Steel Tide Book Review (Book Two in The Seafire Trilogy)

I’m a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to reading sequels, so I only read Steel Tide about a week ago. But it was well worth the wait. Parker, to mess with my head (see Seafire’s review), decided to expand and double her large cast with the Blade crew, but the old characters and new additions stitch themselves together into something memorable and cohesive. Pine, who remains dangerous but loyal to Caledonia (the protagonist), and Sledge, the Blade crew’s leader, enrich the plot in ways the reader didn’t know they needed. The extra tension between them and Oran combines with the unease Caledonia had with him from Seafire to create a level of humanity to the action of the story (you’ll never guess who Oran used to be!). Indeed, many other characters’ diverse and mysterious personalities--Pine and Hesperus along with Oran, in particular--add an extra level of suspense within the plot, as no one is one hundred percent sure how they’ll act in any given situation, least of all Caledonia. In addition, Parker’s choice of structure for the plot is a bit unusual by using two plot arcs: one to save Caledonia’s crew, and one for...well, I’ll let you read about that. Somehow, though, she defies the odds and makes it flow as a singular story, with the added bonus of two climaxes. The use of foreshadowing matured from Seafire to Steel Tide; this one revealed bits and pieces that add up to an astounding whole. A thoughtful and cutthroat take on the quest for survival.

“She let the pain remind her of all she’d done to get here and that this was not the end of Caledonia Styx. Where there was pain, there was promise. Tomorrow, she would be stronger.”’

Recommended for anyone braving their own wild seas.

-Grace Nask