Alyster Juell is captain of a steam-powered craft about to enter a prestigious ocean contest. He's naturally cautious of unknown persons asking him questions, even an attractive lady reporter from the Endworld Beacon. Endworld is a city on THE FARTHEST SHORE of Denaly, and Miri Tayes looks as though she's a native. In fact she's a half-salt, as they say, meaning one side of the family is from a sea-pirate race. She's hidden this identity, but she might have known her news colleagues would ferret out the truth. Feelings run deep. She'll be safer to leave.

Jash Morender is a female sea-pirate, engaged in constant running battles with the navy who seize islands to mine for resources. She's planned to grab the new steamship to find out how it works... this might be the last chance for her people's survival.

Miri stows away on the steamship Checkmate and Alyster, initially in two minds about jettisoning her in the open sea, agrees to let her work her passage. There is always cleaning to be done. He'll drop her at the next harbour. However a Seawatch operative - a spy - joins them to warn that the pirates are planning a raid on the unarmed Checkmate. He also tells Alyster that Miri is a half-salt.

The gritty realism absolutely convinced me and there are plenty of original concepts. The Denali people can mind- bond with sea creatures, so one man is bonded with a shark, and a girl with a giant squid, or kraken, which helps to transport a vessel. The unthinking racism is inflamed by atrocities over the years, so that a half-salt person has no friends. Details include using small clam shells as shirt buttons and luminescent coral as lamps. Attack by kraken is startlingly well described - enough to scare any sailor. Plenty of dramatic action occurs during the race, so that the romantic angle is necessarily submerged most of the time - but all the stronger for that when we meet the passion stored up by these fast-living heroes.

I am full of admiration for the world conjured by Marian Perera in the Eden series and THE FARTHEST SHORE is all you need to sail the high seas of fantasy. Next title will be 'The Highest Tide ' - I'm coming aboard.

Book Summary

He’s racing for a prize. She’s running for her life. And they’re on a collision course.

Eden, Book 3

Captain Alyster Juell is relishing the taste of his first command for the fleet of Denalay. The steamship Checkmate doesn’t carry weaponry, but that doesn’t matter. His mission is to win an ocean-crossing race—and its hefty prize.

As the voyage gets underway, Alyster hits his first snag—there’s a stowaway on board, a reporter who poked around for information about his ship the day before. And it’s too late to turn back.

Miri Tayes didn’t intend to stow away. She was forced to run for her life when a colleague discovered her secret: She can pass for normal but she’s a half-salt—daughter of a Denalait mother and a pirate father.

Despite her lack of seaworthy skills, Miri works hard to earn her keep, and Alyster, taken with her quick wit and steely nerve, falls for her. But as the race intensifies and the pirates use a kraken to hunt down Checkmate for its new technology, the truth could be the most elusive—and dangerous—prize of all.

Warning: Contains a reporter hiding a dangerous secret and the captain who’d like to strip her bare in more ways than one. Also pirates, prejudice and passion.