Voyage of the Damned

The setup of this story is that the twelve provinces of Concordia have sent their heirs on a voyage by themselves to the Goddess's Mountain, and while en route one of the heirs is mysteriously murdered.

The mystery in this story worked well for me. Each heir has a Blessing, which takes the form of some sort of magical power (fire breathing, invisibility) but it's considered gauche to ask people what form it takes. The reveal and ongoing discovery of what Blessing each heir has becomes part of the mystery. (And on top of that the narrator Ganymedes does not actually have a Blessing and has to disguise this fact from his fellow heirs.) There's some twists and complications, enough crumbs for the reader to guess at what might be happening, and it all gets a good reveal in the end.

The worldbuilding was a bit weak. It's a bit hard to be tossed into a fantasy world with a bunch of different countries, but the countries here all feel a bit shallow--they are all represented by an animal and they each have one feature and one magical hair color that they're known for. This also means that the reader has to be told about the background to all of these different countries (and that they probably couldn't be much more complicated, with twelve of them).

I had fun with this book and I enjoyed the mystery, but my biggest gripe is that the goofy internal narration just didn't land for me. It's not that I need my fantasy to be all serious all the time, but the silly narrator was not my kind of humor.

An interesting "cosy" mystery wrapped up in a fantasy world. Set on a ship making a twelve-day journey, you may be able to solve it before the end based on the information revealed during the voyage. But the world-building in the story is rather basic and could have been better thought out.

The book is set in the empire of Concordia, made up of twelve provinces, each ruled by an heir that is 'Blessed' with a special magical ability, which is usually a secret ability not revealed to others. To mark a thousand years, the twelve heirs have gathered on a magical ship to sail to a sacred mountain. Problem is, one of the heirs isn't Blessed, and he is hiding it from the other heirs.

During the journey, hiding it turns out to be the least of his problems. The heir to the emperor is found dead. Then, over the days, other heirs are killed. The murderer has to be among the heirs left, for the magical ship has no crew, other than magical dragon butlers who, as stated early in the book, refuse to hurt or kill the heirs. The unBlessed heir decides to find out who the murderer is, how the murders take place (apparently with the use of magic) and why they are taking place. Clues are dropped, so those paying attention might be able to figure out what is happening before it is explained.

Complicating the investigation is the political and economic background of the empire, divided into upper and lower class provinces, resulting in rather hostile relationships among the heirs, some of whom look down on others. The unBlessed heir, who is a teen, also has a highly romantic relationship with another heir, which will affect how he investigates the matter.

While the murder-mystery is interesting, the story is let down by the rather basic world building. Each province consists of only one type of geography (ice, mountains, jungles, grassy plains, etc.) and provide one type of material (jewels, fish, and so on). Since they are all on a ship, all of this background information is 'dumped' on to the reader, instead of being experienced.

In summary, an interesting murder-mystery story that takes place in a fantasy world that could have been better crafted so as not to break the reader's suspension of disbelief while trying to figure out who did it before the investigator does.