are great, Saana and Daimon are interesting people, though mainly because of their differences in their culture. Also the plot is exciting, though it can seem average and ordinary in the beginning. Luckily some plot twists are helping it, so it becomes very exciting.
One uniqueness is how this book handles gender. Every culture has its own way to it, one differentiates genders with pronouncing the pronouns differently, one speaks in third person, the other has liberal views, etc. This was very unique to me too, but in the end, part of it became just too much. I'm pretty sure I already know one of the main plot twists of the trilogy so far just because of this, but overall luckily it didn't ruin the book.
So all in all, I loved The Black Coast. I think this is a pretty solid, very fast paced fantasy book, and I'm eager to see where all the characters will land, what will happen to them. It has some GoT vibes, but it's way different than that.
Absolutely recommended.
nclcaitlin's review
4.0
The Black Keep ready themselves for battle which will see sure defeat at the hands of their long-term enemies, the Raiders. Instead, the clan chief comes with all her people, searching for peace as their home is ravaged by a draug - a demon king.
This follows a large cast of characters - the chief and her daughter, the second heir of BlackCreek who takes over when the Raiders arrive, a thief in the city, a Princess trying to hold her country together with two identities - one at court and one in the criminal underworld, and someone under the command of the Draug ‘Golden One’.
And they were all utterly compelling, distinct, and grand.
Oh, and by the way? There are dragons. War dragons, wild dragons, as well as cute baby dragons.
The Black Keep and the Raiders hate each other and must seek peace if they wish to survive. This makes for a very compelling story as there are preconceived notions, suspicions, and ideas which they must adapt to and accept.
“So it is witch until you can see the use for it?"
What I found utterly fascinating is the differences in culture and addresses. For example, in Alaba, there are five genders and six forms of address (high masculine, low masculine, agender, low feminine, high feminine, and the gender neutral formal for when you don’t know someone else’s gender, or do not wish to disclose your own), which are indicated in text form by diacritics over vowels (“yòu” or “mê”, for example).
If you study languages, linguistics, or love the way authors can so cleverly build up a rich world and history, you will love this intricate attention to detail which never feels overloaded.
A lot could understand Alaban, but not the meanings behind the words: they tended to assume a certain size or body shape or societal position always correlated to a particular gender. They almost always thought Nabanda was high masculine, and even addressed him as such without permission. But that was foreigners for you. How could they think to tell someone's gender just by looking at them?
Interestingly, in the author’s note, Brooks acknowledges this book was written in angry response to the Brexit Referendum. He chose to believe cultures coming together was a good thing that could see prosperity, change, and kinship.
This deserves more recognition in the fantasy sphere! Amazing world-building; nuanced conversations about gender, identity, sexuality; genius use of language; great characters; and pirates, dragons, epic battle scenes…
I would recommend this if you liked The Ruin of Kings, A Memory Called Empire.
This follows a large cast of characters - the chief and her daughter, the second heir of BlackCreek who takes over when the Raiders arrive, a thief in the city, a Princess trying to hold her country together with two identities - one at court and one in the criminal underworld, and someone under the command of the Draug ‘Golden One’.
And they were all utterly compelling, distinct, and grand.
Oh, and by the way? There are dragons. War dragons, wild dragons, as well as cute baby dragons.
The Black Keep and the Raiders hate each other and must seek peace if they wish to survive. This makes for a very compelling story as there are preconceived notions, suspicions, and ideas which they must adapt to and accept.
“So it is witch until you can see the use for it?"
What I found utterly fascinating is the differences in culture and addresses. For example, in Alaba, there are five genders and six forms of address (high masculine, low masculine, agender, low feminine, high feminine, and the gender neutral formal for when you don’t know someone else’s gender, or do not wish to disclose your own), which are indicated in text form by diacritics over vowels (“yòu” or “mê”, for example).
If you study languages, linguistics, or love the way authors can so cleverly build up a rich world and history, you will love this intricate attention to detail which never feels overloaded.
A lot could understand Alaban, but not the meanings behind the words: they tended to assume a certain size or body shape or societal position always correlated to a particular gender. They almost always thought Nabanda was high masculine, and even addressed him as such without permission. But that was foreigners for you. How could they think to tell someone's gender just by looking at them?
Interestingly, in the author’s note, Brooks acknowledges this book was written in angry response to the Brexit Referendum. He chose to believe cultures coming together was a good thing that could see prosperity, change, and kinship.
This deserves more recognition in the fantasy sphere! Amazing world-building; nuanced conversations about gender, identity, sexuality; genius use of language; great characters; and pirates, dragons, epic battle scenes…
I would recommend this if you liked The Ruin of Kings, A Memory Called Empire.
leanne_y_m's review
Such a solid first instalment to a new fantasy series, enjoyed it so much!!!
- It was so different to most other fantasy series. I loved that it focused more on these two groups/cultures trying to live together, trying to make peace, learning to overcome their past and differences so they can work together towards a better future ... rather than just wars and battles. It made for such an interesting and unique read. (Don't worry there are still plenty of threats and battles)
- Solid world building.
- Strong character work
- I especially loved how it it breaks open gender limitations ... & it didn't take me as long as I thought it would to get use to some of the characters talking about themselves in third person.
Overall, It was very different to what I expected from reading the synopsis but thankfully that did not end up being a bad thing at all. A very enjoyable and refreshing fantasy read and I absolutely can not wait to pick up book 2.
archcon's review against another edition
Not feeling it, might try again in future?
catbooking's review
3.0
Interesting world. Interesting characters. Diversity galore and decent representation. That said, I found the plot itself to be fairly shallow.
The absolute glut of POVs was really unnecessary. Maybe they would have provided needed insight to the later bits of he story, but in this book they just took up space that could have been used by the main plot line. The other issue was the shallowness of presented problems and the speed at which those problems were solved. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy when people solve problems by sitting down and talking about them, but it is unrealistic to expect generations of cultural bias to be overwritten by a single chat. And characters that go from in the span of two weeks are just not believable.
I really wanted to love this series. Fantasy with good action and no sexual assault is ridiculously difficult to find and I wanted to add one more to my short list. Alas, the insta-loves and the thrust-me-bros are just not serious enough for me to form an emotional attachment to what is happening in the story.
The absolute glut of POVs was really unnecessary. Maybe they would have provided needed insight to the later bits of he story, but in this book they just took up space that could have been used by the main plot line. The other issue was the shallowness of presented problems and the speed at which those problems were solved. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy when people solve problems by sitting down and talking about them, but it is unrealistic to expect generations of cultural bias to be overwritten by a single chat. And characters that go from
Spoiler
’you killed my best friend and I cannot look at your face’ to ‘how many times are we going to fuck after our wedding’I really wanted to love this series. Fantasy with good action and no sexual assault is ridiculously difficult to find and I wanted to add one more to my short list. Alas, the insta-loves and the thrust-me-bros are just not serious enough for me to form an emotional attachment to what is happening in the story.
reliures's review
5.0
Incredibly rich and diverse world building! interesting characters! The writing was good and the plot moved flawlessly !
Can’t wait to see what’ll happen in the next book !
Can’t wait to see what’ll happen in the next book !
mazzeroo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Cursing and Homophobia
Minor: Sexual content
bookshelfmonkey's review
5.0
Oh god I've discovered a new favourite series.
This is one of those books that I didn't realise I had been looking for until I found it. It perfectly combined some of my favourite classic elements of fantasy with lots of original and innovative ideas, creating a book that was the perfect mix of nostalgia and the excitement of something new.
Although very few of the plotlines came together in this book, they were all very interesting individually, as well as in the way that they painted a much broader picture of things. This was a masterclass in writing truly epic fantasy with many narratives. With everything going on at any given point in the story, I was never bored and I always wanted to read ahead to find out what would happen next. Everything felt unpredictable in a very realistic way. Things made sense after they happened, but before they happened I felt the same tension and anxiety as the characters who were having their lives tossed up in the air.
On that note, the characters were just another brilliant thing about this book. They all felt so human. Sure, there were the heroes and the villains and many of the archetypal fantasy characters, but beneath and beyond that, each one of them was messy and complicated and human, which was so refreshing to read. Similarly refreshing was the discussion of different relationships. Romantic relationships played a role in this book, but it also focussed on friendship, family relationships and the complicated dynamic of old enemies becoming allies and friends.
The themes of this book were also ones I found particularly interesting. I loved the discussions of different cultures coming together, and the different views on gender and sexuality and the way the author utilised fantasy to fully discuss this and to help this book reach its maximum potential.
Also there were dragons.
10/10
This is one of those books that I didn't realise I had been looking for until I found it. It perfectly combined some of my favourite classic elements of fantasy with lots of original and innovative ideas, creating a book that was the perfect mix of nostalgia and the excitement of something new.
Although very few of the plotlines came together in this book, they were all very interesting individually, as well as in the way that they painted a much broader picture of things. This was a masterclass in writing truly epic fantasy with many narratives. With everything going on at any given point in the story, I was never bored and I always wanted to read ahead to find out what would happen next. Everything felt unpredictable in a very realistic way. Things made sense after they happened, but before they happened I felt the same tension and anxiety as the characters who were having their lives tossed up in the air.
On that note, the characters were just another brilliant thing about this book. They all felt so human. Sure, there were the heroes and the villains and many of the archetypal fantasy characters, but beneath and beyond that, each one of them was messy and complicated and human, which was so refreshing to read. Similarly refreshing was the discussion of different relationships. Romantic relationships played a role in this book, but it also focussed on friendship, family relationships and the complicated dynamic of old enemies becoming allies and friends.
The themes of this book were also ones I found particularly interesting. I loved the discussions of different cultures coming together, and the different views on gender and sexuality and the way the author utilised fantasy to fully discuss this and to help this book reach its maximum potential.
Also there were dragons.
10/10