The Skybound Sea by Sam Sykes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Sykes smoothly closed the trilogy, tying up the many character arcs in fine fashion.
The climax of Skybound Sea, without getting into spoilers, is much like Tome of the Undergates in that most of it takes place during a prolonged battle sequence. Few writers are able to convey such quality non-stop action and yet develop characters that are both believable and interesting. And Sykes is a smooth hand at making disparate, believable, despicable, desperate characters. So smooth is his writing and character development that the reader is drawn along, even made to feel concern for: various mass-murderers, the possessed, racists, religious nuts, Gods, Demons, and sundry homicidal sorts.
Through all the blood and gore, Sykes’ has worked a deep vein of longing and strange, off-angle perception that is evocative of a modern-day Lovecraft, if Lovecraft were to have had a three-way brainchild with R.E. Howard and someone of more literary bent…
I am a fan of sword and sorcery. I am a fan of epic fantasy. This is something more, and slightly different, from both. I thoroughly enjoyed it, heartily recommend it, and can’t wait to read additional work by this author.