Fantasy. Adventure. Mystery. Magic. Pirates. Swords. Ethereal creatures. Cold AF weather.
This book has it all.
Enter a strange and magical world of ghistings (ghost-like creatures who inhabit mystical forests), stormsingers (women whose voices have the power to conjure and calm storms on the seas), and swashbucklers (come on, you know this one).
From the dust jacket:
Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Faced with servitude to pirate lord Silvanus Lirr, Mary offers her skills to his arch-rival in exchange for protection - and, more importantly, his help sending Lirr to a watery grave. But her new ally has a vendetta of his own, and Mary's dreams are dark and full of ghistings, spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of her homeland and the figureheads of ships.
Y'all, this book is weird. And I liked it. Despite some major lulls in the story, author H.M. Long creates an exciting world to lay the foundations for the first novel of The Winter Sea series. Some of her characters are likable; some of them are deplorable; some of them fall in between; some you think you'll like/hate, but end up hating/liking. Set on a series of islands in a frigid sea, the fantasy world Long has created recalls images of the northernmost islands of Scotland, Scandinavia, and even a few locations within the Arctic Circle. It was a great winter read by the fireplace.
As I mentioned, there were a few major lulls in the story. I finished it in January (roughly three and a half months ago, at the time of this writing) so, while I cannot recall specific dull points in the novel, I do remember finding it rather long in some parts. Overall, the book did seem to drag more than I personally would have preferred, though I know that some people really get into the world-building thing. There were also a few annoying tropes (e.g. What is Mary going to do in this precarious situation? What about THIS one? Oh yeah? How about NOW?) that I felt really took away from the story's progression, but it wasn't bad enough for me to put the book down. It was mostly just an annoyance until the next good part.
So, will I continue the series? Sure. It's not a top priority, per se, but I could see myself completing it. Ultimately, I feel that any subsequent novels in the series would be better audio books for me. That way, I can at least be doing dishes while I enjoy a good story in my ear.
