A Tide of Black Steel by Anthony Ryan

Twenty years after the close of the Pretenders War, Elvine Jurrest finds herself all but prisoner to the Sister Queens after being caught worshipping the Martyrs. Forced to go with Felnir Redtooth, a man both disgraced and feared in Ascarlia for one reprehensible act to find the Vaults of Altvar. As Felnir and Elvine set off to find myths and legends, Felnir's sister, Thera, is sent to the Northern Isles to put down what appears to be a rebellion, but she quickly determines that it is not a rebellion but an all out invasion from peoples no one even knew existed. As both parties face attacks from every side, they come to realize that the very heart of Ascarlia is rotten to its core. 

Ryan is an auto read author for me, so when I saw this up on Netgalley I requested it, didn't read the synopsis, barely glanced at the cover and then did a little happy dance when I realized it was a continuation of the Covenant of Steel series. If you've read a review by almost anyone who read the series, you'll know that they all ended with a desperate plea to know what happens next in this world. Not only did Ryan deliver, but he knocked it out of the park. I have never been so happy with a continuation of a story, probably in my life. 

The first book of Ryan's I read was from his Draconis Memoria series and honestly outside of Barker's Tide Child series it's the first one that made me realize I really loved naval fantasy novels, so to have him go back to that naval side of things was just awesome for me. Especially since the battle scenes in this are just truly amazing, he does such an amazing job of describing every detail that it takes very little to envision one ship ramming another and just the truly deafening noise that would create. And look I don't even like boats, I can't even stand on a dock or I'll get sick so for someone to write not one but two book series where I am actually looking forward to the next big battle is nothing short of genius.

As always, he's got an amazing cast of characters here as well, ones in many cases I never would have imagined being front and center in a continuation of The Covenant of Steel. Felnir especially is an interesting character because I'm not really sure he's a good guy. Thera and Elvine, absolutely 100%, Ruhlin, most definitely. But Felnir? I don't know. Something about him seems just off, especially given everything we learn about the Vaults and Ascarlia's history. I'm not gonna give anything away, I'm just saying I said "Omfg put that thing back where it came from Velnir or so help me gods!" quite a few times towards the end of the book. Some "treasures" just need to be left alone. 

The pacing was excellent. The world building meshed extremely well with what I knew of Ascarlia from the first series while introducing a ton of new and interesting lore in terms of Altvar and the gods The bad guys aren't just this group of invaders but people within the Arscalian government, so you've got a battle going from two fronts as well. Basically, this is going to be an amazing end to what we started with Alwyn.

One thing I will say is that I do believe that to get everything out of this book that it has to offer reading The Covenant of Steel series first is a must. I mean, yes, you could read it as a stand-alone if you were so inclined, but I genuinely believe you'd be doing yourself a disservice. This world is vast, and you only really get to see a very small corner of it if you don't read Alwyn's story first. 

And seriously, if you've read it Covenant of Steel, you'll know Alwyn's son the minute he's introduced. You don't even need to know his name. He's clearly Alwyn's clone, at least linguistically.

Overall, of course I recommend it. To be fair, I recommend all of Ryan's books, so that shouldn't come as a surprise. 

As always, thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eArc.