Hello and welcome back to my continued re-reading of the Cassan Astor series! I’ve just finished re-reading the second book in the series, the Sea of Krakens. For my reviews of book 1, I blogged about it in two parts. Follow the links here:
Cassan Astor and the Desert Empress Review Part 1
Cassan Astor and the Desert Empress Review Part 2

I remembered that I really liked the Sea of Krakens, but it was fun to “dive” into it again. Especially coming right off of reading Desert Empress, you really get that narrative flow reading them back-to-back, yet this book feels wholly distinct. Although there are returning characters, it is notable just how different this story feels given the different destination, different supporting characters, and more adventurous tone. It really is its own unique book that can stand on its own without Desert Empress.

The narrative jumps right into it. Cassan is immediately thrusted into an adventure on a boat with a bunch of people he doesn’t know. The crew runs into trouble and has to survive. It’s straightforward. It’s exciting. And you don’t know what will happen. It’s a pretty simple narrative, but it works and it’s thrilling. The flow of the book is fast and action-packed.

At least… for the first 2/3. And I’ll get to that. More on that later.

Staying on the first 2/3 of the book, the story is occasionally intercut with scenes from the mainland where we see some shifty things happening in the palace of Konin. These scenes do break up the action-packed main plot, but, at least at first, are compelling and brief enough to not derail the story.

But one thing I realize when re-reading this book is just how much the flow, pacing, and scope changes around the 2/3 mark, or basically after Cassan steels the dire bat egg from the roost. Once he gets that egg, the pace slows down, the scenes from other characters and other perspectives become more prominent, and the story meanders for a bit. It does pick up again when Cassan and his friends leave the island, but only briefly, as even Cassan’s story gets a bit bogged down and meandery once he lands in Covington.

I say all this knowing where the story ends up. With the events that happen in the third book, the Immortal King, a lot of these seemingly less-relevant bits become a lot more relevant, if not essential, later on. But in the context of this book singularly, these parts do mess with the pacing and flow of what is otherwise a pretty tight, fast-moving, and focused book.

What is the expression? “I am my own worst critic?” But in any case, I do really find this book compelling, fast, and fun. I think it is a more exciting and compelling book than the first, even if it is sometimes a bit less focused in the later parts of the book.

And by the way, some of the parts of the book that don’t necessarily feed into the main storyline are still really interesting. The chapters about Aharon in Goue are some of my favorites. I love those chapters! Even though they obviously have nothing to do with Cassan’s adventures at sea. So that’s not to be critical of these more “wandery” chapters outright, only to say that they do break up the focus sometimes.

I did notice a few more typos this time around, which surprised me considering how heavily this book was proofread. I’ve written them down in a list. I count 10 typos in total – all of them small and somewhat insignificant, but typos nonetheless. That’s a big difference from the two I spotted in Desert Empress.

All in all, this remains one of my favorites. After reading books 1 and 2 back-to-back, I must say I like this one better. Next up, book 3! You can look for my thoughts on that book soon.

To read Cassan Astor and the Sea of Krakens, follow this link!