Magic and Pirates and Zombies - oh my!

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A really cool concept with its warring magical/religious factions, pirates, and zombies (some of whom could be considered zombie pirates), The Sin in the Steel missed the mark for me when Buc's prickly attitude became tedious instead of edgy and we slipped from forward momentum to a series of repetitive missteps that leave everyone constantly thinking their one friend (or maybe one true love? Eye roll to the highest degree) is dead.

On the back of my arc there's a little sticker that says "Please note: the ages of Buc and Eld are not accurately reflected in this galley; in the final version of the text, Buc is 17, and Eld is 19." Buc being 17 I can totally get behind. Eld being 19, however, does not float. In the galley, he's 22, which is still too young (I think) for some of the experience he has. Namely: being schooled for military command, assuming that military command, leaving the military, tracking down and murdering his commanding officer, and then finding Buc at least two years before the events of this book. But, if you're gonna try to force a romance between two very close friends/partners of the opposite gender, I guess a large age difference won't fly.

I really wanted more from the magic/religious aspect of this book. There are some brief mentions and the world of the story seems to revolve around this war between religions but we learn very little about what that actually means. Except that the Gods might actually be aliens. Maybe, based on how this book ends, we'll get more in book two.

Also, the balance of Buc's first-person narration filled in with random aside chapters with third-person narration (including the info-dump chapter that fills in Eld's past which is then barely mentioned again) didn't do it for me. Like... We could have done this whole book from Buc's perspective in first person. Or we could have had rotating third.

I will say that I loved the balance of power between male and female characters. Well, most characters who had power were women (I think the Empire might be vaguely matriarchal? Not sure though because we know almost nothing about the politics of this world), but tavern keepers, pirates, and soldiers were evenly distributed across genders.