I've been a big fan of Ryan Van Loan for a while. His kindness and optimism is infectious, he's endlessly interesting, and his Twitter feed is always a breath of fresh air amongst all the doomscrolling.So, I went into his debut novel, The Sin in the Steel, with unfair expectations, only to have them entirely blown away by a swashbuckling tale that delivers hit after hit of high-end worldbuilding, terrific characters, and powerful thematic explorations of trauma, friendship, and self love.From my review of The Sin in the Steel by Ryan Van Loan:The Sin in the Steel is a rip-roaring epic fantasy that mixes a genuinely unique world with an equally standout magic system. It’s full of characters you’ll root for and despise, who’ll make your skin crawl, and who you’ll cheer on from the sidelines. Packed full of action, tempered by genuinely thoughtful themes about mental health and trust. The Sin in the Steel tells a good self-contained narrative, with a satisfying conclusion, but also leaves the door hanging wide open for the inevitable sequels. In the spirit of A New Hope, Buc and Eld conclude a story, but stand on a precipice of a much larger narrative that promises to blow the scope of The Sin in the Steel out of the water. If Scott Lynch wrote Pirates of the Caribbean, it’d be a lot like The Sin in the Steel.I enjoyed it so much, I knew I had to invite Ryan to Astrolabe in time for the launch of its sequel, The Justice in Revenge. Ryan does not disappoint with this deep dive into precarious expectations heaped upon sophomore releases."When I sat down to write the sequel, I knew I was walking a bit of a tightrope," he says. "But here’s the thing...we often don’t know what we actually want. We think we want more of the same until we’re three quarters of the way through the book and realize nothing new or groundbreaking has occurred and then we feel let down. We think we want to be convinced, but often if we give a series another shot it’s because we’re drawn to the characters and the plot wasn’t quite up our alley. I didn’t realize either of these things right away, mind you. I just knew that I didn’t want my sophomore effort to be taken for a slump and so I threw everything I had at it."Grab a cup of Tofino Brewing Company's Kelp Stout, and enjoy!~ Aidan