Ryan Van Loan’s The Sin in the Steel is a sparkling debut fantasy set in a diverse world, featuring dead gods, a pirate queen, shapeshifting mages, and a Sherlockian teenager determined to upend her society. Heroes for hire. If you can pay. Buc: Brilliant street-rat Her mind leaps from clues to conclusions in the blink of an eye. Eld: Ex-soldier Buc’s partner-in-crime. No. Not in crime–in … Ex-soldier
Buc’s partner-in-crime.
No. Not in crime–in crime-solving.
They’ve been hired for their biggest job yet–one that will set them up for a life of ease.
If they survive.
Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few.
It’s been weeks since ships last returned to the magnificent city of Servenza with bounty from the Shattered Coast. Disaster threatens not just the city’s trading companies but the empire itself. When Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen who sinks all who defy her.
Now all Buc and Eld have to do is sink the Widowmaker’s ship….
Unfortunately for Buc, the gods have other plans.
Unfortunately for the gods, so does Buc.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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A multilayered attack on tired adventure tropes. Two mercenaries, wrongly accused, are forced to investigate a crime, one that transforms them and their world forever. A blisteringly paced, amazingly fun and thoughtful read!
How can I not fall for a character who throws hot tea at people? Ryan Van Loan’s swashbuckling Watson and Holmes fantasy debut The Sin in the Steel is like a wild ride on a pirate ship. He’s created a vivid and amazing world that readers are going to love from page one.
Ryan Van Loan delivers a swashbuckling romp, demons, pirates, dead gods, (30-50?) feral hogs, a war-weary Watson and a guttersnipe Holmes. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
When I saw that this book was about pirates, dead gods, shape- shifting mages and a super smart teenager I was immediately intrigued. This looked like a crazy story and I wondered just how in the world would all of these elements come together to make a novel that wasn’t goofy. The Sin In The Steel is an epic adventure novel. I loved the super smart totally crass Buc and her cohort Eld. Buc is a woman after my own heart and she has the mouth to match. The mages and their religions are interesting and I enjoyed the detail put into describing how each organization differs from the other. The story is not lacking in action and there was never a dull or boring moment while reading. I can not think of one bad thing to say about this novel and I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves a good adventure. I am looking forwarded to reading more from Ryan Van Loan!!
To start off my review, some of my comments are going to be probably unpopular opinions. I feel like I’ve seen this before. On a movie. With pirates, only the main character in that was a lot more entertaining, and I actually liked him. I won’t say exactly what I’m talking about, but it felt very similar to an already existing franchise. And that’s okay. I did enjoy this book, it just felt like I had seen it before when I’d liked it a lot more.
Wins
– Ryan Van Loans writing style is very rich. I don’t know how else to describe it, but his setting the scene, and world building was super impressive. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of fluff like I’ve noticed with books lately, and the writing flowed very easily.
– Some of the characters were amazing. Chan Sha has got to be one of my top 15 characters of all time. She was absolutely amazing and I loved her
– The fact that we got a book that swears as often as these characters do. It was extremely refreshing, but maybe it’s just the YA books i read. I did enjoy that Ryan didn’t mind going there
Opportunities
– I didn’t like Buc in the slightest. She was meant to be a very strong female hero who pushed the boundaries, and I just felt like she was a spoiled, know-it-all rude character. Eld was super uninteresting and I’ve met him before, and didn’t like him then either.
– It wasn’t super original. What actually happens is different (obviously) but it just felt like it’d been done before
– I don’t know why this is becoming a trend, but I really don’t like it. When we go from first person for 90% of the book, but there’s 10% that’s in third person. Those parts are extremely jarring in any novel, and I really don’t like it, and don’t understand why it’s becoming more common.
– How “smart” Buc is. I’m doing a separate bullet on this solely for the fact that it wasnt a plot device to advance the story, it wasn’t necessary, but we heard a lot about the books she had read and what quotes came from it. It felt unnecessary to me. And it annoyed me the way she flaunted it. especially when she was all about books in the beginning and that’s never brought up again.
– I didn’t love the ending. This would’ve been better as a stand-alone in my opinion. I will check out the second book when it comes out to see if I like it, but it could’ve definitely stood alone.
All in all, I didn’t hate this book. I feel like this review is very criticizing at this point, but I did enjoy the story. It was a fun quick little read that I would’ve enjoyed a lot more when I was a bit younger. I probably would’ve liked Buc as a teenager, but as an adult she was far from one of my favorite characters. Ryan’s writing style is very unique and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the world, and hopefully the next book centers around a certain character whom I loved!
There are two main characters, Buc and Eld. Buc is a street rat with an ability to see clues like Sherlock Holmes and Eld is an ex solider. Together Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few.
Ships carrying sugar have been disappearing so Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, if they fail they will be executed and if they succeed then Buc wins a seat on the Kanados Trading Company’s board.
It gets interesting when the pirate queen and dead gods do battle with Buc and Eld. Overall this story is not my usual genre so I was a bit lost. There is just so much involved. Thank you to Tor Books and BookishFirst for an ARC copy. This is my honest review.
I won this via a raffle on BookishFirst
This was such a fun read!!! It is very fast paced and hard to put down. I loved Buc – she’s snarky and full of spunk. She’s very intelligent and book smart but lacks a but in the common sense department as she’s constantly making very quick bad decisions but she sure is good at getting out of her scrapes!!! I adored her partner Eld as well. He seems to be the peacemaker for her smart mouth and he’s quick with the wit and quick to jump into whatever lie they are currently spinning. I love high seas adventures with ships and pirates and the shapeahifting mages and control freak gids were added bonuses. My head was spinning from all the lies and agendas being thrown around by the players in this deadly game. I can’t wait to see where Loan takes the series from here. What a great debut!!!