A genre blending debut at its finest

4.5/5 Stars

A genre blending debut at its finest. After sitting on my shelf for sometime, I finally opted to dive into An Ocean of Others and was pleasantly surprised to find a unique world with a balancing of both dark and fun tones throughout this conspiracy laden fantasy.

Now, throughout this story we follow the last bounty hunter in Liwokin, Grim. After surviving the Great Riot which killed thousands and left survivors in chaos, Grim’s livelihood was challenged when the Agency formed giving order to the recovering city. When Grim happens upon a conspiracy targeting the Head of the Agency, he plans to use this information to fill his empty coin purse for good. Only things don’t go as planned and Grim finds himself in something much deadlier than anticipated forcing him to face the monsters in the dark.

There are several aspects of this that I enjoyed but first and foremost is the cast of characters. Grim, the main character, is the POV we see this story through. Due to the circumstances of life his choices and morals are often at odds, giving his character work and arc intriguing depth. We also meet a variety of quirky side characters within a motley crew including paladins, mages, a ranger, and skardwarfs to name a few. My personal favourite was a skardwarf named Sentyx who I've no doubt will be a reader favourite among many. Each character has their own moment of depth and adds to the overarching plot, which I appreciated.There’s also plenty of fun banter adding a lighter tone to a dark story.

Second, the blending of genres and tones was a delight. While I knew this would be a dark fantasy, I wasn’t expecting the fun tones and fast paced nature of the story. We get a combination of great action, along with darker moments and even wholesome scenes. As for the genres, there were elements of dark, classic fantasy, sci-fi, along with mystery, horror and thriller. These all blended together seamlessly within a unique world setting, intriguing magic system and gripping plot.

Finally, the pacing and mystery were well done, leaving moments to breathe in between all the action, monsters, twists and character work allowing me to try and puzzle it out myself. With all of the foreshadowing along the way, and twists, the payoffs were incredibly satisfying.

I also enjoyed the thought provoking explorations of what makes a monster, a good or bad person, and the meaning of loyalty and trust.

All of these aspects made for a fun read that I didn’t want to put down. Best of all, while this has darker elements, the lighter moments and pacing made this a quick read. So while this looks deceptively chunky, at 489 pages, that didn’t stop me from binging it. It also reads well as a standalone, with potential for continuation as it’s book one in the Dance of the Sibling Suns series.

It’s also worth noting that I immersion read the physical book along with the audiobook and the narrator Danny Gavigan gave a fantastic performance with multiple voices for the characters.

So, if you enjoy a genre blended fantasy filled with monsters, a motley crew, conspiracy, fast pacing, an endearing main character, mystery and a unique world and magic system, this is your next read.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!