Rebel Skies - Ann Sei Lin

Author: Ann Sei Lin

Series: Rebel Skies, #1

Genre: YA Fantasy.

Rating: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: Outstanding magic, superb world-building, flat character building, abrupt cliffhanger end.

Story:

Kurara, a servant on board the Midori, doesn’t remember much of her life prior to her life on this flying ship. When she is spotted turning paper in magical creatures, Himura, a skilled Crafter, takes her under his wing to train her for hunting shikigami – magical paper spirits who are sought after by the Princess Tsukimi. However, things aren’t as they appear and soon Kurara finds herself questioning everything around her – the people, the shikigami, and even herself.

This is the first book in a planned trilogy.

Where the book worked for me:

😍 The book falls under what is called ‘silkpunk” – an SFF blend genre with elements of East-Asian mythology – and it does perfect justice to its genre. Japanese words and components of their folklore add authenticity and depth to the plot. There is a glossary at the end to help with the terms.

😍 The author’s Goodreads bio says that she loves worldbuilding more than anything. This is very apparent in the book. Flying ships, sky cities, paper magic - every element feels wonderfully fantastical, as if we have entered a whole other realm. This would work well as a Studio Ghibli movie.

😍 Separate point dedicated to paper magic! We all have heard of Origami but to take that simple concept of paper folding and create an entire plot revolving around paper magic is just awesome. I loved every mystical element in the story. (See the outstanding cover art for a glimpse of paper magic!)

Where the book could have worked better for me:

☹ The characters somehow don’t end up making a place in your heart. Most of them feel quite flat. The secondary characters are sorely underutilised. (Maybe because they are in reserve for the two planned sequels.) There are also too many characters but not enough of a back story.

☹ There is no closure at all. In multi-book series, there is always at least one story track closed well even if there is a cliffhanger ending. But this book creates multiple story arcs and closes none.

☹ The writing style felt, for the lack of a better word, clunky. The words don’t flow smoothly and my attention kept wandering away because of the wordiness and bland characters.

This is still a pretty good debut, and with more experience, the above problems will be ironed out. This isn’t a typical “chosen one” kind of story, but it looks like that is the direction the sequels will take. Time will reveal more about this. Meanwhile, this is supposed to be a teen fantasy adventure so I recommend it only for its target age group (13-18 years).

My thanks to Walker Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “Rebel Skies”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.