The Fantasy Review’s review of Voyage of the Damned by Frances White.
Mix Knives Out with fantasy and make it gay. That’s a damn good premise. And Voyage of the Damned is a damn good book.
Spoiler-Free Review of Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
This murder-mystery-fantasy voyage was a joy to read. Add in some splashes of political disharmony in an ancient empire and you’ve got yourself something really special.
Cozy fantasy is having a bit of a “moment” right now, and while I find trends pushed by publishing houses to be devoid of any artistic merit and completely soul-destroying, there are true artists mixed up in all this, trying to make a living – and Frances White is a great writer.
Voyage of the Damned is a cozy, murder-mystery novel set in a fantasy world where the heirs to various kingdoms within the empire are all stuck on a ship together – and they’re being killed off, one by one.
It’s hilarious. Especially the first third of the novel, where we’re getting to know our main character and he’s intentionally trying to piss off anyone – and succeeding brilliantly.
To begin with, there are a lot of names for characters and places, with a lot of work going into the world building, depicting the political situation off the ship, etc. It’s a surprisingly steep learning curve, and I struggled to keep all the names in my head from the beginning.
However, each of the characters has such specific characterisation through body language, action, and dialogue that I found I recognised the face of who was speaking, even when the name escaped me – if that makes sense?
The main mystery itself is fantastic. It will keep you guessing for much of the book, and even if you do work out who the murderer is, there are more twists coming your way. Like an ogre, this novel has many layers.
If you want a cozy fantasy read, but one that feels like it was written out of love for the craft rather than to jump on a trend, I highly recommend picking up Voyage of the Damned by Frances White.
