Gunboat, Book 2

I went into *Gunboat, Book 2* expecting another adrenaline dump in the void, but Henegar delivers something closer to a naval yard in chaos: loud, smelly, and impossible to look away from. The shipbuilding subplot isn’t just window dressing—it’s a masterclass in pressure-cooker storytelling, forcing Watkins to choose between perfection and survival at every turn. The kobold pirates, for instance, aren’t cartoon cutthroats; they’re a corporate raider’s wet dream, all teeth and spreadsheets, and their raids hit harder because Henegar makes you understand their tactics. My only real quibble? A few side characters blur together in the audio’s fast cuts, leaving me scrambling to remember who’s who when the action shifts. Perone and Parness are the secret weapon here. Perone nails the grizzled captain routine, selling Watkins’s exhaustion and stubborn grit in a way that makes every ‘damn the torpedoes’ feel earned. Parness, meanwhile, turns minor players like a snarky mechanic into scene-stealers with her delivery—her comedic timing alone had me rewinding twice. The production is crisp, with sound design that places you right in the engine room when the alarms start wailing. If the book has a weakness, it’s that some plot threads resolve a little too neatly—like the universe’s deadliest pirates suddenly deciding to play nice. But by that point, you won’t care because Henegar’s already dragged you into the next firefight.