Reviews :: Book Genre :: Steampunk :: Page 2

After the exciting events of GIDEON SMITH AND THE MECHANICAL GIRL (EBR Review), Gideon has been dubbed the Hero of the Empire by Queen Victoria, and sent off on quests that only heros can accomplish. Gideon isn’t quite sure what it means to be a hero, other than his stories end up in the penny dreadful World Marvels & Wonders, as recounted by Mr. Bent, the journalist who follows Gideon around.

The one assignment Gideon is waiting for is the one that means he can search for the missing brass dragon Apep and the clockwork girl he loves, Maria. He gets his chance when Apep is spotted over Texas, and Gideon heads toward America.
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Gideon Smith’s father is a fisherman, and one day the ship returns to port in Sandsend, England, without his father or the crew. Determined to find out how a ship could lose its crew on a calm sea, Gideon begins to hear reports about monsters appearing in the local caves. He happens across a Mr. Bram Stoker, who is searching for inspiration for a new story. But Gideon’s obsession with World Marvels & Wonders, a penny dreadful that recounts the heroic exploits of Captain Lucian Trigger, at first makes Bram wonder about the believability of Gideon’s story.
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THE EXECUTIONER’S HEART (Amazon) is the fourth Newbury and Hobbes novel, and it takes place several months after the crazy events of the prior novel, THE IMMORALITY ENGINE (EBR Review). Veronica Hobbes’ sister has been rescued, and now Sir Maurice Newbury is desperately trying to figure out the key to her prophetic visions, and why the Queen of England is after her.
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I recently re-watched Back to the Future. A good movie, if I do say so myself. (And I do.) Though when it came time for Doc Brown’s monologue about how he’d measured the distance from the “starting line” to the hanging wire he’d previously strung that Marty would need to start from at exactly the right time, so that at the precise moment that Marty’s car reached 88 miles per hour, the lightning bolt would hit the clock tower, travel down the electrical line the doc had hung, through the long hook extending from Marty’s car, and directly into the flux capacitor to send Marty back to the future… I had to take a moment to ask myself if I honestly cared that so much of the plot was based on ridiculously stupid timing and outright luck. And you know what I found?

I didn’t care. Not a lick.
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IN THUNDER FORGED (Amazon) is the first novel set in the Warmachine world, which is known for tabletop war games, and several RPG releases. Created by Privateer Press, and published by Pyr SF&F, the novel takes place in a war-torn, steam-powered fantasy world, and IN THUNDER FORGED is a strange breed of Military Thriller, Espionage and Heroic Fantasy. I’ve been playing the tabletop game for several years now, and I’m (what I consider) pretty familiar with the world and setting. A series of tie in novels was not something I approached without trepidation. I’ve never read an Ari Marmell book before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
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In THE FALLING MACHINE (EBR Review) we were introduced to Sarah Stanton and her father’s team of heroes called the Paragons. In the sequel HEARTS OF SMOKE AND STEAM (EBR Review) Sarah’s life changes as she learns the difficult truth of what it really means to become a Hero. In Andrew P. Mayer’s exciting conclusion, POWER UNDER PRESSURE (Amazon), Sarah must become the hero, or else watch the people and the city she loves fall to the machinations of the villainous Lord Eschaton.
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The irony of the title of ALL MEN OF GENIUS (Amazon) by newcomer Lev A.C. Rosen is that the main character is 17-year-old Violet. While not exactly a tomboy, she’s a scientist at heart and isn’t afraid of the grime, oil, and dirt involved in her love of making machines. Unfortunately for her, the exclusive London-based science university, Illyria, doesn’t accept women. Violet, however, is reckless enough to concoct a scheme that allows her to attend the university–posing as her twin brother Ashton.

ALL MEN OF GENIUS is Rosen’s steampunk re-telling combination of Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest” and Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” It’s more a comedy of manners than anything resembling the conspiracy mystery he prologues the book with. While fun, creative, and entertaining, I can sum up GENIUS with two words: heavy handed.
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In THE FALLING MACHINE (EBR Review) you were left with a cliffhanger: during the battle with Lord Eschaton, Tom is dismantled and Sarah leaves home after a fight with her father.

The continuation, HEARTS OF SMOKE AND STEAM (Amazon) begins over a month later. Even though Tom was destroyed, Sarah was able to recover his heart in the chaos. Unfortunately it’s broken, and she needs to find someone to repair the heart, but doesn’t trust the majority of the people in New York who are able to do it. Her search leads her to Emilio Armando, an Italian immigrant and inventor—whose past, if Sarah knew it, would make her think twice about trusting him with Tom’s secret.
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Sarah Stanton is the only child of business magnate Alexander Stanton. She’s a woman ahead of her time—her time being New York’s 1880s, the Gilded Age of industry and technology, but otherwise behind on women’s suffrage.

However, Sarah doesn’t let her father or society’s strictures slow her down. Sure she has to wear a bustle and corset, and her father wants to marry her off by the end of the season, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to find Sir Dennis Darby’s killer.
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I’ve come to a point in my reading life where I start planning the books I’m going to read well in advance. A new Dresden Files novel in the Spring. New Erikson & Esslemont novels in the Fall/Winter. A new Joe Ledger novel around February/March. Since starting this whole review gig, I’ve added George Mann to my list. For whatever reason, he work always entertains me.
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