Posted on  02/10/2020 11:57:41

My rating: 5 salty stars

for one of the best books I've read this year!🖤

'There's no such thing as a perfect world. Never aim for perfection. Aim for survival.'


'Hey Crystals, do a pirate, an inventor, a doctor, a hermit, a killer, a child and a madman, have anything in common?
Na!
(Na = Sodium, Get it? Didn't think so)
XoXo
Uncle Moe'

Moe's sodium puns may be terrible but don't tell him that or he'll be 'in-salt-ed' . 😉😎



In a world where a cruel Corporation controls every single grain of salt, and people live or die at corporate whim, either from lack of salt or condemned to slavery in the Salt Spire, a small band of misfits will gather and try to achieve the impossible - blow the Crystal Corporation into oblivion, regardless of what it may take to get it done.

And it all starts with a crazy Precog's advice - one that sends Lani to a stretch of ocean just off the Salt Spire.
Going there would be a horrible idea, but Lani was a pro at making bad decisions. And this is exactly how she ends up alone, on a tiny island, with an injured Crystal Corp minion, (aka escaped salt slave Adavera) no doc to fix her, no fresh water, very little food and no boat.
The Precog had assured Lani this encounter would make her life infinitely better but 'how was this mangled sack of fish food supposed to make her life better?' Especially when she's already so battered up that she practically resembles a corpse?

Lani knows she's bound to regret helping the injured Adavera and yet, help her she does. With Corporate men hot on their heels, Adavera and Lani travel outside the protective reef that keeps the worst of the Storms off the Islands and venture into a world of piracy, astonishing powers, and unexpected love.

And this is how the tale of a pirate, an inventor, a doctor, a hermit, a killer, a child and a madman starts. With a not-so-chance encounter and a hell lot of brass! A tale that sucked me in and took me for a wild ride.

NACL is a high-octane, non-stop, foul mouthed and steamy roller-coaster of a novel, that had me at the edge of the seat until the very end.
It is a very unique story. Fun and full of witty banter, as the little snippet above shows, but also full of raw emotion that practically bleeds from the pages.

Fantasy that deals with real issues, NACL tackles abuses of power and fear-mongering propaganda, essential resources in the hands of those at the top of the economic food chain, and an environment struggling because of human hubris.

The characters are all flawed people, who don't always react to their challenges in healthy or understanding ways. Compelling, broken and real. And I love each and every one of them!!

Beautifully written and fully fleshed out, they practically leap from the pages. Each and every single one of them special in a certain way. Not the snowflake special kind, but the care-and-feel-for kind. This review would become a novel, if I were to write about all of them here, so I'll just stick to my favorite three:

Lani - the Emotive-Fertilizer - full of so much pain, self-loathing and fear! Constantly running from one place to another 'until she had no one left to run from, but also no one left to care if she lived or died.' So scared and lonely and desperate for affection! And yet so strong and determined and as badass as it gets!

For someone who 'doesn't do crying people' Lani is pretty good at making sure they stay alive.
"You're not allowed to die. Not until I get to smash your face in."