In the lower wards of Kahnzoka, the great port city of the Blessed Empire, eighteen-year-old ward boss Isoka enforces the will of her criminal masters with the power of Melos, the Well of Combat. The money she collects goes to keep her little sister living in comfort, far from the bloody streets they grew up on.

When Isoka’s magic is discovered by the government, she’s arrested and brought to the Emperor’s spymaster, who sends her on an impossible mission: steal Soliton, a legendary ghost ship―a ship from which no one has ever returned. If she fails, her sister’s life is forfeit.

On board Soliton, nothing is as simple as it seems. Isoka tries to get close to the ship’s mysterious captain, but to do it she must become part of the brutal crew and join their endless battles against twisted creatures. She doesn’t expect to have to contend with feelings for a charismatic fighter who shares her combat magic, or for a fearless princess who wields an even darker power.

Heading into 2020, I’ve got a small(ish) list of authors I’m planning on reading for the first (or, I guess second) time, and Django Wexler is definitely on that list! After I finished up Brian McClellan’s Gods of Blood and Powder trilogy, I started thinking about some other flintlock fantasy series I could read in the new year, and Wexler’s The Shadow Campaign series shot to the top of the list! I’ve had a copy of The Thousand Names for a couple years now, so I recently went & tracked down some used hardcovers for the rest of the series.

But in the meantime, there’s Ship of Smoke and Steel, the first book in his new YA fantasy trilogy, The Wells of Sorcery. I actually picked this up right when it came out, which is damn near a year ago. The book sounded rad as hell, and of course a Richard Anderson cover is almost an auto-buy for me at this point!

Our main character is Isoka, a ward boss in the city of Kahnzoka. She’s basically a debt collector, insomuch as if you owe money to Isoka’s bosses, she shows up & beats the shit out of you & maybe even kills you. It’s…pretty fucking intense, and Isoka is made out to be quite ruthless in the early going of the book. The ins & outs of her job are not really explored in great depth, it’s more just part of who Isoka is overall.

But Isoka is soon forced to leave her life behind, as she’s coerced into taking what seems to be an impossible job: infiltrate & commandeer the ship called Soliton, which many people believe to be nothing more than a rumor…a ghost ship, the stuff of stories.

But the ship is all too real, and Isoka finds herself aboard this city-sized vessel with an untold number of kids, all around ages 12-20 (I think..) These kids were all sacrifices from their home country…and they can all use at least one of the magic Wells of Sorcery, which are mostly forbidden.

Isoka’s Well is called Melos, the Well of Combat. Which is a roundabout way of saying she’s a badass fighter, and these cool greenish energy blades shoot out of her wrists and she will FUCK. YOU. UP. Her ability & skill as a fighter makes her an extremely valuable asset aboard Soliton, where there are all manner of creepy & gigantic monsters that need slaying. There are almost different clans on the ship, and being a strong fighter is what Isoka is going to need to be able to move up the ranks & possibly take control of this mysterious & dangerous ship.

There’s a lot to like about Ship of Smoke and Steel, and I think Wexler does a great job setting the stage for a pretty epic trilogy! Isoka is a great lead character…she’s devoted & a great (if reluctant) leader, even if her personal life is a bit of a hot mess. And I LOVED the dynamic between Isoka and Meroe, the erstwhile princess she meets on her first day on the ship. Meroe’s not as confident/aware of her particular Well, but she & Isoka wind up working well together over the course of the book. They also have quite a lot of chemistry, as Isoka is in a period of her life where she’s still kinda learning about herself & her sexual identity.

I haven’t read very many YA books, so it’s not for me to say how Ship of Smoke and Steel compares to some other YA fantasy novels. But it’s a fun, diverse, imaginative story, with some brutal & bloody action sequences. Wexler spends a lot of time developing the atmosphere aboard the ship, which can feel somewhat disorienting at times. It’s a creepy place, though…it feels almost haunted, everything is rusty & covered in weird (but edible) mushrooms, and the history of the ship is…muddled.

All in all, I really dug this. It’s fast-paced, very well written, and leaves you ABSOLUTELY DYING for the second book! Really looking forward to not just the remainder of this trilogy, but more of Django Wexler’s work overall!