The Orb and the Airship
A Book Review
Detail Blurb
A rogue airship captain. An ambitious youth. A clash of powers beyond their imagination.
With scholarships to a prestigious military school, Grayden and Wynn are thirsty for adventure. But the night before they leave, they discover the mysterious Dalmir and his arcane orb in the forsaken tower outside of town. The old man, who seems to have a wealth of knowledge of what came before and yet so little of the now, insists on accompanying them as they travel to the academy.
Meanwhile, all pirate Captain Marik wants is to keep to the skies, take his due, and care for his crew. Then a straightforward pillaging mission on a ship of fresh academy students leads to betrayal from one of his own and an unlikely friendship forged by necessity.
Yet this new alliance stirs up ancient foes and a conflict too terrible to ignore. Despite Grayden’s inexperience and Marik’s skepticism, working together with Dalmir is their only option.
The fate of the world depends on it.
A clean gaslamp fantasy adventure filled with steadfast friendship, brotherhood, twisty politics, and epic airship battles.
My Review
I got introduced to Jenelle via her book Steal the Morrow as part of the A Classic Retold series and I wanted to see more of her world of Turrim. I know book 2 is coming out in January so I wanted to be sure to read this one first. Despite being part of a growing set and it does hint to more in the future, it works well both as a standalone and the start to a series.
The mix of sides all pulled into political intrigue was fun to watch. Even better, it had fun twists you didn’t see coming. On reflection the hints were dropped appropriately so when the twist came I was like, “Oh, that is why …” You better pay attention for these nuances that add to the story. These happened all the way to the end.
I loved the characters and how they evolved. Some by growing and others by my learning more about them that changed my feelings for them.
The tale pulls in a lot of Turrim, which helped me understand the nuggets she shared in Steal the Morrow. I look forward to seeing more of the world in the next book, Mantles of Oak and Iron, coming out on January 12, 2024. She teases you more with the titles of five books for this series in the front matter of book one.