Second in a trilogy.  My son loved Sea but had grown out the series by the time that Sky came along.  He tells me that it was OK and he would have picked it up to read as soon as he finished Sea had he been able too.

An imaginative fantasy that is a brilliant sequel to the first Driver book, Sea. It is incredibly fast-paced and engaging to read.

I thought the first book was superb but this was mind blowing. There was always something going on tht kept me engaged. Can’t wait to read the next one it is sure to be great

The Huntress: Sky, the follow up to Sarah Driving’s The Huntress: Sea,  is an imaginative, fantastical delight. We continue following the adventures of Mouse, hot on her rescue of her young brother Sparrow, with the help of Crow, the new friend she hesitates to fully trust. Instead of her native Sea which is now a dangerous place for her to venture, Mouse must explore the Sky, which is full of its own tribe. The pace is non-stop as our imperilled adventurers race to find the Storm-Opals (and save the world) before the villainous Stag catches up with them. You definitely need to have read Sea before Sky as the world is quite complex but this is an enjoyable second part to The Huntress trilogy.

ARC from Publisher via Netgalley and how thankful am I! I loved Sea so to be offered the sequel was amazing! The unique language is less evident here but the plot is much pacier, complex and tumultuous. We meet some new allies and enemies and learn more about the merwraiths although no Captain Rattlebones this time. I absolutely can't wait for Storm! I'm 47 and these books are amazing but equally I'll be buying hard copies for my son (especially due to the beautiful illustrations throughout). Heart thanks for the gift of the ARC...

I loved this! It had the perfect blend of quirky characters, far off places and action as well as adventures. I felt it continued the story of the opals brilliantly.

As a follow on from "Sea", this edition maintains the fast pace. Lots going on all the time, introducing new communities and making new friends. "Storm" should be a good finale if this standard is continued..

Mouse, her little brother Sparrow and friend, Crow are still desperately searching for the Storm Opals, which they must find to save Mouse and Sparrow’s Da, but also the world.

This is the second book in the series and having devoured the first book, Sea, I was very much looking forward to reuniting with Mouse as she takes risks crossing paths with all sorts of flying creatures who want nothing more than to stop her quest to find the opals. Unfortunately, I just felt that this was not in the same league as Sea. My commitment to these three extraordinary children just seemed to lose energy – possibly, because of the pace. 

Sarah Driver is an exceptionally inventive author and the characters, animals, villains and plots are truly awe-inspiring. I would strongly suggest that you read the first book in the series before embarking on this journey with the children.

Treebeard

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Where Sea was slow, Sky picked up the pace and was a much better book for it.  It wasn't as bleak, but still had its dark moments, and the world building was much improved.  There's a lot happening in this book, but Mouse is a great protagonist who manages to carry the story.  I would however have liked to see a bit more character development for Sky's male cast members.  All in all though, a great read.

Sky is the second part of The Huntress trilogy. I really enjoyed the two of them so far. There are very very fast-paced pageturners. The female main character is constantly fighting for her right to be the captain of a ship - the Huntress and has to fulfill a quest to be able to do so. It's a great story for older middle grade readers as it can be a bit violent and gruesome and the pace is just so quick.

Sky picks up immediately where it’s predecessor, Sea, left off and so it’s important to have read the first book to fully appreciate the characters and the story so far.

Once again Mouse takes centre stage as the feisty young heroine searching for the Storm-Opals referred to in a secret message left by her missing father. A number of new characters are introduced in this instalment, the wonderful Skybrarian is my personal favourite, and we’re introduced to new tribes and parts of the world.

There’s a lot going on in this book! One minute we’re flying around on terrodyls and draggles, the next we’re dodging poisonous frogs and fighting members of various tribes. This is a very fast paced action packed story which will appeal to confident younger readers who love fantasy adventures.

Full review will be posted on Arkham Reviews on 15th November 2017.

Before I begin, a word of warning. While Sky is nowhere near as bleak as its prequel, it is a little grim in places and so might not appeal to all readers. If you're planning on giving this to a younger reader who is particularly sensitive, you might just want to flip through it yourself first to ensure that you think it's suitable. Sky also carries on precisely where Sea left off, so you need to read the novels in sequence to fully appreciate them.

While I found Sea to be a bit slow to find its feet, Sky started out running and never really dropped its pace. While this made the novel immediately seem more accessible, I did think that perhaps it could have occasionally done with slowing things down. The pace of Sky is utterly relentless and it did not give me a lot of time to appreciate the world-building as Mouse and her crew rushed from settlement to settlement. The narrative isn't always the most accessible either, as Mouse's first-person narrative lacks description and sometimes becomes a little hard to follow in the fight sequences.

However, the world-building of this series is still breathtaking. As Sky has left the Huntress far behind, it gives Mouse and her friends to explore further into Driver's totally original world. In this novel, they find themselves caught in a feud between a tribe that ride on the bat-like draggles and a tribe of skywolves. Their journey takes them to mountain tops, libraries hidden within ice bergs and swamps crawling with venomous frogs. It's a stunningly imaginative novel and is completely unpredictable, never quite going in the direction that I thought it would.

The ending of the novel is, once again, very satisfying. While the novel could be very bleak in places, the final chapter ended on a (mostly) hopeful note. It nicely wrapped up this stage of Mouse's journey while leaving quite clear where her adventures will take her in the last book.

In terms of character, I felt that this book was a little mixed. Mouse is still a great protagonist and got a lot of growth over the course of this story. This especially came in the form her learning to trust her crew, even though they came from different tribes and may have wronged her in the past. Newcomer Kestrel was also a brilliantly strong female character, as well as the story's first LGBT character. She made a great contrast with Mouse and I loved the new perspective that she brought to the story.

Yet the male characters in the story still don't fair quite as well. While we learn a little more about both Stag and Crow in this story, neither seem to be written with the care of the female cast. Similarly, Yapok seems to get most of his development off-page and seems to completely change personality between chapters.

So, all in all, I probably didn't enjoy this novel quite as much as Sea but I am curious to see where the story will head next. I will certainly be reading Storm, the last book in this trilogy, when it is released next year.

Really enjoyed the second book in this series and loved the somewhat happy ending - cause we all love those right? An action-packed account for the second book, leading us to the third. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!

I loved the first installment of The Huntress and was excited to dive back into the world and see what would happen next for Mouse, Sparrow and their friends.

Sky picks up where Sea left off, with Mouse, Sparrow and Crow escaping on the back of a terrodyl and setting off to find the next Storm-Opal. They encounter Sky Tribes, a Skybrarian and his helper (one of my favourite parts of the book!) and a community who love in a slime-covered marsh with poisonous frogs. They new friends along the way, encounter some new enemies and an old one too.

Sarah Driver’s world is so rich and detailed you can’t help but fall in love with it and feel completely invested in the story. Again, the dialect Mouse speaks in really helps to bring the character and world to life, as well as feeling completely charming too. I loved the new character of Kestrel: her plot and character development were really fascinating (and sometimes tragic) to read.

The story never really breaks in its action, moving quickly from one drama to the next as Mouse and her friends travel all across Trianukka in a desperate bid to save it from an eternal winter. If you’ve not read this series yet then now is the perfect time to get stuck in, with two books already out and the third hopefully following soon! I think it’d be a great one to read aloud to younger readers, or to just enjoy all to yourself.

Having escaped from many dangers on the back of a terrodyl, the intrepid Mouse ventures onwards in her quest to unite the Storm-Opals and save the world, while also keeping her brother safe and searching for her father. This time around she journeys all across Trianukka, finds both friends and enemies in unexpected places and learns a lot about trust, forgiveness, friendship and family along the way.

If you enjoyed the first book, Sea, then you should definitely find plenty to enjoy here. Trianukka is a place of wonders and mysteries, from libraries inside icebergs to maps that open with whalesong. There are new threats in the vicious skywolves, old dangers in the nasty Stag and malevolent mystics, and plenty to discover amongst sky and marsh and snow.

Magical and compelling, this book has more action than the first as Mouse, Crow and Sparrow race and flee from place to place, sometimes with Stag only a step behind. It can be strange and confusing at times, sad and worrying at others, but it’s always interesting and the little illustrations add to the wonder. With so much at stake and so much still to achieve, this book is a great continuation of Mouse’s quest and I can’t wait to see how it all ends in the final story, Storm.

Sky is the second book in The Huntress trilogy by Sarah Driver and was just as good as Sea.
The book begins with Mouse, Sparrow and Crow fleeing Stag on the back of giant winged beast called a Terrodyl.
Mouse is still wary of trusting Crow in spite of his help to get Sparrow safely away from their enemies. She has good reason to be reluctant to trust him because she a member of the sea-tribe and destined to be captain whilst he was a Wrecker and belonged to a group of people who profited from the spoils of ship wrecks.
The small group are in possession of one of the famed Opals from a missing crown which has the ability to unite all the clans from the sea, the sky and the land. Before Mouse’s da went missing he hid a special map for Mouse to help her find the Opals and made it so that only a select few could view it. Unfortunately, Stag stole it off her so they are working on fragments of her memory about the map and the location of the remaining opals. Only Mouse is aware she has one of the opals because she isn’t sure she trusts Crow enough to tell him.
Their adventures in Sea have had a toll on Mouse and she is no longer the fearless girl she once was. Throughout the book there are many times where she is scared and has to rely on other characters for support but this seems to have softened some of her rough edges a bit and makes it easier to find allies.
As the trio are travelling Mouse reminds herself of some heart-truths to distract herself from the cold.
“Sometimes my tribe calls me Little-Bones. I love to howl and dive for pearls and shoot arrows from my longbow. There’s fire-crackle in my heart, Grandma always said. There’s fire crackle in the hearts of all my tribe…My home’s been thieved and now I’m out in the wild. My tribe are in danger. I need my fire crackle more than ever. ‘Cos the fights only just begun.”
They get shot down by a Sky-Tribe, a group of proud-faced warriors with bows, blades and spears. Until they were shot down by them the little group had assumed that all the Sky-Tribes were dead.
Whilst being held prisoner by the Sky Tribe Mouse is separated from Crow and the still-frail sparrow. Cold and alone things look helpless for her until a member of the tribe, Kestrel, sneaks into her cell to mend her wounds and bring her food. She also brings her news of Sparrow.
When the time comes for Mouse and the others to be sentenced by The Protector Mouse is disappointed to learn that Kestrel is The Protector’s daughter. However, when Kes decides to help them later on she ensures that she has to flee her own home but also that she and Mouse will become fast friends.
Kes and the other people she meets along the way help her to realise she is still someone without her ship.
“Still the question rises in me. What am I, without my ship? But now my own voice answers, heart-strong. I am something, wherever I am in the world, because of my kin and my friends I have made along the way. If I’d never left my ship, I couldn’t be who I am now.”
Sarah Driver has a talent for creating strong female characters and Kes is probably my favourite character in Sky.
I can’t wait for Storm to come out so I can see how the story ends.

Sky charts Mouse’s continuing quest to find the rest of the Storm-Opals in order to stop her world turning into a permanent winter.
In the Huntress trilogy, Sarah Driver has created a world rich with breath-taking landscapes, brilliant characterisations and relentless action. By seeing and experiencing this world through Mouse’s eyes the story, told in the present tense, really creates a sense of immediacy for the reader, as well as letting them feel the emotional rollercoaster all the characters are put through in their adventures. The use of a dialect only adds a further sense of immersion into this intelligently conceived world of ships creaking as their sails catch the wind and the ultimate adrenaline rush of riding on the back of a leathery terrodyl (a pterodactyl) or a furry draggle (a large type of bat).
Sarah Driver’s writing doesn’t let up on the action, but while this is all going on she builds in fully-formed characters who interact with the story, adding so much more than a way of merely world-building through meeting people. There is no sense of the author wondering who she’s going to add next to make the story more interesting, but more of assembling a hugely complex jigsaw puzzle so the pieces fit perfectly in a whole picture designed to take your breath away.
The new character of Kestrel, a member of a Sky-Tribe, becomes involved with the adventurers she adds another layer to the already complex story. She has Mouse’s passion and ability to keep going no matter what happens. But the magic of Kestrel’s character really kicks in when she talks about the need for the Sky-Tribes to pull together. It is moments like this when the author’s skill in conveying this world really comes to the fore as Mouse describes this as “There’s a pureness to her unite, like she’s struck a small bell.” This way of describing what is going on takes the situation and extends a reader’s perception of not only what is happening, but also the pureness of Kestrel’s character and her vision of the way she would like to shape the future.
This is a book full of the importance of friendship and trying to do the right thing with young people who have all been, one way or another, thrust violently into an adult world where they must first make their own way and rely on their own psychological strength and moral compass for sorting out who they can and can’t rely on.
Mouse has to be very mature to keep her brother safe and the group together while trying to solve her father’s message. She has lost everything. This should have changed her and yet there is still something of the delightful child with a constant wonder of the world around her, who began the trilogy in Sea. This is a quality which Sarah Driver puts over with her wonderfully crafted observations, “Kestrel claps her hands and grins until her cheeks squash her eyes.”
Mouse is very much a child of the sea and bonded to the concept of captaining her own ship one day. Her philosophy of the world comes from this centre which you can see when she wisely advises Kestrel not to give up by saying “Don’t take your sails down yet.” These are the small touches carefully dabbed here and there amidst a rattling adventure story, which should ensure this trilogy’s place as a children’s classic in years to come and Sarah Driver an author noted for children’s writing which stands out in a hectic children’s fantasy market. At the very least The Huntress Trilogy is crying out for a large-scope, cinematic treatment. Roll on the next book.

Mouse and her friends have escaped with the Sea Opal but now realise that she must find the other opals and bring them together.  On her way she meets the Sky people who she was sure no longer existed and who she is nothing but suspicious of.  Can Mouse put aside her prejudices and work with the others to bring the peoples of her lands together?

Having enjoyed "Sea", I was interested to see how the Huntress Trilogy could continue without "The Huntress".  Luckily the change of setting does not bring about a change of pace and Mouse and the others are once again on a breakneck chase where they pick up various new friends along the way.

There were some parts of this novel that appealed to me less than others of course.  I am never that interested in descriptions of fighting and battles and am never quite sure why these need to take up so much time in a novel when they never move the story on particularly far.  On the other hand, the wonderful "Skybrarian" is definitely a "one of a kind" character and I would love to see more information about the Skybrary in the final book.

Overall, this is a fun and eminently suitable story for YA readers who will definitely enjoy meeting all the new characters in this book.  If you haven't read "Sea", you must read that first and if you have, you will really enjoy "Sky".

Driver’s strength is her world building. As in The Huntress: Sea, she imagines her world completely. The Sky tribes use expressions different to those Mouse uses at Sea. I loved Driver’s playfulness with language in book one, and I love it in Sky. The influence of the world on the characters’ language makes their different backgrounds distinctive. 

There are other differences between the tribes. On The Huntress, people did jobs which were very alike, but the people of the Sky Tribes do all manner of things, from the Sawbones to the Runesmith, to the hunters who catch people in nets made of raindrops. Animals appear in all three territories, offering a constant way to compare Sea, Land and Sky. I love how Driver imagines land animals like wolves in the sky. Perhaps I read too much into it, but it made the differences between the tribes seem smaller than they themselves might imagine, which sat nicely with the theme of unity. I also love how these details make distinctive settings. When I read Sea, I thought The Huntress was so much more than a pirate-ship setting. It stayed in my mind because of the unity with sea birds, and the beasts churning up the waters. The settings in Sky are the same – from the caves in the sky, to the library hidden within an iceberg, Driver pushes the boundaries of what a setting might look like. 

Initially, the Sky Tribes are unwilling to trust the outsiders. They have protected themselves, and kept themselves hidden. Most people believe this is how it has always been. I found this an interesting conflict, and one which was very true to the real world. Should we fight for something which has always been, or should be seek to form a new world, and find new solutions?

These themes and questions are particularly relevant at present. As in the real world, it is the young people who seek unity, and long to find a solution other than war. Messages like these give young people hope, and offer them ways of thinking they might not otherwise encounter.  

We learn more about the merwraiths, and the fairytale which tells the story of how the opals were separated from the crown. 

The ending left me in anticipation. It also left me with hope. Trianukka is not united, but there are people ready to fight for its unity. It was nice to see a focus on the young people who are ready to fight for their world, regardless of what the adults do or say. When I turn the news on so often to hear about threats of nuclear war, this kind of message leaves me warm and fuzzy.