Seafire

In the first book of this steampunk trilogy, young Caledonia Styx captains the Mors Navis, a ship with a crew of tough young women, each of them survivors in a world terrorized by the Bullets, a brutal sea-faring organization that killed Caledonia’s family. When a Bullet crewman defects and wants to join her crew, she won’t even consider it. She’s about to throw him overboard, but he shares valuable information - her brother is still alive, and he can help her rescue him.The book takes place in a dystopian world, and the steampunk elements are deftly woven into the story, often critical to the sea adventure. Fast paced with lots of action, this book is primarily an account of the Mors Navis’s travels from one tough encounter and escape to another while on their way to the Bullet ship, and readers should be prepared for a cliff-hanger ending with minimal resolution.Between all the action, the main and secondary characters shine, their personalities distinct, their relationships nuanced and complex. The story unfolds in Caledonia’s third person pov. Trust is hard for her, and in many ways, she’s a tortured soul as she takes responsibility for what happened to her family and worries about keeping her crew alive. I look forward to reading the next book in the series. Recommended to YA fantasy readers who don’t mind cliff-hangers and who enjoy a fast-paced, woman-power adventure.

Natalie C. Parker delivers an action-packed, exhilarating opener to her new series with Seafire. This female-focused novel packs a punch with non-stop action and an ensemble that is irresistible. Caledonia Styx lost her entire family four years ago when a ship controlled by the tyrannical Aric Athair attacked theirs. Now Caledonia, along with Pisces, the only other survivor of the Ghost, have forged a new kind of family for themselves. Sailing the Mors Navis, the all-female crew of 53 have made it their mission to thwart Athair every chance they get. Caledonia dreams of the day when she can finally avenge her family and take him down for good. When Caledonia and her crew come face to face with a Bullet, one of Athair’s soldiers, looking to get out from under his thumb, she must decide if trusting him is worth the risk.The highlight of Seafire is of course Caledonia and her female crew. They’re fierce, brave and tenacious. I loved how well they all work together and that no one outshines another. They each have their individual strengths and as long as they are dedicated to doing their job, they work like a well-oiled machine. Parker does a fine job of flushing out several of her minor characters. Hime was a particularly fascinating character. The crew of the Mors Navis rescued her from Aric Athair and knows the lengths the tyrant has gone to to keep control of his soldiers, drugging them into submission. Most of the crew are very protective of Hime, but I loved how much fight was in her. Caledonia often regards Hime as either a liability, because of her former addiction to Silt, Aric Athair’s drug of choice, or inexpendable, because she functions as a medic on the ship. Hime, however, wants a chance to fight and as the story progresses, it becomes clear how much the crew needs her. I was also drawn to Pisces, who functions as a foil to Caledonia for much of the novel. Empathy and mercy come much easier to her than her captain. As first mate, it’s Pisces’s job to have Caledonia’s back, but also to know when her authority needs to be challenged. I loved that Pisces has a very different way of looking at the world as her perspective is essential for everyone looking to take down Athair and usher in a new kind of world.Seafire is as much about its protagonist’s strengths as it is about her weaknesses. Caledonia was forced to grow up at a young age, not only because of the world she grew up in, but because of who she chose to become when her family was murdered. She has built a different kind of family for herself with her crew and most of her decisions are based on keeping them safe. However, Caledonia is not used to being vulnerable and tends to see the world in black and white. Her uncompromising views and hard shell have kept her and her crew alive, but has also made it difficult for her to get out of her own way. Caledonia’s own show of mercy led to her family’s demise and so she has vowed to never show mercy to a Bullet again. She’s spent so much time feeding her hatred of Aric Athair and his Bullets that she’s forgotten that at one point these soldiers were victims. Athair has built his army by demanding the people he rules over sacrifice their sons and daughters to his cause. I questioned many of Caledonia’s choices, but they were all true to her character and they never made me question her resolve.Though labeled a fantasy, Natalie C. Parker’s Seafire reads more like a dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel. There are hints of what the world used to be and technology that only makes sense to a setting where civilization had once flourished. I loved exploring this world and look forward to learning more. Seafire is an easy novel to fall in love with and is refreshingly driven by a strong sense of family, both the one the characters are born into and the one they built for themselves.

What? Ok.... one question... where are the cannons? I know that's a weird thing to notice and focus on, but honestly is it? I'm not saying it isn't effective to keep ramming other ships, because it most certainly is, but pretty sure no canons equals no pirate ship battles. Sorry, but those are the rules. While the canon issue is not the only problem it is a good example of why this book really wasn't that exciting. The battles were ultra tame. The main character was a child and didn't express any of the qualities that a pirate captain who has been rebelling against tyranny for the past four years would possess. That particular sort of devious cleverness just never showed itself. She accrued fifty hard knocks women under her command so she's obviously saavy. Right? Well let's see... she couldn't control her crew, couldn't handle the thought of any of her pirates dying, every decision she made put them in a worse predicament. Hmmm something seems to be missing. Her plot armor was top notch though. It'd kick in and luck her entire crew through all her terrible attempts at leading, well unless it was forcing one of her "sisters" between her and her inability to be good at what she does typically in the form of a bullet. At one point in the book she's knocked unconscious for no reason. It was a storm and she didn't fasten her seat belt... ship belt? So she slips and is out. Luckily no extravagant plot armor necessary though, because again, it was for no reason. Oh the glamorous life she leads.It was kind of hard to care about the characters. Pices and Amina seemed like the only two with actual value, so anytime there was the possibility they weren't going to make it I got a little concerned. I mean their entire strategy was under water bomber (Pices) then ram, or tech expert (Amina) invents a win then ram. Losing either of those two would have cut their limited options in half. Now that would have been tragic. I guess if worse comes to worse you could replace either of them with some sort of ability to help cripple the opponents ship... something that maybe could attack from a distance... something heavy that you wouldn't really be able to stop if it was propelled with enough force? Oh wait who needs cannons, because I forgot their third strategy, the apparently ever effective surrender maneuver. I do have to give credit where credit is due. Faking to surrender had the potential to be entertaining, but then their first act was to drop a bunch of weapons over board as an extremely costly white flag. They have nets right? They knew they were going to need to drop those weapons yes? They had plenty of time waiting for an enemy vessel to discover them correct? See where I'm going with this? I'm only even bringing this up because I was so dissapointed in that moment that it hurt me physically. They're struggling to make ends meet... why throw anything away ever. Plus you had four years of pirating to stash excess stores of weapons, ship parts, entire ships for crying out loud and you never once took that opportunity. The second time where they actually had to surrender, because they didn't realize they couldn't sail through a swamp in such a large ship, well, way to keep the character consistent.There were a lot of conversations between "sisters" trying to show how "sisterly" the crew was. It was pretty repetitive and really just made the main character seem extremely insecure, but she is young and probably shouldn't be leading a pirate crew quite yet, poor thing. That's what I'm supposed to feel right? No? I'm sure it was just me. I did start to notice a particularly disturbing pattern of "sisterly heart to heart" followed by the secondary character's eminent death or near death. Not once did that method tug on my heart strings, though, I must at some point have developed a resistance to the feels... Or decent character development was missing, one or the other.I told myself I'd be kind and finish the book. Looking back at this review I've learned it probably would have been kinder if I hadn't.

A random number generator chooses what kindle book I read - Book 4, Number 25;Ughhh, I am sorry, I wanted to love this and I gave it a good try, but I was just bored. It isn't exactly a long book, and I have been reading it on and off for the last week, constantly picking it up and putting it back down again pretty fast and never particularly wanting to go back to it.I liked some of the relationships between the characters - or at least the idea of them and how the crew of the Mors Navis was supposed to be this great sisterhood - but I didn't actually connect with any of them at all.Something else I saw mentioned in some other reviews that I also picked up on and found annoying was the way Caledonia was so against Oran, when she found Hime in a similar situation. They were both Bullets once, but the thought of sparing Oran's life was abhorrent to her (regardless of the fact he saved her best friend's life), even though she rescued Hime from the Bullets and trusted her. That seems like a stupid level of stubbornness to me. And to be honest, her hatred of him felt like a convenient way of allowing the author to have some big dramatic enemies-to-lovers romance, but it just wasn't consistent with the way she treated Hime when she and Oran had the same past in the Bullets.My final note is that around 60% of the way into the book the crew are captured. I was excited by this, I thought it could be the chance for some epic escape plan - always fun - but inside one chapter (of less than 10 pages) everything was resolved. Which was kind of disappointing and anti-climatic. Hence why it was shortly after this that I decided to just DNF because I really don't care about the rest of this book

I swear this year there were so many books about fantasy pirates yet I have read none? But hey, now I've read this one! And I actually really enjoyed it. I did have a couple of mixed feelings, but I can definitely see myself reading the sequel to this, and even reading more by this author, because I can really see a bright future for her books. I think this, as a debut, fell down a little bit, but I am sure as more books are published, this series is going to get better and better. And there were so many things to love about this one, and I really do recommend it, you guys. If you are living for lady pirates and kickass girls friendships, then this might just be the book for you. And if you've been loving this trend of pirates this year (which I so need to get on board with - omg the PUN ) then please don't miss this one! It is great!THINGS TO LOVE~ Awesome girls fighting to save each other and just generally being badass . I freaking adore reading about groups of girls, and their different personalities, and the way they unconditionally love each other. Yassss.~ Awesome writing which flows so well and depicts scenes beautifully? Not to mention great battle scenes!~ An actual realistic main character, Caledonia, who isn't soppy or melodramatic, and actually realises what the actual heckety-hoo-har (<---okay but what is this, Eleanor?) life is about. She knows that not everything is going to turn out awesome, and she's sensible and tries to put her crew before herself and she makes mistakes and she is such a great main character.~ A fast paced, fun, energetic plot that had LADY PIRATES and an awesome slow burn (not instalove here! hooray!) romance. Not completely sold on this relationship yet, but it hasn't really got going. I eagerly await book two.THINGS THAT I WAS A LITTLE EHHHHH ABOUT(yes, I know, I am the absolute best at subtitles that specifically tell you what you need to know in an extremely helpful way. also, these things listed aren't terrible things, but things that needed to be polished a little bit more to bring the book to its highest standard)~ Okay, so the world was really interesting, but I was still kind of confused as to how it worked. Like, the surface of it (more pirate puns hahahahahah), and the little details, was great. The scenes and places were so well described, I could really see them in my mind. But I felt like we needed a bit more information on the basic structure of how the world works? Like:Who is Aric Athair and where did he come from? Honestly I felt like the blurb told me more than the actual book.What even is the genre? I started off thinking this was typical fantasy, then steampunk, and now some sort of post apocalyptic dystopian?What is the geography of the world? Is it mainly ocean? What is the hierarchy system? Does everyone live on the water or just some? Can I have a map?~ Everything just needed a tiny bit more depth.Overall, though, this was a really awesome book packed full of action and great elements. Definitely recommend this, as I can imagine that my issues will most certainly be fixed during the next book(s). Hopefully. There were lots of great things set up here and I am totally down for reading sequels. I really like the writing style and the setting and the characters. (apart from Pisces. she annoyed me.) I can't wait to get carried away with this series. I am sure it will delve even further beneath the surface then.

I loved this book. I felt like I was on the deck of the Mors Navis with Caledonia in all the heartache and fights. I love how fierce the girls are, they're not afraid to fight and they look out for one another. Our world needs more women like this. I also liked the fact that things are left to your imagination, for example what happened the world. (*spoiler alert so don't read on if you haven't read the book*) It's hinted that the land masses don't match any old world maps that the girls find. I like this, I like that not everything is spoon-fed to you. Cannot wait for the third book.

Can't comment on the story but the book itself arrived marked with highlighter and a worn cover, clearly used and not a new copy.

Acho que, de todos os livros que foram lançados ou que eu coloquei na minha meta desse ano, Seafire era o que tinha tido o melhor hype. Falar que eu esperava muito dele não é o suficiente. Esperava mais do que seria saudável e soube desde o começo o quanto isso é perigoso. Quando suas expectativas estão altas, qualquer defeito parece fatal. Imagine minha felicidade ao perceber que Seafire e sua protagonista, Caledonia, me conquistaram completamente no prólogo.Teoricamente, eu adoro prólogos, mas só tem uns três que me marcaram e esse é um deles, pois, com todas as expectativas que tinha, não esperava que fosse me sentir agoniada e que fosse me importar tanto com os personagens depois de só algumas páginas.Esse não é livro sobre "piratas" comum, e não estou falando do fato da tripulação ser feita só de garotas. Ele se passa em um universo diferente, que pode muito bem ser nosso futuro ou só outro mundo (senti falta de um mapa aqui, exijo no próximo livro, hein). Isso deu toda uma outra dimensão para as questões de navio, das missões e as ferramentas disponíveis. Apesar de ser bem interessante, tenho que admitir que às vezes fiquei um pouco confusa e incerta em relação ao que seria possível e o que não. Tive alguns problemas com a geografia de tudo também, já falei que devia ter um mapa aqui?Sobre o enredo, se prepare, porque ele é movimentado do começo ao fim, e você definitivamente não vai querer parar de ler em momento nenhum! Apesar disso, ele me deu muito a sensação de começo de série e dá para ver que a história dele não está completa, o que nem sempre é o caso mesmo em primeiros livros de séries longas. Não queria ter que esperar nem dois minutos para começar o próximo, admito, e já sei que essa vai ser uma trilogia que vou reler de uma vez em algum momento.Minha parte favorita foi, é claro, a protagonista, Caledonia. Sim, eu amo personagens mais do que qualquer coisa em um livro, e algumas das melhores da literatura YA estão aqui. Redtooth, Amina, Hime, Nettle, Tin, Lace e principalmente Pisces e Caledonia. Meu deus, nunca vou conseguir explicar o quanto eu amo essas garotas tão únicas e diferentes. Só queria poder fazer parte dessa tripulação - mas definitivamente não quero viver nesse universo.E, como falei, a Caledonia é minha grande favorita. Nunca tinha encontrado uma protagonista tão parecida comigo, ainda que tão diferente (quem dera eu fosse mais como ela). Todos seus defeitos maravilhosos presentes em cada parte desse livro, seu crescimento feito com cuidado e sem apelação. Foi tão lindo vê-la se mantendo forte e precisando de mais do que uma única atitude para mudar ou se questionando mesmo quando passava a confiança de uma Capitã ao navio.A Pisces é maravilhosa também, daquelas personagens que dá vontade de você procurar alguma fanart no Google feita por alguém mais talentoso que você para poder espalhá-la pelo mundo. Aliás, ela e a Cala juntas estão bem perto do topo de amizades literárias favoritas minhas e todo o mundo precisa conhecer essa dupla que depende tanto uma da outra.Ah, não podia faltar uma menção ao Bullet mais amável do planeta, que merecia mais tempo no livro. Só falo isso - e que necessito de mais dele nos próximos livros.Se prepare para ler esse livro, porque ele faz questão de arrancar seu coração e seu fôlego várias vezes seguidas, intercaladas e repetidas. Te desafio a não se apaixonar por essa tripulação que luta como garotas e são implacáveis exatamente por isso. Quero mais livros como esse, que se propõem a fazer tanto e entregam com vontade. Que têm personagens femininas de tamanhos e raças diferentes, de opiniões e atitudes das mais diversas. Tem até uma personagem muda aqui que fez com que eu me perguntasse por que isso é tão raro, como se não existissem pessoas assim no mundo, como se isso tivesse que ser uma característica dominante em alguém (o que não é na Hime aqui). Por que ainda é tão difícil encontrar um livro com personagens reais fisicamente tanto quanto psicologicamente?Por mais livros como esse no mundo - e que sua tradução venha logo para cá, porque esse livro merece, ainda que nós não seremos dignos o suficiente nunca, haha.