Steel tide

This adventurous sequel to Seafire (2018) picks up right where the thundering conclusion of book one came crashing down. Caledonia has lost her crew and nearly her life at the hands of an enemy warlord. After being nursed back to health by defectors from the warlord's crew, Caledonia refuses to lie low and hide. She sets out on a fearless path to find and rescue her all-female crew and to take down the warlord and his fleet once and for all. Parker delivers the same electricity and magic here as she did in Seafire, maintaining a gripping pace and high tension. The conflicts and relationships are complex and explore the depth of human emotion, love, and connection. We meet new characters and revisit the old, while learning more about their secrets and pasts. The story's perilous situations, non-stop adventure, and refreshingly unpredictable plot twists rise easily to the surface, but the tale also plumbs the depths of war's gray areas, questioning whether any side in a war can truly be all good or all bad.--Enishia Davenport Copyright 2019 Booklist

Following Seafire (2018), Caledonia needs new allies in her continuing fight against Aric's tyranny.After being badly wounded, Caledonia wakes up in a camp of renegade former Bullets. Having shaken their forced drug addictions to Silt, they call themselves Blades and have built a small culture where consent is paramount. Caledonia's convalescence with the Blades opens the door for more worldbuilding but soon is interrupted by Bullet hostility. Caledonia, who's been eager to get back to sea, rallies the Blades in a scheme to steal a ship with a dealthey help her get a ship, and she'll help them break the Net and escape Aric's sphere of control. But a revelation intensifies her need to find her crew without delay. The fast-paced plotpacked with fight scenes, naval battles, and adventurous sailingstill manages to devote time to fleshing out the philosophies and agency of secondary characters as well as Caledonia's struggles and growth as a leader of an unconventional coalition. Romantic storylines for the most part take a back seat in favor of more pressing survival concerns, though queer relationships are positively represented. Race's only significance is descriptivemost characters are varying shades of brown, though somelike Caledoniaare white. The explosive finale breaks the fictional world's status quo in a way that will have readers eager for the final installment.An immersive, adventurous pleasure that improves on the first book. (Post-apocalyptic/science fiction. 12-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.