Seafire by Natalie C. Parker Series: Seafire #1
Published by Razorbill on August 28th 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, YA
Goodreads
After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, whose lives have been turned upside down by Aric and his men. The crew has one misson: stay alive, and take down Aric's armed and armored fleet.
But when Caledonia's best friend and second-in-command just barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether or not to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric Athair once and for all...or will he threaten everything the women of the Mors Navis have worked for?
I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher. This does not influence my thoughts on the book or this review.
When I first heard about Seafire, I knew the premise intrigued me. I was so ready for a kickass novel about an all-female crew of pirates but I can’t say that I really loved it.
Caledonia’s life changed when her family was killed by Aric Athair and his band of Bullets (a.k.a drugged and brainwashed teenage soldiers). Four years later, Cal has formed a crew of her own with a few simple rules: only trust your sisters and stay alive. When her best friend survives an attack thanks to the help of a Bullet, Cal has to decide whether he can help them bring down Aric or if he risks everything they worked for.
While I did find the premise promising, I have to say it really lacked in execution. I really did like the sci-fi aspect and seeing the technology of how the ships worked. The world-building was also quite interesting and I did appreciate all of the diverse characters. That said, I did have a few problems with Seafire.
I thought Cal was a bit of a messy character. While I realize that the nature of most YA novels is that the main character has to make some mistakes in order for there to be a story, I really felt that some of the mistakes that Cal makes are against her characterization. It was almost hard to believe that Cal was taught as a child to really fight against Aric and his army of Bullets as the events of the prologue totally undermined that part of her characterization.
I also thought the romance was kind of annoying. The whole novel makes it seem like Cal’s best friend will get together with the Bullet that saved her but around like 60% into the book, Cal and the Bullet seem to have a thing despite having zero chemistry. It actually did not seem to make any sense and I definitely wasn’t the only person who thought so (a few of my friends agreed when we discussed). I thought that romance was boring and definitely uninteresting, since Parker could’ve explored the dynamic between Cal and one of the people on her crew.
Overall, I liked the premise of Seafire but I wasn’t a huge fan of how everything played out.
