Beth Fish Reads: Angry Robot

What would you do if you closest friend--your soul sister, your true family--were lost at sea and presumed kidnapped by notorious pirates? Elizabeth Barnabus disguised herself as a man and set sail on a whaler to find her.

Afternoon sun rendered every colour dazzling: the green and black of the Company flag, limp at the masthead; streaks of orange rust on the white-painted deck housing; the calm ocean, a teal blue; blood blossoming from the carcass of the whale.

—The Queen of All Crows by Rod Duncan (Angry Robot, 2018, opening lines)

Quick Facts

Setting: an alternate contemporary world; England, the Atlantic Ocean
Circumstances: Elizabeth Barnabus appeals to the authorities, asking to be hired as a spy to not only find her friend but to gather intelligence about a colony of women pirates who have built a floating island community and live outside the law and society. The first step is to disguise herself as a male ship's scientist for a British whaling ship. Adventure and danger ensue.
Genre: steampunk women's fiction (is there such a genre?)
Themes: friendship, gender, women's issues, freedom
General thoughts: I thought I'd give The Queen of Crows a try because it was the first in a trilogy, and I've enjoyed a couple of steampunk books. To my disappointment, I quickly realized that this book is the beginning of a new adventure for established characters in an established universe: the Gas-Lit Empire. While I wasn't completely lost, the story assumed you knew things about the characters' background and their world.
The world: An organization called the International Patent Office maintains world peace by controlling (read: suppressing) technological advances. The year is 2012, and the world runs on steam. Society is very male-centric and has shades of the Catholic Church: the men who sign on to be agents for the Patent Office take vows of celibacy. There are a few outlaw countries: of the two we hear about, one has good intentions but operates under the idea of the ends justify the means. The other is just evil.
Plotting: Elizabeth's adventures on the whaler and then on the floating island are full of danger: she must hide her identity all the time and her gender sometimes, as she searches for her friend Julia. Her life is on the line a couple of times, but I never felt any true sense of impending doom. The story dragged in the middle, and the ending just, well, ended. It wasn't a cliff-hanger and it wasn't satisfying. The story just ended.
To be fair: I think if I had read Duncan's first trilogy set in the Gas-Lit Empire I would have appreciated this story more. But as it was, I didn't connect strongly to Elizabeth or her mission.
Final thoughts: If you're curious about a gender-fluid protagonist in a steampunk universe, then I suggest you read Duncan's books from the start instead of beginning here. Personally, I'm not curious enough to read more.
Audiobook: Genna Whelan's excellent narration of the unabridged audiobook (Random House Audio; 9 hr, 54 min) is what kept me going. I doubt I would have finished the book without her good characterizations and expressive performance. Thanks to Random House for the review copy; the audiobook itself was grand.