By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Since this is the final book in the series, please read my previous reviews for Sailing By Orion’s Star and Sailing By Carina's Star. I must reiterate that this review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!!
The final volume in a series needs to end on a high note. This is the last time that we encounter these characters and we need to see them become better, stronger, more mature people who are changed by the various conflicts. The plots should move to a definite conclusion and all loose ends should be tied. We should close the book with a sign of relief and maybe a lump in our throat and a tear in our eye that the adventure is over. Katie Crabb’s final Constellation Trilogy Book, Sailing By Gemini's Star does all of that and more. It is a perfect ending for one of my favorite series that I read for this blog.
In the previous volume, Pirate Captain, Rene Delacroix, Sailing Master/Navigator Frantz Seymour, and Quartermaster, Auden Carlyle have been arrested for piracy. They are being taken to their former stomping grounds of Kingston, Jamaica to await trial. It also means that Rene has to reunite with his abusive grandfather Governor Sir Andrew Travers, his weak willed father Naval Admiral Michel Delacroix, his loving mother, Astra Travers Delacroix, and Michel’s first mate and surrogate son and Rene’s one time surrogate brother, Nicholas Jerome. Needless to say, it's a very uncomfortable family reunion.
Rene, Frantz, and Auden’s mentor, Captain Ajani Danso and his crew are planning for a rescue mission putting their own freedoms on the line. To free his son, Michel suggests that Rene plead insanity, that he followed Danso out of hysteria and an obsession with pirates, so he can be released and move to London to get away from it all. The Royal Navy can take care of Danso and his crew. As for Frantz and Auden, they will have to take their chances. Well, Michel asked the wrong guy because Rene says nothing doing. He would rather fight and die with the surrogate family that loves and accepts him than the blood family that he ran away from. Meanwhile, Michel, Astra, and Jerome have to make tough decisions that affect their own futures.
Sailing By Gemini's Star develops the characters in ways that are very surprising and ultimately rewarding. It reminds us that for all of the elaborate sea battles, pillaging, sword fighting, and daring escapes, there are rich vibrant people that are involved in them. In fact Crabb makes most of her characters so relatable and identifiable that when they engage in one on one battles it's hard to know who to root for.
Even though he is in his twenties, Rene has matured from the naive kid that he was, to an adventurous adult with a strong moral compass, to a wily veteran sea dog who has left behind a legendary status as “Lucifer The Morning Star.” Even though he had previously sailed on Danso’s crew, he has retained a reputation in his own right.
He found a surrogate family with Danso’s crew and won't abandon them. Danso mentored and encouraged him in a way that his father never did. He taught him but gave him enough room to create his own legacy. It's this devotion that motivates Rene to stand against his birth family and alongside his adopted one.
Returning to Kingston reconnects Rene to many of the issues that he left behind. To find comfort from the mother who supported him. To call his grandfather out for the abuse that he and Frantz were forced to endure. To find closure with his father. Also, to resolve his complicated relationship with Jerome, someone who he once admired, then grew to despise, and now feels empathy for.
Danso is ready to move on to the next chapter in his life leaving a vacancy wide open for Rene to fill. Rene also wants to strengthen his relationship with his lover, Frantz but he can't move forward if he can't fully face his past.
Besides Rene, other characters go through wonderful meaningful changes. Astra finally asserts her independence away from her father and unhappy marriage and becomes part of Team Pirate. She reunites with a former lover and lives a life beyond her previous conventions. She becomes a better stronger character than the one who felt empathy for others but lacked the courage to openly help them.
Michel also develops as a character. He becomes a man who realizes almost too late that he lost everything and everyone that is important. It is only when he hits rock bottom and finds himself alone without his wife, son, or closest friends and truly sees the monster in Jerome that he helped create. Only then does he make some serious changes in his life and frees himself from his former identity as lackey of the Royal Navy.
By far the strongest development occurs in the most unlikeliest of characters: Nicholas Jerome. Just as I was prepared to write him off as a remorseless bigoted villain, Crabb pulled a switch on me. As I began this book and saw Jerome's vulnerabilities, I said, “No no don't do this to me, Crabb! Don't make me start caring about him when I disliked then hated him for two books!” But sure enough she did and I did.
In a way, Jerome has become one of the most important characters of the whole series, if not the actual central character. He is the first character that we meet in Book 1 working as a cabin boy right before Danso and his future first mate, Abeni make their escape. We have seen him bond with Michel and Rene treating them like the family that he never had. We see him worry that his half-Romany heritage will turn him into a target and reject his estranged mother for not only her background but for abandoning him. We see the years of military regimentation transform him into a ruthless and efficient pirate hunter. We see him vow to hunt down Danso, who slipped past him, and Rene, sacrificing their previous friendship.
In this volume, Jerome goes through intense emotional and mental turmoil as he is abandoned by those that he loves the most in the world, particularly Michel. Left on his own and then ultimately at the ironic mercy of the pirates, Jerome takes a long hard serious look at his life and the remorseless duty bound unfeeling monster that he has become. He is turned into someone whom Michel and Rene can't quite reject because of their familial bond but who also feels unworthy of their forgiveness, love, or understanding.
Jerome's redemption is a slow moving process as one by one the kinks inside his armor are stripped away leaving him with no ship, no title, no crew, no friends, and no family. He is completely broken and devastated when faced with the reality of his previous actions. It is a truly well earned and rewarding moment when Jerome finally accepts the overtures of friendship in Danso's crew, particularly from Rene and fights on their side.
Sailing By Gemini's Star is a fine ending to a wonderful series where final battles are drawn, future plans are made, people move forward, and the crew disembarks at their final destination. However, there is a slight glimmer of hope beyond the horizon that suggests that the story is not quite over for Ajani Danso, Rene Delacroix, and Nicholas Jerome. That as long as there is an open sea and a ship to set sail, there will always be plenty of new adventures.
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