On the surface, Ryan Van Loan’s debut novel, The Sin in the Steel, could be seen as simply a fantasy adventure yarn with two youthful protagonists. However, the story within the pages and the characters themselves, have far more depth than that simple deconstruction, especially when these two protagonists are a play on Holmes & Watson and they find themselves either allying or in conflict with, sorcerers, the undead, Old and New Gods, and pirates. More details/review after the publisher’s description…
Heroes for hire. If you can pay.
Buc: Brilliant street-rat. Her mind leaps from clues to conclusions in the blink of an eye.
Eld: Ex-soldier, Buc’s partner-in-crime.
No. Not in crime—in crime-solving.
They’ve been hired for their biggest job yet—one that will set them up for a life of ease.
If they survive.
Buc and Eld are the first private detectives in a world where pirates roam the seas, mages speak to each other across oceans, mechanical devices change the tide of battle, and earthly wealth is concentrated in the hands of a powerful few.
It’s been weeks since ships last returned to the magnificent city of Servenza with bounty from the Shattered Coast. Disaster threatens not just the city’s trading companies but the empire itself. When Buc and Eld are hired to investigate, Buc swiftly discovers that the trade routes have become the domain of a sharp-eyed pirate queen who sinks all who defy her.
Now all Buc and Eld have to do is sink the Widowmaker’s ship….
Unfortunately for Buc, the gods have other plans.
Unfortunately for the gods, so does Buc.
Eld and Buc are teenagers on the streets taking jobs for hire, not unlike a certain Sherlock and John Watson. Van Loan swaps a couple of things in that template: Buc plays the gender-swapped Sherlock Holmes and plays the part of narrator, at least in her scenes, in contrast to Watson typically being the narrator and chronicler of Holmes’s cases. Not all scenes include Buc, Loan switches to the omniscient viewpoint there. But like Holmes, Buc is brilliant, analytical, but flawed – she’s got a chip on her shoulder and will sometimes allow emotions like anger and arrogance override logic to the point I found her to be a little annoying at times. That tends to happen with teenagers, though. But her rebellious nature and drive to overthrow the authoritarian and oppressive nature of her world are also driven by her youth.
Eld is a great complement, like Watson, he is a former soldier. His background is shrouded in mystery, but the bond he has formed with Buc is as strong as the two characters to which they an homage. The only thing that approaches the emotional strength of his bond with Buc is his hatred of magic. You could almost say they are co-dependents.
The world they live in is lots of fun, magic, undead, pirates, old gods, new gods. It is not a primitive world despite those typically pre-technology elements; however. Two characteristics of the world truly set it apart from a pre-technology world: books and guns. Many people have some kind of flintlock gun, except Buc who only trusts her slingshot. Reading is important, books are important. Buc takes a library of books as payment, at one point, as she is basically addicted to knowledge. I found that to be a wonderful spin on what superficially has the sheen of a pre-technology world. These elements (what I’ve labeled “pre-technology” and “technology”) play off each other, enhance the whole of the world, and are interesting elements in and of themselves. In other words, Ryan Van Loan has done a nice job of worldbuilding to the point that the world comes off the page as a character itself.
The novel begins as one of their cases comes to a close…or so they think. The thing they got leads to a larger case and the adventure of this novel. They are enlisted to put a stop to something that is damaging the sugar trade, sugar being one of the most valued commodities in the world. They are told a Pirate Queen – the Widowmaker – is responsible. There’s also rumors of a ghost ship, captained by the undead. The world is deep with history and as such, a character only known as the Archaeologist, plays a significant role. Loan does a fine job of bringing these elements together through the eyes of Buc.
The Sin in the Steel is a fun romp that plays with familiar genre elements while injections of originality spice up that familiar dish. Ryan Van Loan has crafted a very impressive debut novel and launched a fantasy series that has me eager to read the next installment.
Recommended
© 2020 Rob H. Bedford
Trade Paperback | Tor Books
The Fall of the Gods (Volume 1)
July 2020 | 400 Pages (includes glossary)
Excerpt: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250222572
http://www.ryanvanloan.com/
