The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson

I would like to thank Sarah from Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – 26/1

Price – £8.99 paperback £44.74 Kindle eBook

On the never-ending, miles-high expanse of prairie grasses known as the Forever Sea, Kindred Greyreach, hearthfire keeper and sailor aboard harvesting vessel The Errant, is just beginning to fit in with the crew of her new ship when she receives devastating news. Her grandmother The Marchess, legendary captain and hearthfire keeper has stepped from her vessel and disappeared into the sea.

But the note she leaves Kindred suggests this was not an act of suicide. Something waits in the depths, and the Marchess has set out to find it.

To follow in her grandmother s footsteps, Kindred must embroil herself in conflicts bigger than she could imagine: a water war simmering below the surface of two cultures; the politics of a mythic pirate city floating beyond the edges of safe seas; battles against beasts of the deep, driven to the brink of madness; and the elusive promise of a world below the waves.

Kindred finds that she will sacrifice almost everything ship, crew, and a life sailing in the sun to discover the truth of the darkness that waits below the Forever Sea

Fantasy can often be surprisingly a little too familiar – kingdom, armies, battles, and some sort of monsters. Considering the volume of books now produced each year it is heard sometimes not to slot books into our sub-genre categories very quickly – ah here is a grimdark, that is steampunk, put that RPGlit over there etc. Books that make you turn your head and also give you a new sense of wonder are rarer these days. When I read The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson, I found a premise so unusual it pulled me into a tale that was often surprising and inventive add in some truly beautiful writing this was indeed a remarkable start to a new fantasy series

The Forever Sea is an endless five-mile-deep sea of plants and trees inhabited by mysterious massive Wyrms and many other creatures that do not like intruders. No one has visited the bottom of it. Humans have instead created on the sea their towns and cities and to cross between them ships that sail across the top avoiding thistle reefs and areas of Roughs. Water is scarce so dew is sought, and farming is done by taming the tops of the Sea itself. As there are ships there must also be pirates and the trader ships The Errant we first meet fleeing an attack lands in Harbour in desperate need of supplies. Here we then follow the young Apprentice Keeper Kindred on a mission to buy water. This simple task though attracts the city’s scheming politicians and black market setting in motion a trek across the wildest parts of the Forever Sea and uncovering some long-hidden secrets about the world itself.

Yep…exactly… ships that sail on a sea of grass! By changing that one element Johnson really makes a bold choice that immediately changes how the rest of the world operates. A vibrant world where water is scarce; farming is the equivalent of fishing and sea monsters are more like what you may find I the garden but at a gigantic scale. What makes the book work so well is you can feel the thought into the world. Johnson chooses to throw the reader into the literal deep end, and you have to work out the differences and similarities with the world we are more familiar with. Then just to prove you can do more than one impossible thing in a novel they introduce a magic system that initially helps the ships move and more all based around burning of sea captains’ bones and song. It is half magic system and half something the people of this land still don’t fully understand. In fact, it is clear there is much that people don’t understand about this world and only a few are trying to find out what secrets the Sea has. I liked its unpredictability and a sense that this world has much more magic lurking and starting to pay more attention to what those on the top of the sea are doing.

This brings us to Kindred the heroine of the tale. Brought up by a well respected yet eccentric Captain she has decided to make a path of her own and is yet to find a place for herself. On The Errant she is both admired for her eccentric yet sometimes successful ideas and also scorned for not following the traditional path for Keepers. Preying on Kindred’s mind is the Sea and it’s depths. This makes her ambitious but also reckless and while fundamentally good she isn’t above taking advantage of a situation. I like that like the reader Kindred is still discovering this world and she is sympathetic. I loved her developing relationship with Sarah the Errant’s lookout based in the crow’s nest while in opposition we get their Captain’s ambitious yet strait-laced Quarter-master Little Wing who wants to get back to port to start their own crew. She find’s Kindred fixation on the Sea an obstacle to her own ambitions and their growing battle of wills adds a lot of tension to the book.

There is one issue I have with the book and that the pace tends to make this a little breathless and constantly setting up the next scene. Something will be heavily mentioned that you know will have a big impact on the next set piece. There is a lot going on in this novel and there is an unusual framing device where we know something bad will happen to the sea and the people who lived on it. As such I do think there are times the story needed to let us breathe more – show us how life in this world work when we are not constantly battling for survival. This would possibly allow Kindred to show hat they are more than such a magical problem solver. But this was more a small niggle in a series that offers pirate battles, puzzling tests and some memorial moment of pure magic.

That inventive streak is the standout feature of this tale and Johnson’s prose makes it come to life. It has moments of beauty, excitement and most of all wonder. For fantasy fans looking for something different then this is a series that shows a lot of potential to be something truly unique. One to watch out for.

Special Bonus feature!! For today’s UK publication also please find an interview with the author HERE