[books 2016] Random fantasy
58. The Sea-Stone Sword by Joel Cornah
Joel (creator of The Milliverse, if you do Twitter) is published by the same publisher who publishes Joanne Hall, so I picked this up at the Grimbold Books stall at BristolCon. It was recommended because I'd run out of Sebastien de Castell and it has "swashbuckling" in the description.
It's about a young boy's quest to become a hero, or is it a villain? Where does one end and the other begin? It's a concept I can get behind, there's pirates, sapient penguins, dinosaurs and dragons, so what's not to love?
Unfortunately it's a bit of a mess - the pacing is odd, so parts just fly by and others drag. It could have done wiht much tighter editing. Some of the characters are believable and others not so much. Parts are told well and other bits are questing-by-numbers.
It's a first book, though, and I've got the sequel as well. I'll give it a chance to see if the writing and editing have tightened up. Also I want to know more about the penguins.