Ship of Smoke and Steel

Django Wexler has been on my "authors to try" list for a long time, mainly for his five-part "Shadow Campaigns" series - the opening volume of which is sitting on my TBR shelf and judging me right now. I actually hadn't realised that he also writes YA until this book showed up on my radar, but it seemed like a great place to start with his work that's highly relevant to my interests - kickass heroine takes on a ghost ship in a fantasy world? Sign me up!

Ship of Smoke and Steel starts on pretty safe ground, introducing us to a mysteriously magical young protagonist making her way through the underworld on what to her is a routine mission. Isoka is an adept from the Well of Combat, one of nine magical sources of power which people can be born to tap into - being an adept means that she's more magically powerful than those who are merely "touched" or "talented" by the wells, which can also variously give powers of fireballs, force waves, perception skills and creepy mistrusted healing powers. In Isoka's case, her Melos powers mean she can make magical force blades appear out of her hands, and summon armour to protect her, and she's somehow managed to hide these magical talents in a society where only nobles and those pressed into Imperial service are supposed to have them. When we meet her, Isoka is completely resigned to the realities of her world and her own violent position in it. The only bright spark is her relationship with her younger sister, Tori, who Isoka has managed to secure a spot in a nice area of town while she works to keep her in luxury and away from the harshness of the life they were born into. All this means that when Isoka is caught by one of the most powerful people in the empire within the first couple of chapters Tori is the easiest bargaining chip to compel her to do what the authorities want: steal the Soliton, a mysterious ghost ship that makes a route around the known world and demands magical teen tribute wherever it goes. If she comes back with the ship, her sister won't be murdered. Good times.

(Full review at link below)