22nd February 2025

The first book in The Drowning Empire trilogy introduces us to an empire across a range of migratory islands. We meet four point-of-view characters from different backgrounds, with different lives and objectives.

There’s good world-building, but which becomes a bit more gruesome than I’d have liked.

Weirdly, I found three of the characters much more compelling than the fourth. Somehow in just that one plot line I found my eyes failing to stick, and skipping over the paragraphs in a way that didn’t happen with the others.

It’s a book about relationships - ones with a lack of balance, new ones, and ones which are over but not forgotten. It’s quite sad in a lot of respects once you think about it.

I don’t think it’s done quite enough to grip me though, and I don’t think the sequels will make it onto my to-read pile.

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