Sea of Ghosts

This is the first book I've read by Alan Campbell and goodness me but its a cracker. Combine the baroque inventiveness of China Mieville's New Crobuzon and magic-tinged action and grit of Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen and a dash of Dune's science-fantasy elements and you may get a sense of what this is all about. The narrative sucks you in, the protagonist is refreshingly hard-bitten and well-realized, as are the villains. The world-building is wonderfully fresh in its imaginativeness and depth. Ultimately all of these elements support a rousing tale of adventure.

After the break-neck pace of the first two-thirds of the book, the pace does slacken a little towards the end as the author starts to set things up for the sequels, so the narrative is a little less taut towards the end, but I wouldn't call that a weakness at all. The ending, while bringing the book to a satisfying close, certainly does leave one chomping at the bit for the next installment. I'm really surprised that this book seems to have slipped under the radar because surely it must have been, if not one of the best fantasy books from last year, certainly one of the most enjoyable.