Thank you to Del Rey/Random House for allowing me to read this incredible book in advance of its on sale date.

Steel Crow Saga is told through the eyes of four** characters: The Prince, The Soldier, The Detective, and The Scoundrel. From different backgrounds and with different motivations, we follow their adventure. Did I mention it's incredible? Because it is. Steel Crow Saga is the kind of book you find yourself staying up til all hours to read. It's the kind of book that makes you miss your bus stop, thus delivering you late to work. It's the kind of book you wind up recommending to all of your friends, because you have to talk to them about this One Cool Scene, NO WAIT, THIS One Cool Scene!

This book has very heavy anime vibes. If you grew up watching Pokemon, Full Metal Alchemist, Sailor Moon.... This book will resonate with you on a deep level. Each battle scene feels like it could be scored by a super hip Japanese band, and I can practically envision a brightly animated version of everything that's happening. Krueger's writing brings this world and characters to life in such a way that I felt incredibly connected every step of the way to these crazy kids and their amazing story.

Please check out this book. You won't be disappointed.

There are many things that impressed me about this book. The world building is well done. The concept of "shadepact" soul bonding with an animal's shade and being able to summon them in battle is incredibly cool. The writing style is unique and flows really well. The characters and relationships are well crafted. I think it will appeal strongly to readers who like anime tropes/style of storytelling, but it also appealed to me and I'm not normally a fan of that kind of thing. Overall, it's a great read and I highly recommend it.

It would be very difficult to avoid comparisons to both Avatar Series (Last Airbender and Legend of Korra): the DNA of this book clearly owes much to the animated series. That said, readers don't need to have watched Avatar to enjoy this Asian-inspired fantasy. While perhaps most appealing to a younger audience due to gaping plot holes and a fairly simplistic plot, the characters are engaging and the book a light read.

Story: Four individuals, each from different countries, will find their fates intersecting at the end of a great war. Jimuro, prince of the Tomoda empire, has been a war hostage for years and is now being used by the conquerors to create a new peace with his country. Xiulan, princess of the Shang empire, is too far down the succession line to be of interest to the world and now seeks to emulate her favorite detective characters by bringing justice to the lands. Lee, who is Jongseon, has made a life as a grifter after her country was nearly wiped out by the war. When she meets Xiulan, she will be made an interesting offer. And finally Tala, of the Sanbuna, grapples with the death of her family as she is commanded to bring the Tomoda prince Jimuro back to Tomoda so he can claim his throne.

The book's structure is one of pairs: at first Xiulan and Lee (and their emerging relationship) and Jimuro and Tala (with their emerging relationship). The pairings change a bit later on as events happen but much of the book is about their partnerships. The worldbuilding is Asia: thinly veiled Japan, Korea, China, and the Philippines (with India thrown in the side). The events take place after Japan attempted to conquer all three nations, devastating them in the process of plundering their natural resources. The kingdoms eventually fought back and Japan is now in the hands of the people it once oppressed.

Those who have watched the Avatar series will recognize the character types here. Prince Jimuro of Japan is very similar to Zuko and has a similar redemptive arc. Xiulan, Tale and Lee greatly shared personality traits of Toph, Korra, and Asami. As well, magic similarities including types tied to nations/peoples and 'metal bending'. The spirit animals were interesting and created probably the best aspects of the plot. For this book, the Tomoda (Japan) can control metal, the Shang (Chinese) and Sanbuna (Philippines) control spirit animals, and the Dahali (India) control energy and can shoot hexbolts to disable or heal. So although not as similar as Avatar's magic, author Krueger does spend time to hypothesize on why these cultures developed the types of magic that they did.

There are some things that did bother. Since this is a fairly simplistic tale, a lot of the motivations or repercussions of actions felt very unrealistic and without enough nuance to be believable. Especially the magic, since it was said no one could use another culture's magic and yet by the end, we saw multiple instances of the 'impossible' happen, and very easily. Although explained as the transformative nature of love, I wasn't so convinced. As well, I know many will compare this to anime plots but I don't really see that here - this is much more a Western series like both Avatars.

In all, this was a decent read that is easy to follow. I think younger readers will especially appreciate the spirit animals, though the relationship between Xiulan and Lee has some adult references. All the same, a very light read easily finished in a few hours. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

The premise sounded intriguing, but unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. This book is heavily influenced by anime, and that's not my thing. I have liked a couple anime movies in the past, but it's not usually for me. I found the characters kind of flat, and I thought the world building was lacking. I couldn't picture the setting of the characters in my head. So I decided to not finish this book. I hate forcing myself to finish books that I am not into. There WILL be an audience for this book. If you really enjoy anime this is for you.

I have noticed a couple of themes in the books that I have been reading lately. The first one is that I saw is the plenty of strong female characters. The second is that Japanese/Chinese based fantasy is becoming more popular. Both caught my attention when I read the blurb for Steel Crow Saga. I am happy to say that I loved Steel Crow Saga!! It was a fantastic read.

Steel Crow Saga has four separate plotlines. Usually, that would be an issue for me. I lose focus on many plotlines. But, in this book, it wasn’t an issue. The author was able to keep all four plotlines separated. I had no problem keeping them straight. I also loved that while the plotlines did get merged towards the end of the book, they were still separate.

The characters in Steel Crow Saga were well written and well fleshed out. That made the book so much more enjoyable for me to read. I did have my favorite characters in the book. I loved Lee and Xiulan, separately and together. I also did like Tala and Jimuro, but Lee and Xiulan captured my heart.

The fantasy angle of the book was amazing!! I loved how shadepacting worked. To have an animal bond that close to you must be amazing. But I also could see why it was done with only animals and not humans. I thought having the bad guy having hundreds of shades was great. I also liked that the characters could steal the shades from other people. I liked it.

Another part of the book that I loved was the LGBT representation in the book. Xiulan and Lee had feelings for each other. Jimuro’s oldest friend was a transgender man. Mang, Tala’s brother, was gay. Lee, and I believe Jimuro, were bisexual. I loved it!!

I have read reviews where this book was compared to The Last Airbender and Pokemon. I did get the Pokemon vibe while reading it but I didn’t get The Last Airbender vibe. Shrugs.

I also liked that each race was a different Asian country. China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and India were represented. Doing that added more depth to the book. There also could be more countries that I didn’t pick up on.

There was a lot of violence and death in Steel Crow Saga. It didn’t bother me (violence in books usually don’t). But some people are bothered by violence. Unfortunately, this book couldn’t be told without the violence.

Tala and Mang’s relationship was one of the saddest ones that I have read to date. My heart broke several times whenever their relationship came up. The author also explains how he became a shade. Again, talk about my poor heartbreaking. I was in tears. What Mang asked Tala to do was awful, and it shaped her for the rest of her life.

The end of Steel Crow Saga was interesting. It was interesting because while the main storylines ended, the author left room for another book. I am curious to see what will happen with Tala and Jimuro, especially after what was revealed. I am also interested to see where Lee and Xiulan’s relationship will go. Also, I want to know what will happen with the different countries now that the war is over. I can’t wait for book 2 to come out!!

I had high hopes for Steel Crow Saga, considering the things I’d heard about it prior to picking it up, and I’m happy to be able to say that I really enjoyed it! This novel takes on the task of narrating the stories of four different individuals: a princess determined to earn her place as heir to the throne, a thief given a second chance, an exiled prince returning to claim his place on the throne, and a military sergeant tasked with the protection of said prince. Even though I tend to be partial to ensemble casts, it’s an undeniably difficult task for an author to juggle the multiple storylines and to alternate narrative voices in a way that is specific enough to be easy for readers to remember. Paul Krueger successfully accomplished this here, highlighting the individual experiences of Tala, Jimuro, Xiulan and Lee in a way that made it easy to tell them apart and giving them stakes and obstacles that kept me invested in all their stories. It helps that they happen to be a diverse bunch, both in terms of race, gender and sexuality (which also applies to the secondary characters). Apart from the strength of his character portrayals, Krueger also manages to bring an extremely interesting world to life from the magical lore to the complex political ties between the countries (including the effects of colonization and revolution, which I found particularly interesting). He also succeeds in weaving together a series of plots and tropes that will be fun for any reader but will be particularly recognizable for any anime fans (and his storytelling is very much like that of a shonen anime too). Honestly, I had so much fun devouring Steel Crow Saga and would certainly recommend adding it to your TBRs! (I also want to throw in that I particularly feel like if you enjoyed Fullmetal Alchemist, you might really like this, as there were elements and themes that reminded me of it.)

DNF

Utilizing creative ideas such as enchanted steel manipulation and animal companions that fight alongside book characters as “shades”, the Steel Crow Saga is a fresh take on the fantasy genre. The story covers four main characters, each from different cultural backgrounds, Lee, Tala, Jimuro, and Xiulan, all in an effort to tell a story about the political clash taking place. There are major anime vibes, along with a bit of Pokémon, and Asian inspired setting/world.

Unfortunately, I DNF this book despite the awesome premise. I wanted SO BADLY to like it. The story fell flat for me. The characters and their relationships/dialogue felt forced. The world building was lacking. There was nothing about the world that I could attach myself to. Maybe I went in with too many pre-conceived ideas, but a lot of the world building just didn’t seem to create something I was capable of imagining.

Perhaps this book simply wasn’t for me, but, these were my take-aways:

The writing quality itself was fantastic. The author’s use of words and voice was well done. I didn’t care for the occasional use of “ass” and other swear words that were sprinkled here and there. They were used too seldomly to be included at all IMO, and could have easily been substituted. Stumbling across them had a jarring effect on me, and believe me, I cuss a lot, but man did they feel out of place! I’m no prude, but really, that darkened my reading experience some.

The characters were ultimately what killed it for me. I felt no connection to any of them, right from the start. None of the characters hooked me, nor could I relate to them. The prologue set the stage, and in hindsight, felt completely useless as a story tool. Its characters gave me nothing to attach myself to. I went ahead and shrugged it off and moved on to the main body of the work. I had hoped that it would get better, but the characters there didn’t grab me either. First we see Lee, who is slated for death, and I’m sorry, I just couldn’t connect to her. I didn’t find myself relating with her whatsoever; Something about her character felt forced, same with Xiulan, and even their dialogue together. I liked Tala better, she was one of the characters from the prologue, all grown up, but again, she didn’t give me much to hold on to. Sure, her family was killed in the political wars that wracked her country, but there just wasn’t anything there for me. I wasn’t able to feel her sadness at losing her family, perhaps because I just didn’t know enough about them to feel sad. The same could be said about Jimuro, the prince. I think if the author would have shown us more unique qualities, and even made their character flaws more apparent, I might have related to them better.

For me, characters make a story. And no matter how creative your story is, no matter how intricate the plot, the characters MUST be relatable. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe they are more relatable for other people, and everyone is different, which is why I think this book just wasn’t my cup of tea.

In terms of content and originality, I really liked the Asian take on the story. That, along with the idea of having animals bonded to humans, were the only two things that kept me reading past chapter one. But even from the get-go, I wasn’t wowed or awed by the animal idea when I expected to be. Maybe it wasn’t presented as well as it could have been. If it had been executed correctly, I think I would have been more impressed. Even the descriptions of the animals, which were called “shades” fell flat. The characters describing these shades did not do the descriptions justice, especially for characters like Lee, deprived of shades themselves, and awed by the idea of having one.

I wanted to like this book. It held such a great premise, but I found myself disappointed. There are too many great books out there. I should not have to force myself to turn pages.

I am really sad, but I think this book is not for me.

At 100 pages in, I’m having a tough time wanting to pick this back up. Mostly due to the writing style. I knew going into this read, the author drew from anime. It definitely shows, and I thought it would add to the reading experience. Unfortunately, it pulled me out of the story more times than not. As a result, I don’t care for any of the characters and I always end up being pulled away from the story.

But again, this is just not for me. I know other people who have read this and loved the anime-like writing style and had a great time laughing at all the comic relief moments. So if you’re into that, give it a shot!

I really lucked out on the books I chose and was allowed to read to review. This was in the top tier of my favorites as I am so impressed with the world and alternate visions and presentations of known cultures into this time of cultures thus is another book that is apparently the beginning of a series I am looking forward to reading. Having been around and honored to be invited inside various Asian families and their cultures as well as strongly admiring them I ws so impressed with the way they were comfortably presented here along with gender and people. There was nothing forced or artificial and contrived about them or patronizing while at the same tie being able to convey the fell of them and the people. People don't realize the complexity of the various ethnic groups of people that make up what westerners know of and call China or the difference between there and Japan or Korea and their differences with the Polynesians. I was both enthralled my the plots stories and delighted with the author

Thanks to all of the early reviewers who helped me keep all of the moving parts of this book straight! Steel Crow Saga is an epic fantasy taking place in an alternative version of Asia, with four main characters and a lot of queer representation. I've heard it described as being similar to P:okemon in that the Sanbuna people "shadepact" with animals that they then use in fights and battles. However, the first comparison that came to me was His Dark Materials, because of the intense world building, with daemons representing a piece of their soul. Comparisons aside, you come for this 600 page book for the character development and the partnerships and alliances that are created along the way. Prepare to spend time learning each of the different kingdoms and their skills for the first half of the book, but speed through the second half as the action ramps up. My only critique is that there were a few times were I felt like the pacing might have been a little uneven - it would skip to a scene where I felt like I was missing a key transition, but I think it was necessary to keep the plot moving and to keep me invested. Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This book was received as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I could not put this book down. I got a lot of Red Queen, Last Airbender and some Pokémon vibes to the story but most of all, I love story lines where two unlikely heroes become all lies and rely on one another and their intentions completely change off course like Princess Xiulan and Lee and then it's all chaos from there you root for so many and get caught up in the action that you can't help but finish the book and feel accomplished.

We will consider adding this title to our YFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Wow. Fast paced and adventurous, this was a fun read. I really enjoyed the world building and the moral ambiguity of binding your soul to an animal who you can then control. It feels very much like an anime story which works as it is very asian feeling. Really Good Book!

I’m still processing this book but holy crap.

I just loved this book. The characters, the lore, and the world feel painful and hopeful in equal measure.

Tala, Jimuro, Xiulan, and Lee. This book was complex, heartbreaking, and emotional.

My full review will be going up in a few days once I have some time to process, but I’m so glad that I read this book

This is not my comprehensive review, but I just had to tell you how much I loved this book. My full review will be live on my blog (Teatime Reading) this coming Monday.

The Steel Crow Saga is an epic fantasy with kick-ass characters recovering from a lifetime of war and magic that's familiar yet original.
The Steel Crow Saga would be great for fans of Priory of the Orange Tree or Jade City. It's a sprawling epic fantasy in a unique and interesting world. The characters are varied and sympathetic, yet willing and able to be ruthlessly cunning and kick ass when the need arises. Bonus points for queer representation!
The magic system was familiar in that it involves a being like a familiar and something like metal-bending, but it's more complex and leaves room for new secrets to uncover.
I'm looking forward to book 2!

This book dragged for me throughout most of it but I did enjoy the ending. I can't say if I'll continue with reading the rest of the author's works in the future though.

A solid 4.5 in my opinion but slightly fell short of a 5.

I don’t think I even knew about this book until about a month ago. I think stumbled upon it by accident in someone’s blogpost about upcoming Asian inspired fantasy releases, and I was immediately fascinated. And while it took me a bit to immerse myself in it, I am so glad to have discovered this book and gotten hold of the ARC.

The world building is one aspect that impressed me a lot. As the author is Filipino-American, I was expecting some inspiration from his country and their culture, but I was pleasantly surprised to realize that each of the kingdom present in this book is drawn from a different Asian country, and it’s developed so well that we are able to distinguish them pretty well. I particularly loved that one of them was based on India but it’s also the one kingdom which is least talked about in the book, so I kept wishing for more.

The other interesting aspect of this world is the pacting (or their version of magic). The people of Sanbuna and Shang are capable of shadepacting with animals - which is like forming a soul bond with an animal’s shade and then being able to call upon their familiar to fight alongside them. The Tomodanese on the other hand pact with metals, which helps them in controlling their weapons or using it to power their vehicles. The people of Dahal use their power internally to enhance their personal capabilities. Jeongsonese are the oppressed minority who are capable of pacting but have always been denied the right to gain the knowledge to do so. This distinction between the use of magic across various kingdoms is very helpful in developing differing motivations for each of them, letting us as readers experience varying perspectives and probably finding our own favorites.

The writing style of this novel was also slightly different from what I’m used to but I’m unable to articulate exactly how that was. It is very introspective and we are subjected to many inner monologues of the characters - which I really enjoyed for the most part and helped me understand them better and invest in their development - but it also got long winded at times and may have contributed to the size of the book. I’m usually not a fan of dense writing, so the descriptive writing style should have put me off but I kinda enjoyed it and it made the settings feel more real. The main theme of the book is colonialism but despite the dark themes, there is also a very humorous undertone in the writing. The pacing is also a little slow throughout but it is relentless, with things changing quickly and the characters having to adapt and evolve all the time. This is also essentially a quest/ journey novel and those seem to be my thing this year, so it’s not a surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this journey with the characters. And the best part was that the author managed to give very distinct voices to each of them, so we are never confused about whose POV we are reading. I’m currently unsure if this is a standalone or a series, but the author did a wonderful job ending it very satisfactorily, so I’m happy if this the actual end; but there are also multiple threads that can be pursued to further this story and I would be delighted to jump into this world all over again.

The characters are definitely the best and my most favorite part of this book, but I don’t wanna talk about them much. I think the beauty of this book is in discovering the various layers of each character and realizing what lays at the core of them. One thing common between all the POV characters is that they are real, flawed, pretty morally grey, not immune from being prejudiced and treating those different from them in a vile manner - but all of them go through a journey of unlearning all the wrong things, understanding others’ perspectives and building relationships with unlikely people. I felt very invested in knowing where the characters were going and what they might do next, so I never wanted to put the book down even though it was all a bit slow going. The characters do fall into familiar fantasy tropes like a grumpy soldier, an arrogant prince, a Sherlock inspired detective type character and a petty thief who gets roped into working for the other side - so it can feel a little predictable, but I enjoyed this slight predictability but also felt highly satisfied with the way things turned out for each of them.

Though the author chose not to be very subtle in discussing some important themes, it didn’t in anyway lessen the impact of what was being told through the story. The impact of colonialism is very brutally described, along with the blatant disingenuous reasons that power hungry nations can come up with to colonize and occupy another country. It’s very evident that whatever noble the initial intentions may have been, the reality of occupation is always ugly. But the most important point that I think the author tried to make was that even if the colonizer is defeated by a revolution, war always brings out worst impulses and it doesn’t take much for the oppressed to turn into an oppressor. The nature of war and it’s impact on soldiers, and the utter lack of direction and purpose that they might feel during peace time is also deftly talked about.

I also loved how the author decided to give equal weight to all kinds of relationships. The importance of family and sibling bonds, and how losing them can have far reaching consequences forms an important part of the character’s choices and the kind of people they turn out to be. I also enjoyed the way human/animal bonds are shown - while some people can truly treat their familiars as slaves and impose their will upon them, others form bonds based on mutual respect and it was wonderful of the author to show us both perspectives. The book is also very queer and I loved how normalized it was in this world. It was lovely to see lesbian, gay, bi and trans characters all be able to be their true selves without any judgement.

I guess I’ve gone on long enough in this review. Basically, all I want to say is I really really enjoyed this book a lot and I’m glad I got this opportunity to discover a new to me Asian author. As it has been marketed, if you like anime or Pokémon or are a fan of Fullmetal Alchemist, then this book might be for you, but I can’t vouch for it because I know nothing about them. However, if you do love reading about an ensemble cast of characters going on a physical (as well as metaphorical) journey to discover some hard truths about the world and find themselves changing accordingly, then this might be the perfect book for you. It also works very well as a standalone, so you should definitely give this a try if you aren’t ready to invest your time in a new series.

If I could sum this book up in one sentence, it would be A novel that shows what truly happens after the war has ended.

I was given the opportunity to provide my honest review on this post-war fantasy novel. Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, for giving me a copy to read.

Okay, this book starts off pretty slow as we follow Lee and Tala, who are two very different people with different morals and background. Then it starts to pick up when we meet Jimuro and Xiulan a princess who is nerdy and curious. Lee is a thief awaiting execution, Xiulan is an Inspector looking for Steel Prince, Jimuro is a prince who the entire world wants dead, and last but not least, Tala is a special forces soldier. All three are victims of the war and have different outlooks on one another's countries. The first thing I thought while I was reading from Tala's perspective, was that she reminds me of an anime character in specific scenes. She reminds me of Edward The Full Metal Alchemist" Elric from Full Metal Alchemist. Tala's character with a very touching connection to family and military prowess makes her the character you look forward to reading about. Out of all of them, she is my second favorite. While Lee is very straightforward, morally grey character, you can not help but love. She is the comic relief within the story and gives that outside looking in perspective in scenes that are slow and dark. These four individuals are living in a post-war society where they are trying to come back after the war with the Iron Lords has come to an end.

The story pacing has some slow parts and parts that are a bit too drawn out. The multi-perspectives in one chapter were confusing towards the end. However, overall, the politics and historical back story made me invest emotionally with story, plot, and characters. The magic system using pact systems as a method for magic is explained and presented in evenly paced scenes. Lee is hilarious, Tala is stubborn, Xiulan is wonderfully naive, and Jimuro is prejudice, but the character arc for each character was outstanding! The ending was terrific, and I think everyone should read this book. My favorite scene, by far is the rooster scene!!

Very entertaining read! I'm not a fan of Asian or modern-day fantasy but damned if animals flying out of people didn't get me all wrapped up in this world.This thing is filled with great writing and wonderful characters.

Meh, I struggled with this one. Another reviewer said it perfectly, beautiful written but it just went on and on. I found 1 page that caught my attention in about every 20 pages. Can you have too much, yup it was just way too much unnecessary stuff for me.

Steel Crow Saga had really intriguing worldbuilding rooted in our world's history and a thrilling plot with relatable characters. I definitely recommend it for fans of Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga and R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War.

There are clear parallels between the countries of this world and Japan, China, Korea, India, and the Philippines in ours. I thought it was fascinating how Krueger drew on past history and combined it with magic in an all new world. It's also fairly modern, in that there are electronics. In fact, one of the magic systems is based on metal.

The magic system was very interesting; each country has their own specialty. There's shadepacting (bonding with an animal for life), metalpacting (pouring your will into metal), and something else I forgot the name of but was basically pacting with the human body. I also liked seeing how each country views others' magic, specifically shadepacting, which some view as slavery.

I really loved all of our main characters. There's Jimuro, the Iron Prince who has to face the consequences of the horrifics done by his countrymen; Tala, the sergeant tasked with delivering Jimuro safely; Xiulan, the princess who's trying to prove she's more than her title; and Lee, the thief who's roped into finding Jimuro by Xiulan. They all have such amazing character arcs, and it was so exciting to see all of their story lines converge.

Tala's relationship with her brother was also a complex, almost heartbreaking one to read. It was nice to read about their struggles and the love that overcame all of them.

Romance-wise, there's a f/f one with Xiulan and Lee. Jimuro and Tala may or may not have an enemies-to-lovers thing going on...In both cases, the romance was very evenly balanced with the plot.

Steel Crow Saga was a fast-paced, thrilling read. I loved the worldbuilding and magic systems, and the characters were incredibly developed. Pick this one up, fantasy fan or not!

**This review will be up on my blog Magical Reads on September 17, 2019.**