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As far as I can find out, this book is self-published by the author. And, to be blunt, this is very evident in the text. I doubt there has been any external editors involved in this book. The story isn't bad per se, but the text is riddled with mistakes, parts with very sloppy writing, inconsistencies - all things a good (or even mid) copy-editor would have noted and helped fix. One example: in the start of the book Ragnor the dragon - in his elven form, Rennyn - enjoys the novelty of the taste of ale, but it is explicitly stated he can't get intoxicated no matter how much he consumes. Later in the book this forgotten, and Rennyn is repeatedly described as being drunk. Another: distances are given in SI units, an unconventional choice given the medieval fantasy setting, and feels very jarring.

This story reads like the author wrote a fanfic of their favourite table top campaign. Which would go a long way to explain some of the oddities in the story; like the bounty hunter contracts that state how big a party they are scaled for. Or the magic maps which seems to work like a modern sat-nav. Or the way the countryside is absolutely infested with bandits.

All in all, I'm loath to give this book a rating at all - it feels too much reading a first draft. The story has potential, but in dire need of an editor. Judging from Goodreads there are three more volumes planned in this series, hopefully the author will get some assistance polishing them prior to publishing.

As mentioned before, this book feels like a throwback to that time in the 90s when everybody tried to emulate Michael Crichton - but in a good way. Maybe it is just a bit of nostalgia on my part, I loved those kind of books as a kid. But regardless, I found this book highly entertaining; a mix of plausible sounding marine biology jargon and some sciency sounding stuff I think is all made up (in good Crichton tradition); easily recognisable good guys and some cartoonishly stereotyped bad guys and not at least an almost human, still but wholly Other Big Bad. In other words, this is - in very broad strokes - a "Congo" set on the high seas.

I'm very forgiving when it comes to this kind of literature. It is pure entertainment, an action movie in book form. If there is is anything to nitpick at it is that some of minor details have aged poorly - so I prefer to think of it as set in a parallel universe 2022. There never was a pandemic, politicians seem to act on the climate crisis, Tesla's optimism re self driving cars were not a sham to lure investors etc... Perhaps the biggest departure from our reality (except the Big Bad) is an American built ship run by an American corporation with coed showers! What an absolute HR nightmare 🤣