Isle Chronicles by Wayne Thomas batson

Aye, and amazed I am that it's taken me this long to post this review, aargh.

Ahem. Please forgive the poor pirate imitation.

I AM, however, VERY excited to review Wayne Thomas Batson's Isle Chronicles: Isle of Swords and Isle of Fire today. These are some of my very favorite books of all time.

What's not to love? On one side, you've got Captain Declan Ross and his crew of misfits, who just want to haul catch enough to get them out of the not-so-sweet trade forever. Well, most of them anyways--except his daughter, Anne, who desperately wants to become a pirate herself.

On the other hand, you've got Bartholomew Thorne, the darkest pirate to sail the seven seas. He's looking to avenge his wife's death, and he's got Declan Ross in his sights. Maybe it has to do with how they put one of his greatest allies in Davy Jones' locker, I don't know.

And they've both got their sights on the same treasure.

In the crossfire is sixteen-year-old Cat, who was left nearly dead on a nameless island. Leave it to Declan and Crew to come save the day. That doesn't change the fact that he has no idea who he is. What he's done. Or what the clues he carries in a pouch around his neck could mean.

Explosive action scenes. Vibrant characters. Snapping humor. A chilling villain, one of the best I've ever read . . . or would that be the worst? The Isle Chronicles has it all. But amidst all the cannon fire, sword slashing, and treasure seeking, it's really a story about one young man's quest for identity.

Whether or not they ever find the treasure, Declan, Anne, Cat, and the crew discover something far deeper, something that will stick with a reader long after the fires burn out. Perhaps the God they've dismissed as uncaring all these years has a very specific interest in them. Perhaps Cat has a far deeper identity than he knows.

That being said, you know, they're pirates. And by the point that Catholic monks are hiring them to hunt other pirates, some of the morals in these books have to be called into question. Add to that a few torture scenes that could make you squirm just a bit.

Just a few waves before this duology catches the wind and sails out to sea. But even once it sails away, I doubt what the crew finds will leave their minds . . . nor the reader's. It certainly didn't mine.

*Note: Several years after the duology was released, a follow-up book was released, Isle of Stars. I've chosen not to include it here. While an okay read, the plot and characters were weaker than the original books. It was also an attempted crossover with some of Wayne Thomas Batson's fantasy characters, characters I was not familiar with, which made it feel oddly tacked on in waters it didn't belong in. Add to that the fact that several crew members that died in the first book were suddenly alive and well again? Therefore, I refer to it as a follow-up book and not part of the original duology.