Sailing by Orion's Star

This was an intriguing debut novel and a really good read. I especially enjoyed the way stories were woven throughout the narrative — René's collection of sailor's tales, Jerome's interest in Greek mythology, the various native and African mythologies given presence throughout. Stories as inspiration and hope things can change are a major theme throughout, and it's good to see the wealth of different tales that play a part, there. The secondary plot — that of Danso and Abeni and their growing pirate legend — serves as yet another story for René and Frantz, if one that turns out to be true, and the way the thread is woven in with the Interludes and references (with a few key crossing streams), is well done before they come together in the last few chapters.

It does feel like a setup volume, but as the first book in a trilogy that's somewhat expected. There are two things I want to note. One is an addendum to a content warning: the only racial slur in text is the one towards the Romani people. There are some narrative reasons this might be the case, but it stands out as others are skirted around or implied by the narrative so it's something some readers will want to be aware of. The other is some of the dialogue. Some of it is a little clunky and expository in contrast to some really beautiful narration, and while it's mostly written in a style that suits a historical narrative occasionally a really modern turn of phrase would appear and jolt me momentarily out of the narrative (one of them in an otherwise really tense scene).

This didn't really tarnish my enjoyment of the story, though, and a lot of the descriptive passages really are gorgeously written. I've fallen in love with a lot of the characters and I'm really looking forward to diving into the other two books!