The Ship of Strays
The ship’s setting of the third book in the Geomancer series creates the ideal space for camaraderie among the women who crew it. As the author observes; ‘perhaps a shared year aboard a ship was as good as a shared childhood on land’. In The Ship of Strays, more than its predecessors two protagonists have equal presence, and the focus on Ysolda, the trilogy’s heroine is widened to give parity to Eira; the Wolf Queen’s daughter.
The focus on these strong young women and their unstable, yet dynamic relationship constitutes the core of the novel. Animals feature throughout representing the interrelationship between humans and nature; the ship is home to an army of stray cats; Sorrell is the cat that connects Ysolda to her lost sister Hari, and Nara, Ysolda’s sea hawk continues to have a central presence.
Like the first edition of this trilogy, The Ship of Strays is beautifully produced with the dust jacket on a deep blue cover featuring a whale’s tail in reflective silver extending upwards from the sea with the Ship of Strays dwarfed beneath. Again the beginning and end papers of maps and constellations feature a reimagined Europe where the story continues.
This book is multi-faceted. It layers language; through the naming of places, storytelling and mythmaking, upon craftsmanship, allowing the threads of creativity and connection to inform the epic adventure and high seas drama of the tale as Ysolda and Eira attempt to outrace the Wolf Queen to the Geomancer.
This book is recommended for age 9–11 and can equally be enjoyed by readers of all ages
