The theme for this week is time travel, it seems. In Steel, Carrie Vaughn’s second novel for teens, we’re introduced to Jill, an expert fencer. Jill has just lost a big fencing match and with it, the chance to compete in the Olympics. She’s pretty downtrodden and therefore doesn’t take much pleasure in the vacation her family takes to the Bahamas.

When wandering the beach, Jill stumbles over the tip of a rapier, the actual sword that her fencing sword is modeled after. She pockets it and goes on a boat ride with her family later in the day. When the boat hits a wave, she’s thrown overboard along with the bit of sword and finds herself in the past, being rescued by a passing pirate ship. Luckily, the crew doesn’t kill her immediately – this ship is captained by a woman named Marjory Cooper, and she’s kinder than a male captain would have been. Captain Cooper gives Jill two options: she can sign the crew’s roster and become a part of the crew, or she can remain their prisoner. Jill chooses the first option, hoping it will give her the time and ability to find her way back home.

There’s a fair amount of swashbuckling going on, but it’s pretty tame. For a historical account of piracy, there’s not a whole lot of blood and not that much fighting to be had, either. There are a couple subplots involving the capture of a slave ship and a teeny tiny romance between Jill and one of the young pirates, but for the most part the action centers around Cooper and her crew’s pursuit of an evil pirate captain named Blaine – the owner of the rest of the sword Jill found on the beach. Cooper has a personal vendetta against him, and Jill believes he’s the key to her return to her own time.

Despite its subject matter, Steel was pretty simplistically written. Vaughn has a straightforward, no frills style that made it hard for me to really connect with the story. It felt like she was perhaps writing for an audience younger than the story deserved. As a result, I wasn’t rooting for Jill as much as I could have, and I wasn’t totally invested in her romance or Cooper’s personal vendetta either. Unfortunately, this made Steel into a rather forgettable book for me.

Another side effect of the more juvenile writing style is that things never felt properly serious. I never got the feeling that there was much at stake, either for Jill or for Captain Cooper, despite the fact that their very lives were, indeed, at stake. What should have been an epic story with high adventure felt much more like an inconsequential romp. That’s not to say stories like these shouldn’t be fun, but they should induce a little more heart-pounding and nail-biting. The events of Steel made my heart beat about as fast as getting a new haircut or trying on a fancy dress. 

I’d recommend Steel for younger teens or tweens and people who are interested in pirate lore but don’t have much of a stomach for violence. There are some nice historical details about piracy (and famous pirates) that add interest, and Vaughn includes a brief author’s note that explains where her story deviates from reality (Did female pirate captains really exist?). It’s also nice to see fencing represented in a story for teens, something I haven’t come across anywhere other than Jane Yolen’s Foiled, but most readers can probably pass on this one.