Steal the Sky Review

In "Steal the Sky", the wanted conman Detan Honding and his partner in crime Tibs are forced to adapt their criminal plans upon stumbling into a political coup.

General Impressions

The easiest way I have of summarizing "Steal the Sky" is: Dune but more YA and focusing on the rable in the slums.

My first impression of this story was that this was not a tale to read and forget: Detan and Tibs are immediately charming and the fact that the author made sure to invent not only slang but entire idioms and grammatical rules were what made me fall in love with Aransa. You have to pay attention to what you are reading or you'll find yourself having to reread entire pages.

At the heart of this book is Tibs and Detan's relationship: here are two-man that care for one another as brothers, who depend on one another to keep the other and the world around them safe. Their interactions were absolutely delightful, so well written that I felt like I was there seeing them steal each other's hat and make fun of each other. But they are not the only ones that steal the scene. Every character in this book is exactly the kind of character you want to read about and fear ever meeting. I have a special place in my heart in particular for all the women in this story: heroines or villains, wearing silk or armour, they are strong, smart and all possess ideas and wants of their own and are willing to fight for them.

The world-building was also extremely complex and believable with the themes it touched on such as populism, slavery, discrimination and imperialism being wonderfully expanded upon as were their consequences: poverty, PTSD, class war, criminality and rebellion.

I got to the end not only satisfied with the time I had given this book, but glad the sequels are already out.

Thank you to Angry Robot for sending me this copy.

Rating: 4.5/5

P.S: these covers are *fire* am I right or am I right?