From the "back of the book:"
"Once their gifts made them heroes. Now they’re branded as traitors.
Reese Davis has been on the run for years. Her crimes include being born with a supernaturally quick mind, and doing everything within her power to protect the other outlaws from the paranoid king.
Every day is a fight to survive as Reese leads her small gang in a calculated game against the secret police, who are obsessed with finding and arresting anyone with special abilities. Her mission is to locate others with abilities, sneak them out from under the police’s noses, and spirit them away to safety. But dodging the police is difficult work even for a mastermind, and when a rescue turns into disaster, Reese stumbles upon evidence of a frightening conspiracy and learns that the king is no longer her worst enemy. In fact, he doesn’t seem to remember who he is.
Faced with what could be an elaborate trap, or worse, Reese must help the man who made her an outlaw survive the havoc he created, or risk the creation of an even more ruthless regime.
Blending alternative fantasy, dystopia, and superpowers, A Sea of Purple Ink is an intriguing, adventurous ride for ages 16 and up."
I don't normally like dystopias, but I do like superpowers, good writing, and fun characters. The story sucked me in, and I burned (pun intended) through this book in about three hours.
The story reminds me of Mistborn, in all the good ways. (There's mists, and people with different abilities living in a dystopia.) The characters abilities are different, and wording unique to the world is used for the abilities, giving the world an almost Steampunk feel. Which is a nice break from the medieval feel for most fantasy, or the future setting for most dystopias.
Over the course of the book we get to know Reese, her sometimes boyfriend, and the king pretty well. Sadly, we don't learn as much about the other characters. They still have plenty of depth, but from both the first-person perspective, and the fact that the story isn't about them don't let us get to know them as well. Niela, for example. She's Reese's friend, she's had trouble drinking and fighting, but we don't know much else about her.
My biggest problem with this book is that it doesn't have a sequel. I want to spend more time in this world, get to know the other characters, and find out what happens next.
I give this book four and a half stars, easy. It'd probably get bumped up to five if the author writes a sequel that's this good (I like to stay in worlds I like. In my opinion, it adds to the story world if there's more to it than one book.)
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