My Five Word TL:DR Review : What Can I Say? Briliant

I absolutely loved Voyage of the Damned.  I had such a good time reading this, it’s easy to engage with, I loved the MC and it’s one of those books that I just want to give a big hug to.  This is a locked room mystery onboard a ship where the body count keeps mysteriously rising.  Is anybody safe and will anyone make it to the end of this ill fated journey?

Concordia has lived in peace for over a thousand years.  Each of it’s twelve provinces are responsible for providing something either by way of supplies, food and energy, protection and keeping the boundaries safe or the powerful magic of the Emperor who helps to maintain those borders.  Each of the regions receives a gift from the Goddess, known as a blessing, only one gift is received to each region (which I guess narrows down on any squabbles between rival blessed) and the gift jumps from the parent to the child – if there’s more than one child there’s no particular way of knowing which child this will pass to which is why our main character is in such bother.  His parents had one child only, assuming that kept them safe in the knowledge of who would receive the blessing, however,lets just say the father was something of a lothario and it turns out he had more children than his wife was aware of.  This is how the story begins, with the introduction of Ganymedes Piscero, who is about to embark on a journey to the sacred Goddess’s Mountain, absent any form of blessed gift to protect him from the other eleven passengers.

Ganymedes or Dee as he is known, is part of his father’s deception to keep his none Blessed status a secret.  Unfortunately the gift Dee expected has clearly jumped to one of his unknown half brothers or sisters.  As you may imagine, he’s not thrilled at the prospect of a twelve day journey surrounded by other heirs who he will not only need to con into believing he is similarly gifted, but also putting into place his cunning plan to get the others to have him thrown out of their circle entirely.  On top of this, lets just say that not all the provinces share equal status.  So, for example, we have the tigers, responsible for protecting the Beloved (the Emperor and his children).

The nature of each province is told through the history of the Goddess and the way her gifts were bestowed so I won’t elaborate on it here.  Other than to say that Dee comes from the fish province, one of the lowliest and least respected even though they are effectively responsible for feeding Concordia.  I would also mention that the gifts or Blessings differ from generation to generation and their nature is quite fiercely guarded.  So, we have a bunch of young people, some acting like entitled a-holes, some trying to curry favour, some really not giving a damn and not caring less about acceptance by their peers and one in particular trying to keep his secret – never quite realising just how many secrets are being kept onboard the Emperor’s vessel.  And then the murders begin.

I loved this.  The writing is so easy, it’s entertaining, there’s the mystery element and a lot of unusual red herrings bandied around, it’s funny and witty but on top of this the chracters are the key element that really won me over.

Dee is a wonderful character.  He has a low self opinion and he’s one of those people who is very self deprecating, he truly doesn’t understand his own worth or see the way others see him.  I loved the way he becomes so protective of some of the other passengers, particularly a young girl (6 yo) from the Grasshopper province who is a bundle of energy but also seems to be a target for the murderer, and a boy who is dying from an untreatable disease from the Bear province (who is a source of embarassment to his own family because of his weakness).

I have to hand it to the author.  The characters are all well rounded.  They all have secrets that haunt them and dictate their behaviour and although some appear to be more well favoured this is a great case for how appearances can be deceptive.

On top of this we have the clever whodunnit element.  I was definitely jumping around suspecting the world and his wife with this one and I can’t deny I didn’t see the twist – well twists actually – in the tale.  I have to applaud that.

Overall, I’m not going to say much more.  I thoroughly enjoyed this.  It’s the perfect blend of murder mystery and fantasy and it doesn’t have a tacked on fantasy feel where certain elements have been thrown in simply to garner a particular audience.  This book is well grounded, the dialogue is just brilliant, I nearly snorted coffee out of my nostrils at one point (not a pretty thing tbh and possibly tmi), there’s a cosy feel to it (even though the body’s really start to stack up) and I don’t know how the author managed it but it’s also so emotionally satisfying.

Overall, this was one of the last books I read last year and I could hardly put it down.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars