A.C. Bishkey has an exciting tale of flying pirate ships, and magic from two types of crystals. Halcyon Days: The Colossus (hard from CALM Studios, Ltd) pits the Halcyon Days crew against the Azure Colossus the size of a mountain that has been raised by the evil prince Lucan to conquer the Iverian League. By the time the Halcyon Days reaches the monstrous contraption it has already destroyed cities and is within hours of reaching the capital city. All the crew are special and the ship designed to hide will be enough to actually approach the monster. This is impossible-to-put-down and an action adventure complete in itself. More adventures are planned.

Space pirates, need I say more? Halcyon Days: The Colossus is a fun, high energy sci-fiction adventure that leans into found family and high stakes. A good time and fun opening novel into a world with some real potential.

This book follows members of a space pirate/smuggler crew as they reluctantly get drawn into a conflict with a massive crystal tech colossus. It was really fun, but has a lot of heart.
The fight scenes were fantastic and I liked seeing them from multiple POVs. The characters were all great and became more interesting as we learned more about their histories, I look forward to hopefully seeing more personality depth in the next book.
I absolutely loved the crystal magic/tech system - both the visuals and how it actually works. The descriptions and visuals throughout the book were vivid, and were likely one of my favorite parts of this book. I want to spend time on the Halcyon Days! Looking forward to the sequel! 4.5 Stars. Thank you NetGalley, AC Bishkey, and CALM studios for this E-ARC.

Immediately - 5 Stars! (4.75 cause of the single con mentioned below.)

Sky Pirates, A Colussus, and a Unique Magic System that feels perfectly natural as a part of the world -Gaia.

After the Prologue, I was honestly a little lost -I think I read it twice. However! It was the kind of lost that drives you to keep on reading to find answers to your questions. I was so invested in the story, the characters, and everything A.C. Bishkey put on the page. I even discovered that, apparently, I love a found family story. I got a copy through NetGalley, and I didn't even make it 20% into the book before I <b>HAD</b> to have a physical hardcover on my shelf and ordered it!

Pros: <b>Characters:</b> The crew of the Halcyon Days are immediately so loveable and I found myself liking each an everyone of them right of the bat. From Val, the XO over the group of misfits, to Cookie who is always ready to go with pastries, or even Tia, who is ready to blow things up at a moments notice. None of which are even the main characters!

In this book we follow Locke, Kenzie, and Kaliston. Each of them have their own pasts that work together so well for the dynamic on the ship, and I immeditely became fond of Kal in particular -he just came across as a character like Hoid from [author:Brandon Sanderson|38550]'s Cosmere or Eithan from [author:Will Wight|7125278]'s Cradle but more present and given depth early enough to the story to make the reader rethink their initial thoughts on them. If anything, I want to keep reading this series as they release just for Kaliston. Oh! And of course there is Lucan, and well... he's a well written character -but I won't call him a good one and you'll know why.

<b>Plot/Pacing:</b> This was the another strong point in this book! I felt like the crew was constantly moving in a way that made sense and it held my attention through the entire book -which admittedly can be hard to do.

<b>Magic/Tech System:</b> Finally the last part I enjoyed most about the book was the magic/tech system being based on these two rivaling crystal powers that help all the tech function and give characters who consume them a set of powers that vary depending on the type. I won't dive into to much detail on it, just read the story and find out for yourself! I can't wait to see where it goes especially with <spoiler>Kenzie's revelation at the end of the book? Is there a white crystal or like a cleansed variation of the red? What makes her an omen? I need to know now.</spoiler>

Cons: There are almost no faults to this book that I can come up with, and honestly the only thing I am going to mention here is probably silly. Early in the story <spoiler>the crew is dropping of a bounty, and the author give's no details on the bounty to the point I can't picture the character at all and I don't know if it matters or is relevant. The constant they/them for that one or two page sequence took me out of the story a bit and I was left wondering the rest of the book if they would be revealed as something more. Like was it Rook? But I am sure Kal would have said something if was -though he did refer to as Rook as they later on, but then it went back to he even further on. Just through me off a little bit.</spoiler> I am just slightly wondering on that now, but I suspect it was meant to be irrelevant.

A.C. Bishkey I cannot wait for Halycon Days: The City in the Sand and will be reading that immediately upon release and I definitely recommend others give this book a shot.

Thanks again to NetGalley and CALM Studios, Ltd. for the review copy, I appreciate it!