First and foremost this reads like a love letter to the Pokémon franchise. If you’ve played the games before then you’re going to recognise a lot here. From the different types of creatures, to the main characters starting in a small town, to a jackass rival, to a cave full of the local equivalent of zubats. There’s random hikers challenging the main character to battles, there’s gyms and there’s tournaments. This absolutely a book written by someone who loves Pokémon games.

What’s really interesting, however, is how it manages to steer around some complaints that people have with the main Pokémon franchise. The main one that Pokémon battles are basically glorified dog-fighting and that you’re just grabbing random animals and forcing them into a life of combat. However in On Lavender Tides trainers just get copies of the animals they want to fight with, using a type of magic called Soul Clay. The book also emphasises that care for the original creatures is important and that you should strive as much as possible not to hurt them. It’s a small change but really does do a lot to emphasise the connection to nature and animals that the original games suggested. There are still limitations so you can’t just copy every creature you see but it is explained well in the book, as well as what battling with these copies means and how you can change them.

The second improvement is that the world is much more detailed and realised. In the games everything is about Pokémon, raising, battling and training them. In the book, while they’re still a prominent part of the culture, battling is treated as just another sport. They even mention some other sports that are played in the arenas. This goes a long way to making the world seem more alive. And what a world it is. I found myself lost in it, enjoying every detail and planning on cooking some of the food mentioned. Everything fits together in a beautiful way and I loved the characters slowly wandering along so that I could take in the sights with them. All in all this is a fantastic start to the series. The sequel is A Fracture in the Qwisdeep.