Black Tide Son

Winter Sea, Book 2

By: H.M. Long

Narrated by: Moira Quirk, Samuel Roukin

Samuel and Mary are thriving as privateers on the Winter Seas. As they navigate the complexities of their growing bond, in a world that would see Mary as chattel to be traded, the pair are forging a better way to live, under the sails of Hart.

But when their latest prize brings tales of Benedict’s capture by Mereish forces, they must make an impossible choice: to serve their nation or save Samuel’s brother.

Thrust into a mission of intrigue and infiltration, they seek to break into the most secure prison on the Mereish Coast. But as they sail deep into enemy territory, they find themselves hunted by a cunning and mysterious new foe—an enemy who seems to know their every secret, and who will kill to keep their own.

As the Black Tide rises, and fleets take to the water, Samuel, Mary, and Benedict are on a desperate race for survival—both their own, and the free nations of the Winter Seas.

“Daring escapes and high stakes on the high seas—half piratical fantasy, half familial intrigue, and all impossible to put down.”—Allison Epstein, author of Let the Dead Bury the Dead

©2024 H.M. Long (P)2024 Recorded Books

Can hear narrators swallowing

The first couple times I heard them swallowing mid sentence it was on purpose but then it kept happening, it was weird? Not sure why they couldn’t have edited them out or had them redo parts of the narration. I liked the book otherwise.

Fun story

This was an awesome book. I loved this story, it's a lovely continuation in the series. My only issue was that I felt like a lot of the side characters felt like plot devices or props and not like actual people. An example of this would be Charles who was demoted from a huge role in the last book to basically a servant for his friends he was constantly sent away to do some task and we barely saw him. I did love Benedicts character arc and I'm happy about the way the overall story for this book ended. I just wish we had seen more of Charles and the the husband/wife duo from the last book. I look forward to seeing what the next book has in store for us and I truly hope we get to see Benedicts adventures with Charles and the crew.

Good Second Book

Black Tide Son is a good adventure with pirates, swords, and sorcery. H.M. Long does a great job of keeping you connected to the main characters in the story, and wanting to find out what happens next. This book keeps the action flowing with a daring prison escape to start out, and finished with a battle at sea. The narration from Quirk and Roukin is top notch, and brings out the best in the story.

If I had a complaint, it would be the same I had for the first novel in the series. The world building. While Long does an excellent job of showing you what's going on around the current events of the story, the overall world is lacking in detail. You know there is a war going on, that the povs of the story are involved in it, but the reasons for why the world is at war and the history of how it started is all kinda vague. Same for the overall plot goal of the series.

Despite the shortcomings of the overall plot, I found both Black Tide Son and Dark Water Daughter enjoyable reads. I think a little more description of the world would improve these books, but overall the stories are driven well by the characters and the excellent narration. Definitely worth the listen.

The plot

Everything is perfect, minus one part where the narrator of Sam read 'Orres' multiple times, but that's on the editor not performer.