TL;DR Review: A beautifully colorful and magic-full murder mystery guaranteed to keep you guessing right until the final moment!
Synopsis:
A mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it!
For a thousand years, Concordia has maintained peace between its provinces. To mark this incredible feat, the emperor’s ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage to the sacred Goddess’s Mountain. Aboard are the twelve heirs of the provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing.
All except one: Ganymedes Piscero—class clown, slacker and all-around disappointment.
When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people and without a Blessing to protect him, Ganymedes’s odds of survival are slim.
But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be. Can he unmask the killer and their secret Blessing before this bloody crusade reaches the shores of Concordia?
Or will the empire as he knows it fall?
Full Review:
I’ll be honest: I went into this book blind, knowing only it was a murder mystery on a ship, and got instantly sucked in. In fact, I read the entire thing in one sitting because it was just so damned entertaining!
Voyage of the Damned follows Dee (real name Ganymedes, but he hates it if you call him that!), the chosen inheritor of the “Blessing” (magical ability) gifted to one member of each of the twelve duchies of this fantasy kingdom. He belongs to “Fish” duchy, the lowest of the low, home to fishermen and not much else.
He, along with the eleven other “Blessed”, are set aboard a ship to journey twelve nights to the place where they will receive their anointing from the Goddess that will confirm them as the highest powers in the realm, save only for the Emperor.
Only there’s two problems…
First, Dee doesn’t actually have a Blessing—he and his father have pulled off a big con, convincing the world he is Blessed but he has no magic whatsoever. And to top it off, he’s got no desire to rule or lead—he just wants to try every food in the Empire and enjoy every handsome man and beautiful woman that crosses his path.
Second, on the very first night aboard the ship, the other Blessed start getting MURDERED. One by one, the bodies start piling up, and somehow Dee gets roped into figuring out how, why, and, most important of all, who. Because if he doesn’t, he’s pretty sure he’ll be next.
The worldbuilding in this book is spectacular. The customs and cultures of each of the twelve duchies is so thoroughly explored and ingrained in every fiber of their being, from the way they talk to the clothes they wear even to how they identify themselves. Each realm is defined by a color and an animal, and the themes are so pervasive that they add glorious detail that set the imagination tingling as you read through it.
The characters are also incredibly colorful. From the spymaster who holds the Blessing of the Spider duchy to the duty-bound warrior who holds the Blessing of the Tiger duchy, from the dark-haired Crow (who happens to be Dee’s crush) to the adorably spry Grasshopper child, there are no two characters alike, but each is so unique and well explored.
Despite the darkness of the book (people are getting murdered, after all!), there’s so much humor and wryness, which is also balanced with some fascinating character development. All of the characters undergo amazing journeys of self-exploration and discovery, and Dee’s is the most powerful and compelling transformation of all.
But the greatest triumph of this book is that I DIDN’T SEE THE ENDING COMING! It did such a spectacular job of making sure everyone could be the killer, and just when you’re certain you’ve figured it out, there’s another twist or another body dropped. It kept me guessing right up until the end, and when I finally found out who was behind it, it felt like all the pieces fit into place so smoothly that it painted a glorious picture.
If you want a well-crafted murder mystery set in a fascinatingly rich fantasy world featuring well-developed characters, Voyage of the Damned is definitely the book for you!
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