Children of the Whales, Vol. 4

We pick up this volume halfway through the defense of the Mud Whale, and in the midst of the action is where we find a lot of our plot and lore development. Chakuro's team who have infiltrated the imperial apatheia's ship, are deep in the belly intent on destroying the Nous of the ship, essentially the supernatural being powering the whole thing. Meanwhile, people are fighting and dying on the Mud Whale, and we get a lot of flashbacks and powerful scenes involving the combatants while Chakuro's team does their thing. After a bloody fight deep within the enemy's battleship, Chakuro and crew emerge victorious, though the price they paid was a steep one. In the aftermath of the Mud Whale's fight, while celebrating their life and honoring their dead, the inhabitants come to realize that as long as they exist, the imperial apatheia troops will be hunting them down. Their only recourse at this point is to make contact with another nation and hope to plead their case for protection.

Of all the volumes so far, this one was the one that tugged my heartstrings the most. We get a lot of moments between Mud Whale residents and character building in the midst of the battle, which makes some of what happens hurt more. The infodump done by the enemy's Nous (evidently each ship has their own Nous?) was interesting, if not really revealing. This writer seems to like to keep the reader in the dark in terms of story, because almost the entire perspective so far has been from the Mud Whale and very little from the side of the apatheia. Motives and the true reasons behind all this are still a mystery. I'm also really interested in meeting these other nations!