The Immorality Engine

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.

Now, I dig Mann's Ghost series, I really do. But I get REALLY excited for the Newbury and Hobbes novels. This series just pushes all the right buttons for me. A copy of THE IMMORALITY ENGINE finally came to my doorstep, and I ignored everyone and everything while I started and finished it in virtually one sitting.

I absolutely love the setting and the blatant parallels to Sherlock Holmes. Sir Maurice Newbury is one of my more favorite characters to read, and his assistant Veronica Hobbes is his perfect match. You'll recall (and if you don't, this is where I remind you) that one of my main complaints for this series has been the small amount of screen time given to Hobbes. She was such an interesting character, but I never really felt like I was allowed to understander her from a reader's perspective. If I didn't know any better, I'd say Mann was reading my mind (or my reviews...whichever makes more sense). This book is told almost primarily from Hobbes' eyes. And it is awesome.

There are a lot of questions for readers going into this novel. What is the Queen's real goal? What is the deal with Hobbes' sister? Can Newbury keep it together without falling completely under the spell of opium? For the most part all these questions are addressed and answered. It was quite refreshing actually. What the readers end up with is a fairly solid trilogy that answers a ton of questions while setting up further story.

Again, I can't stress enough how great it was for me to get a majority of PoV sections from Veronica Hobbes. I just find her character so extremely interesting. She is very much a woman ahead of her time, and in this specific Steampunk setting it works absolutely perfectly. Don't get me wrong, I love Newbury. I love his Sherlock Holmes persona. I love his toughness. But Hobbes? For me she is excellent. I could read another novel right now from her PoV and be totally immersed.

You'll notice I haven't said much about the actual plot. The thing is, readers want to know if a series maintains its quality through the whole ride before starting it. All of you awesome readers want to read a review for one of the latter books in the series without having the earlier books spoiled. I get it, I really do. For the most part I can make that work. So, here is what you need to know:

THE IMMORALITY ENGINE is terrific in every single way. Once you read this book, the whole series will take on a different light. The real villains will seem more intelligent and more frightening. The main protagonists will seem more human. Suddenly a ton of small details from the first two books will pop out. George Mann did an amazing job making this novel work.

And seriously, look at this cover of the US edition. A mechanical horse with a Gatling gun on the side? If that doesn't make you want to read the book you are dead inside, and I pity you.

What else can I say to get you to read this book and this series? THE IMMORALITY ENGINE (and the prior novels) is about pure enjoyment and fun while reading. You get mystery, action, a little romance, Steampunk and supernatural stuff all wrapped up in one novel. I love this book, and I will endeavor to give George Mann a huge hug should I ever see him.

Recommended Age: 15 and up.
Language: Very, very light. Almost none.
Violence: To me, this was the most violent novel of the series, but there still wasn't a ton. This series is about the mystery.
Sex: Nope.

Books in the Newbury & Hobbes Series:

THE AFFINITY BRIDGE
THE OSIRIS RITUAL
THE IMMORALITY ENGINE

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Posted in Books We Love , George Mann , Steampunk

Book Review: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

Posted as part of Tween Tuesday, hosted by GreenBeanTeenQueen.

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: September 2011
ISBN: 9781416971771
Source: e-book provided by GalleyGrab

*Possibly spoilers for the first two books - ye be warned*
Alek and Deryn are both far from home on a voyage around the world to stop World War I.  Alek, who feels duty bound to stop the war, places his hopes in a crazy scientist with a big plan.  Deryn's disguise as a boy member of the crew is getting more dangerous by the minute - especially since she's in love with Alek.  With new characters and danger lurking everywhere, the two may not end up quite where they expected.

Things I Liked:
I'm not entirely sure what my favorite thing about these books is.  Honestly, it's just so much fun to read them it's almost like being on an adventure myself.  Deryn is such a prickly, smart, sassy, vulnerable and hilarious girl that you can't help but love her.  I adore her "cussing" and the plain way she talks, especially when others are dancing around a topic.  Alek is interesting in different ways - trying to find his place, wondering if he can make a difference, torn between two worlds.  And, of course, the story is so fascinating, so unexpected, and so unique that you dive in and can't surface until the conclusion is finally reached.  I loved every minute of this book and especially the illustrations, which can make some tricky concepts come to life.  A favorite series and I'm sure it will delight tween boys and girls alike.

Things I Didn't Like:
Not much.  I think a few times I was annoyed by decisions characters made, but that doesn't make the book any less enjoyable.  I honestly can't think of other things I didn't like!

Read-alikes:
Read Leviathan and Behemoth first
Reminded me of Larklight by Philip Reeve
Airborn and sequels by Kenneth Oppel

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: ! 
maybe one or two, but most "cussing" came in the form of "bum-rag" and such like

mrg-factor: none 

v-factor: -> 
there is some action, but most of it is quite mild

Overall rating: ***** 

What do you think of steampunk: like it, hate it, don't know it?

Added bonus: Scott Westerfeld is visiting Arizona next week!  Check out the details for Oct 3rd visit at Changing Hands and the Barnes and Noble in Mesa for Oct 5th.

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

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Posted in e-book , historical fantasy , leviathan , middle grade , review copy , Steampunk , tween tuesday

Ghosts of War

There's a reason we like George Mann's work. It's all fast-paced, fun, and can be read without having to work at it. GHOSTS OF WAR is Mann's second Ghost novel, and follows up immediately after GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN. It has pretty much all the elements that made MANHATTAN fun, yet also seems to have more flaws than the first entry.

Mechanical, bat-like constructs are terrorizing the city of Manhattan. They swoop down and abduct random people off the streets, and those people are never found. The Ghost does what any good vigilante hero would and tries to solve the mystery. He is helped once again by Detective Felix Donovan—one of the few who know the Ghost's real identity.

There is something you have to understand about the Ghost novels. They aren't meant to be the pinnacle of literature. They are pure leisure reads and will be enjoyed by those who dig novels with pulp sensibilities. GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN was steampunk Batman with some Lovecraft thrown in at the end. We loved it. Others don't because they seem to be taking it far to seriously. GHOSTS OF WAR is the same thing. When describing this book (and really while writing this review), we feel like we should do it in that old-fashioned TV personality way. You know, with dramatic music and everything. Will the Ghost survive this encounter? Dun dun DUNNNNNN!!!

The good here is that Mann tries to give a little more weight to the Gabriel Cross/Ghost dynamic. Which one is the real personality, and which is the mask? It's the same question explored in every superhero comic/book/movie. Overall we felt Mann did a good job here. Cross/Ghost is still a good character, and Donovan remain excellent as well.

Unfortunately the other main character, Ginny, doesn't fare as well. We kept waiting for her to be revealed as someone important: a spy, a supernatural hunter...something. But she never was. She was oddly good with guns, and was kinda a love interest, but she never really took on any personality. She was more of an object that was made into a person. We still aren't really sure what her point was in the novel. She appears, does a couple things, then vanishes. Will she have a bigger role (and a more explained and less coincidental role at that) in future novels? She better, or what was the point?

There are also a few logic holes in the novel, mostly with how certain creatures are destroyed, and with how TOUGH the Ghost is. We lost track of how many times he was stabbed, battered, and bludgeoned...and yet he was always good to go. Normally these things get overlooked in long novels, but GHOSTS OF WAR isn't long. It's really short, so every flaw stands out and seems more glaring.

If you liked GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN, you'll like GHOSTS OF WAR. It's really that simple. The setting is a fun as ever. The extended information on the conflict between the British and the U.S. is pretty awesome. The action scenes are thrill rides of entertainment. This isn't Mann's best work, but it serves its purpose. It's fun, fast, loose, and action-packed.

We definitely look forward to the next one in the series.

Recommended Age: 17 and up.
Language: There is a bit of strong language, though it didn't seem like there was as much as in the first novel.
Violence: Well duh. You read the first one right? Flechettes, guns, explosives and monsters. This series is pretty violent. Again though, the pulp-nature of it kinda makes that a must.
Sex: No detailed scenes, but some conversations about it.

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Posted in Books We Like , George Mann , Steampunk

Book Review: The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby

Posted as part of Tween Tuesday, hosted by GreenBeanTeenQueen.

The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication date: October 2010
ISBN: 9780545203371
Source: Library

When Giuseppe, a street musician who was sold away from his family in Italy, finds a magical green violin, his life is about to change forever.  It leads him carefully into the lives of Hannah and Frederick.  Hannah is working as a maid to support her family and becomes friends with a mysterious and wealthy woman.  Frederick is a clockmaker's apprentice, secretly working on a clockwork man that he hopes will propel him into his own practice.  Their lives intertwine in unique and complex ways that will lead them all to a very different future than what they imagined.

Things I Liked:
I really liked the atmosphere and characters.  This book is a true genre blend with historical fiction being the most prominent, but a bit of fantasy and steampunk thrown in.  It was so beautifully crafted that the world felt real and I could picture the three kids all living their lives and watching them slowly intertwine.  Kirby has a way of making us care deeply for the characters and I found myself sucked into their struggles and triumphs.  Also, because it is fairly unique, I really had no idea what to expect or what turns the book would take next.  A surprising and very well written debut.  Here's a great quote to give you a taste:

On the far side of the room, beneath a wide window curtained with lace, a large woman reclined on a chaise longue like an Egyptian princess, but not a beautiful one.  The woman might have been attractive underneath her roundness, but her girth filled up whatever space her beauty might have occupied. p 34

Things I Didn't Like:
The ending was a little disappointing to me.  Mostly I thought that some of his initial pieces of the story had no real importance to the story, including the clockwork man.  There was a lot going on and I don't think the many plot lines were quite tied up.  It felt, in fact, like there would be a sequel, but I'm not sure what would happen in a sequel, since it sort of ended their stories.  I guess I just wanted to know more about some of the minor characters who were mysterious and didn't appear to have a purpose other than to save the kids from one disaster or another.  Still, I enjoyed reading it a lot.

Read-alikes:
Candle Man, Book 1 by Glenn Dakin
A bit like Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: ->
a little action and some frightening stuff, but nothing much

Overall rating: ****

Have you read any good genre blend books lately?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

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Posted in 4 stars , Fantasy , historical fantasy , middle grade , Steampunk , tween tuesday

The Horns of Ruin

We rarely read any novels from Pyr that could be deemed a “miss.” The number of stellar novels put out by Pyr since its inception is astonishing. But every now and again even they miss the mark. THE HORNS OF RUIN, by Tim Akers, is Sword & Sorcery/Steampunk hybrid. Sounds cool on the surface. In fact a lot of this story sounds fantastic on paper…unfortunately that paper doesn’t include the actual execution of the idea.

We love Sword & Sorcery. We love Steampunk even more. So this love-child of the two was something we were extremely excited about. Our PoV character is Eva Forge, the last Paladin of a betrayed, dead god. She wields a revolver and a Steampunk-looking sword. The gist of the story revolves around her looking for the abducted leader of her dying cult, and protecting a girl who belongs to the tech-centric cult of the god who betrayed Eva’s own cult. Again, in theory it all sounds great.

The story is told by Eva Forge herself in 1st Person PoV, and this is where we have our first problem. To us, 1st Person is used to give us a more immediate and deeper connection to the main character of the novel. When it works—like with Harry Dresden in Jim Butcher’s series—readers automatically root for the character. We become invested in that character’s struggle. When done poorly, it makes reading the novel a chore. In THE HORNS OF RUIN, the latter is the case. We just don’t like Eva. We found it impossible to care about her or root for her. She is a typical female “tough-girl” written from a male’s perspective. She may as well be a guy. With the exception of another character mentioning Eva’s cup size, there is nothing in this novel that says, “the main character is an awesome chick, not a dude.” On TV the other day on The Human Target, one character says to another something along the lines of, “Look, I don’t want to hear your ‘bad girl’ resume. Just show me some actual competence.” That is exactly how we felt about Eva in this story. Rather than going around like a brainless barbarian saying “Hulk smash!” how about you show some freaking intelligence as befits your position?

The problem is that this is the attitude of the character for the entire novel. No matter what other characters say to her, she does it the stupid and hard way. People save her butt, and then she turns around and hits them in the face for getting in her way. It’s the tough-girl cliché to the extreme.

The other main issue we have with this novel is the lack of setting. 95% of the time, we felt like we were reading about characters in a white, formless room. This had potential to be an awesome showcase of setting much like in Alan Campbell’s SCAR NIGHT (we’ll be reviewing this shortly). Instead we rarely had any idea where we were, or why it mattered.

Dialogue is a mixed bag. Sometimes, mainly when dealing with male characters, everything goes smooth. Yet whenever it is two female characters talking, they get into constant verbal cat-fights. Since 90% of the book deals with two female running around together, you can imagine our frustration. The girl who Eva is “guarding” is Cassandra. She is some sort of super gifted tech-mage from the cult of the Betrayer. We have rarely read a character as wildly inconsistent in speech patterns as her—the other ones all had multiple personalities. Some of the stuff she says comes off as sounding like a woman-hating wife-beater. Really. Again, the problem here is another girl written by a guy as a cliché tough girl freed of her bonds.

The magic is also tedious and, to us, silly. In theory it sounds interesting. You Invoke the power of the god by Invoking its history. Yet in actual practice you get long-winded monologues that kill the pace of action sequences. You also endure the main character pausing every other page to renew her “buffs”. Yeah, we kept thinking, “WTF? Are we in the middle of a Raid in World of Warcraft? This is ridiculous.”

THE HORNS OF RUIN has so much promise that it fails to deliver on. Everything is so abstract that we felt like we were floating along in a void waiting for Eva’s next emotionally-stunted outburst. We’ll also mention here that the ending is way predictable and cliché as far as Eva’s personal journey, and it is inconsistent and disjointed for everything else. Things are seemingly added at random at the end to give half-cocked credibility to people’s intelligence. Ugh.

We didn’t HATE this novel—some of the ideas here were truly awesome—we just didn’t like it at all. So disappointing. Will anyone like it? No doubt. Probably the same people who really liked BONESHAKER. Be we aren't in that group.

Recommended Age: 15 and up.
Language: Here and there. Not over-done.
Violence: There is some, but like the storytelling it is often disjointed and abstract.
Sex: Nope.

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Posted in Books We Don't Like , Steampunk , Tim Akers

Book Review: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: October 2010
ISBN: 978-1416971757
Source: e-book available from publisher

 

During an alternate history of World War I, this book picks up after Leviathan ends.  Prince Alek is being held prisoner aboard the Leviathan.  He and his men plan an escape when the ship reaches Istanbul, with the help of Deryn, who is still hiding her identity.  Both Alek and Deryn find themselves on dangerous missions among enemies.  Can the two find one another again and help to stop the war?

Things I Liked:
I'm really starting to love steampunk.  The fun way it clothes history and especially the note at the end of the book that explained what happened and what didn't, make it one of the best ways I know to learn history while being entertained.  Westerfeld has a gift for creating characters and an alternate world that seems plausible.  His creative vocabulary for the Darwinists and the Clankers and their slang always makes me adopt new words and phrases, most notably "barking spiders" and "bum-rags."  I was so glad also that the e-book ARC had the illustrations included.  These are gorgeous and completely capture the feel of the book.  Almost my favorite part of the whole series.  The story is quick and full of adventures and will surely appeal to both boys and girls alike looking for something that's a mix of fantasy, historical fiction, and action/adventure. 

This was nothing like Buckingham Palace, where Deryn had watched the changing of the Royal Lionesque Guard her first day in London.  That was four stories tall and as square as a cake.  But here the buildings were low and surrounded by colonnades, their arches decorated with checkerboards of black and white marble, as shiny as piano keys.  Steam pipes wound across the mosaicked walls lik message lizard tubes, sweating and huffing with the energies inside them. p 181 of ARC

As she drew, the whire and clatter of the machines around her, the sounds blending like the crash of distant waves.  Deryn wondered how the Clankers had managed it, translating questions into scatterings of holes in paper.  Did every wee sliver of knowledge have its own number?  The system was probably quicker than wandering through the ceiling-high shelves, but what other books might she have found, doing it herself? p 322 of ARC

Things I Didn't Like:
I kind of wish more had been resolved at the end, but I suppose that's what the next book is for!

Read-alikes:
Airborn and sequels by Kenneth Oppel
Larklight by Philip Reeve
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
Definitely read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld first

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none
just some barking spiders

mrg-factor: none
one rather interesting kiss...

v-factor: ->->
there are definitely battles, though not a lot of gore

Overall rating: *****

I'm so excited for Scott Westerfeld to visit our local library this month!  Any of you fortunate enough to meet him before?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

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Posted in 5 stars , e-book , Fantasy , graphic novel , highly recommended , historical fantasy , leviathan , middle grade , Steampunk

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves

Professor Amelia Harsh has lost her tenure at the last university in Jackals that would hire her (after being fired by the other seven...). Why? Because instead of studying and writing papers like a normal university professor, she's out hunting relics of Camlantis, which everyone knows is a myth.

Enter Abraham Quest, the richest man in Jackals, who has been doing his own archaeology on the sly, and found proof that Camlantis exists. Unfortunately, the clues point the way into the heart of darkness itself, the source of the Shedarkshe river in the wilds of a jungle from which no explorer has returned. Camlantis was a utopia, with untold engineering feats, a society of pacifists, and Amelia and Abraham are convinced that it holds the key to making their own war-torn society a better place. But it means risking lives in order to see that goal realized.

Hunt spends the first half of THE KINGDOM BEYOND THE WAVES setting up the story, and because there's a lot going on, several characters to introduce, and a world to build, the time it takes to do this isn't unreasonable. However, it does make the first half slow-going. His prose can be dense, which also slows down the pacing and flow, but does make for a richer world. I love Hunt's metaphors. He is truly clever with his descriptions, adding depth to the world at the same time.

Finally at about the halfway mark everything goes wrong for our protagonists. And not just wrong, I mean horribly, how in the heck are they going to get out of this without dying, wrong. It's a series of life-threatening events that lasts the entire second half of the book. Hunt spins threads between all the characters deftly, so that when everything begins to collide, the weaving stories makes sense despite the chaos. Awesomeness on many levels.

Set in an Earth that could have been, Hunt mixes machinery, magic, and a dizzying assortment of races with alacrity. There's the race of mechanical steammen, who, while they have no country to call their own, still have autonomy wherever they live. There's the amphibian craynarbians, which unfortunately don't get as much face-time as the others. Also, the flying lizard lashites, who turn out to play an important role. In a story like this the races could have been gimmicky, but the cultures of humans and non-humans alike were all integrated into the plot in satisfying ways.

Hunt's steampunk world is ambitious, and while he does an excellent job of introducing it without overwhelming the reader, about 5% of the time I didn't remember or understand a name, race, or piece of equipment. On the whole for such a steep learning curve, only forgetting a small percentage is a petty complaint, and says a lot about the author's world-building, which is complex and fascinating. KINGDOM is Hunt's second book about this particular world, and while it isn't a sequel, I wonder how much more I would have retained if I had read the first. Trust me, I will go back to read THE COURT OF THE AIR. Even then, KINGDOM is readable as a standalone.

Magic plays a secondary role to the mechanical, which made me sad because Hunt hints at interesting possibilities he simply doesn't have time to explain or explore. Also, while the pacing is consistent, the flow of action can be jarring, and sometimes I had to re-read a few paragraphs to grasp everything that happens when the action switches. The biggest problem I saw, which could be minor considering the other strengths of the novel, is that with such a large cast it is difficult for the main characters to have any real depth. While the characters have their interesting quirks and motivations, there's no question that for KINGDOM, it's the setting here that's on display--and what a vision it is.

Recommended Age: 14+
Language: Only made-up words.
Violence: Plenty of it, but not excessive or over-the-top.
Sex: None.

Stephen Hunt founded http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/, a fan-run science fiction and fantasy website. You can also find information about the author and his books there.

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Posted in Books We Like , Steampunk , Stephen Hunt

The Osiris Ritual

George Mann is awesome. That is all.

OK, that really isn't all we are going to say, but it covers our opinions nicely. George Mann has given readers quite the year. If you were late to the party, you got THE AFFINITY BRIDGE. You also got GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN. In the UK you got THE IMMORALITY ENGINE. And now here in the US, THE OSIRIS RITUAL has finally been released. How great is that?

THE OSIRIS RITUAL is the second of Mann's Newbury & Hobbes novels, and it fits perfectly with the theme and quality of the first novel (which we reviewed here). Newbury, as you will recall, is very reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, and Hobbes is his Watson...only female. The main plot of OSIRIS revolves around a series of murders taking place after the unveiling of a recently discovered mummy. To get much more into the plot would reveal too much, so we will leave it at that.

Mann's Newbury & Hobbes novels seem to follow a formula of sorts. We have an interesting beginning, a large chase scene in the middle, an action-packed ending, followed by and epilogue that introduces and continues an over-arching conflict. So, there is your warning. If you read THE AFINNITY BRIDGE (which you SHOULD have), the structure of OSIRIS will be very familiar, as will the pacing.

Newbury himself is devolving further into opium addiction, further making him familiar to the Sherlock Holmes readers of the world (who know of Holmes' cocaine addiction). It is a terrific conflict, especially with how it spills over into his professional life, and his interactions with his friends. Hobbes gets more "screen-time" in this novel, but still manages to feel a tad underused until, like in book one, the epilogue. The cast of side-characters are fantastic, and serve the story well. One thing we do wish, however, is for a bit clearer-cut interaction with the Osiris Ritual itself (you'll know what we mean when you read it). At times, it seemed almost irrelevant.

These novels aren't got to make you stop an reconsider the world. They are Sherlock Holmes Steampunk mystery novels. If you know that going in, you will love every bit. If we have one desire for this series, it is that in future installments, the line between science and the occult becomes even more murky.

Recommended Age: 14 and up.
Language: One word the entire novel.
Violence: Yeah, these books never lack for it. It is well executed, and not near as extreme as in Mann's GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN. Essentially, expect more of the same from THE AFFINITY BRIDGE.
Sex: No, not in this series.

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Posted in Books We Like , George Mann , Steampunk

Book Review: Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication date: December 2009
ISBN: 9781599904306
Source: Library

Nimira is a music-hall performer who left her home country behind for a new life.  When Hollin Parry, a sorcerer invites her to perform with a unique piano-playing automaton, she thinks it can only be an improvement to her current life.  But, Nim is surprised to discover the automaton is housing a cursed fairy prince and she is determined to save him.  Will she be able to save him in time to prevent an imminent war from erupting?

Things I Liked:
It really was a unique story.  I've never read a love story where the heroine falls in love with a fairy prince trapped in an automaton's body.  It was pretty refreshing to not have a typical paranormal love story.  I liked Nimira and Erris, though I think I liked Anni the most.  There were a lot of details about the world Dolamore created that I wanted to know more about.  I was intrigued by the different races, the different countries, and the magical elements.  Here are some interesting tidbits:

"Every person has a reason to walk the earth, Mother always said.  Sometimes the path leads in strange directions." p 93

"Some old women you can never imagine young, but you could picture Miss Rashten in an awkward sort of youth.  I guessed she had not been happy, probably the type who couldn't flirt and never seemed to dress right, who came into her power when she got past the time when such things mattered." p 167

Things I Didn't Like:
I think it could have used more details.  I thought there were unique things that she could have developed more, particularly the romance which was sweet, but not much else.  The writing was just ok for me, but I definitely will be reading more from Dolamore in the future.  I liked it and it showed lots of potential.  

Read-alikes:
It had a bit of a Beauty and the Beast feel to it, so maybe Beauty by Robin McKinley

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !
a few (I think)

mrg-factor: X
some minor implied things

v-factor: none

Overall rating: ***

Do you sometimes like to wait until all the hype about a book has died down before reading it?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

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Posted in 3 stars , Fantasy , historical fantasy , Steampunk , Young Adult

Ghosts of Manhattan

If you have been following our not-so-humble blog, you know we like George Mann. So when we got our paws on his GHOSTS IN MANHATTAN, published by Pyr, we knew we were in for a treat.

GHOSTS is set in America during the roaring 20's, but with a Steampunk bent, and as if that isn't cool enough, George Mann inserts enough Urban Fantasy elements to create a sweet mesh of the two genres. Actually, the genre almost does a complete swap in the last third of the book. It was a little jarring, but the pace of the book swept us along, without giving us time to let the change bother us.

Let us say, right up front, this book won't be for everyone. The violence is just brutal. The opening scene was quite violent even for us, and we love a good action scene. The titular character uses a flechette cannon and shreds bad guy's heads. There is plenty of swearing and talk about sex. One of our close friends, read the opening chapter and didn't finish it. He heard that Nick liked the book, and said, "Yeah, that sounds about right." Your sensibilities will largely determine whether you like this book. If you have to ask yourself whether you will or not, you will probably be offended.

However...the action scenes were SO awesome. They were very clear, immediate, and visceral. There wasn't an action scene to be found that didn't make us wonder, just for a minute, exactly how the Ghost would be maimed or crippled, and yes, he was injured PLENTY of times. Also, to Mann's credit, there wasn't any indication of "Butcher syndrome" where the protagonists were exhausted, injured, and spent, and somehow managed to reach inside and find some well of energy left. We hate that. When the characters in GHOST were presented with a challenge, they had to actually meet it. No Deus Ex here folks! Woohoo!

Aside from the pacing and strong writing, if we were to pick out a strength of the novel, it would be Mann's ability to make these characters all believable and likable. All except the love interest of the protagonist. She remains largely a mystery, with a fairly shallow characterization until the end. But by then we didn't care quite as much about her as we should have. The rest of them are Ah-Mazing, though. Gabriel is the perfect jaded playboy; the Ghost is menacing, dangerous, yet 'heroic'; Donovan, while having a slightly cliche cop story, was enjoyable the whole time. The villain(s) were just as intriguing. Bravo, Mann!

One of the cool things that was done in the book was the attempt to keep us guessing at the true identity of the Ghost. We both actually wished this aspect had been pressed harder. It was obvious right from the start who he was, but there were constant moments of "Wait...is he really...or is he someone else...?" We could have done with more of those.

As soon as Steve finished the book he called Nick (who luckily got to read the book first). As if the website wasn't proof enough that we are linked at the brain, we both said at just about the same moment, "Could have been 150 pages longer." We really wish this was true. The fast pace works both for and against the book. Ever eaten a meal so fast you barely got to taste it? That's a little bit how the book felt. It was too fast and too short, with extremely likable and interesting characters, that ALL deserved a lot more screen time than they were given. The book didn't just leave us room for dessert, but another course when we were finished. That's a little annoying.

GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN is a bit cliche-ridden, quick, a little on the light side of plot, a bit heavy-handed at times, but is just plain fun. It hurls the Steampunk and Superhero genres at each other with full force, and somewhere in between the two Urban Fantasy/Horror gets caught in the Melee. We like the recipe that was created here. A lot. We want more, and are looking forward to the next installment. Is it the best book you will read this year? Not even close, but it is completely entertaining.

Recommended Age: 18 and up.
Language Ayep. Rated-R here.
Violence: Oh wow, yes. The first chapter is a very good indication of what the rest of the book contains. In said chapter bad guys kept disintegrated by flechettes, burned and boiled by jetpacks, and a lady gets stabbed. It was...an interesting choice to start the book with that much graphic violence.
Sex: A few acts committed and mentioned, nothing graphic or explicitly shown.

P.S. - Also, the cover art, by Benjamin Carre, is soooooo rad. Nick is determined to get a giant print of it to hang in his room.

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Posted in Books We Like , George Mann , Steampunk

Boneshaker

Steampunk. You can hardly go wrong with it. It's that genre that is filled with airships, goggles and adventure. With the novel BONESHAKER, Cherie Priest tries her hand at the steampunk genre.

We had heard a lot about this novel. Authors, editors, and readers everywhere called it amazing. We had heard it called one of the best steampunk novels ever written. Do you see where this is going? Yeah. We were let down. WAY down.

We'll start with the premise. BONESHAKER takes place in Seattle during and after the gold rush in the Klondike. It is an interesting period in US history, and a great place to introduce a steampunk technology. The idea here is that a contest was held to see who could invent a machine that could easily tunnel through the snow, ice, and rock to excavate the gold. Leviticus Blue, living in Seattle, invents such a machine--the Boneshaker. The first time the machine is turned on, however, it destroys nearly the entire town. In the aftermath of the destruction, the deep diggings the Boneshaker uncover a gas that essentially turns people into zombies. Seattle is walled off, and chapter one starts 15 years after the described events. Out main characters are Briar and Zeke Wilkes, the wife and son of Leviticus Blue. It is a cool mesh of ideas in theory, but the execution was lacking in nearly every aspect.

What let us down with this novel? Well, nothing was really developed. There were times where we felt like we were reading an outline of ideas rather than a fully developed story. Think about it. We have all the steampunk tropes; adventure, airships, clockwork and gear based machinery, and goggles (you can't have steampunk without goggles). We have some cool alternate history that is set during the gold rush and the Civil War. We have zombies, Native Americans, and sky pirates. The list goes on. Yet the book is a short 400 pages. There just wasn't enough time to give any depth to the awesome mesh of ideas. By not having too many interesting, but shallowly described ideas yelling for our attention, we found it difficult to connect with anything. BONESHAKER may have benefited from being longer, and more detailed.

The characters in the novel should have been interesting, but instead left us feeling rather "meh." Zeke runs into the walled city of Seattle to find proof that his father and grandfather were good people. Briar follows him. The worry they feel, and their relationship should have drawn us to the main PoVs. Instead, their relationship was devoid of the details that normally would draw us to them. We just couldn't make ourselves care about them. The side characters felt mostly like cardboard cut-outs that were just there for scenery. The sky pirates/smugglers are lame, and the Native American Princess felt tacked on and random. In short, the characters were impossible to connect with, and were boring. They were random bits of filler that did more harm than good.

Now, in a steampunk novel, some shortcomings can be overlooked if the adventure aspect or the technological aspect of the novel is executed well. Neither was the case in BONESHAKER. The action was so muddled, that at times it took a few re-reads of the pages just to determine what was actually happening. The steampunk technology? There really wasn't any. Really, it was all limited to people wearing gas masks. There are very brief mentions and showings of airships, a chick has a mechanical arm, and the breathing systems people use get fancy at times. That's it. No clockwork robots. The actual Boneshaker machine is never shown in action. In fact, the novel is barely steampunk at all. The zombies? Shown maybe three times, and they don't manage to lend any sort of menace or scare to the story. Again, filler.

With all the bad, surely there must be something good, right? Well yeah. The moments between muddled action sequences are well written, if lacking in detail. The idea of how Seattle became a walled-in disaster was excellently done. The book itself is awesome looking. The cover is great, and the ink color of the text is a brownish color that perfectly fit the time-frame of the story.

A lot of people liked BONESHAKER. A lot of people will pick up this book and love it. We, however, just felt is was mediocre. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't anywhere close to the awesomeness that were were led to believe. Maybe that was part of why we were so underwhelmed.

If you are a die-hard reader of steampunk, then you could probably find something here to like, but it won't live up to the other novels of the same genre that you have already read. If you are a complete newbie to steampunk, this book could serve as an introduction to the genre that you may find decent.

Recommended Age: 15 and up.
Language: Some. And fairly strong in the short bursts when it happens.
Violence: There is some violence, but it is described poorly.
Sex: Nope.

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Posted in Books that are Mediocre , Cherie Priest , Steampunk

Leviathan

Scott Westerfeld is perhaps currently best known for his YA SF novels. He recently decided to try his hand at Steampunk in an alternate version of World War I. LEVIATHAN is a good entry into the genre, but it isn't without drawbacks (depending on your point of view, of course).

LEVIATHAN follows the PoV of Alek, the son of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand (in case you didn't know before, now you know where the band gets its name--that's your useless piece of trivia for the day). In Westerfeld's story, the assassination of the Archduke and his wife incites World War I, just like in actual history. This differences are the Steampunk and Biopunk (this term will make more sense in a moment) settings. The two major factions are the Clankers (the Austrians, Germans and such), and the Darwinists (England and other "Allies"). The Clankers are based in machinery, and lend to the Steampunk stylings that the book promotes. The Darwinists, frankly, are much cooler. They manipulate biological creatures into war machines, ships, and anything else they have need of. As a counterpoint to young Alek's "Clanker" PoV, we have the PoV of Deryn Sharp. She is a fifteen year-old girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service aboard the Leviathan--a huge biologically created ship that resembles a flying whale.

The PoVs are both entertaining, if a bit juvenile. We had it in our minds that LEVIATHAN would be geared (no Steampunk pun intended) to the older end of YA. In reality, it is towards the younger end. Once we understood this small piece of info, any measure of initial disappointment faded quickly away. The characters, especially Deryn, won us over quickly. As we follow Alek's escape from Austria in his Stormwalker (think of it as a Steampunk Mechwarrior), and as we follow Deryn's adventures on the Leviathan, we are treated to a very imaginative, uh, re-imagining of WWI, and how the paths that Alek and Deryn each follow inevitably merge.

Where LEVIATHAN really shines is in the Steampunk and Biopunk elements. The way Westerfeld imagines warfare in this setting is nothing short of fabulous. The Steampunk in the novel is actually fairly light, with most of the focus on the Biopunk. Some may argue that this is bad, while others rejoice in it. We wish that we could have seen a bit more of the Steampunk area of the world, but we aren't terribly upset about the lack of it. The Darwinist ideas in the novel more than made up for the lack of more machinery.

Ultimately, the thing that most disappointed us was discovering it was a series. The next novel, BEHEMOTH, won't be released until Oct. 2010. Considering how quick of a read this novel is--the pacing is terrific, we should add--waiting another year for the sequel seems a long way off.

However, is it worth the $20 price tag? Oh yes. Allow us to gush with regards to the beauty of the book itself. Just seeing the cover in person made us both drool a little. It is one of the best designed covers to come out this year. It hints at a stronger Steampunk element than is really in the novel, but it is a stunning cover regardless. There are dozens of internal illustrations by Keith Thompson that give a fantastic visual aid for the beasties and machines described in the book. The production quality of this book is top-notch.

LEVIATHAN is a good book. Not incredible, but good. We liked it. We fully intend on reading the sequels, and buying them assuming they look as awesome as the first novel. LEVIATHAN is marketed towards a younger crowd, and serves as a good intro into the Steampunk genre. We still think that Philip Reeve's MORTAL ENGINES is a better introduction into Steampunk at the YA level, but Westerfeld has done a fantastic job. Let's face it, Steampunk is a genre that more people should be reading, and it is typically a pretty safe genre content-wise. Go out and pick up LEVIATHAN. You'll enjoy it, and it will make you want to read more Steampunk.

Recommended Age: 12 and up.
Language: Nope.
Violence: There is some, but it isn't a focal-point.
Sex: Don't be absurd.

So check out Westerfeld's website. He doesn't exactly need any help from us, but every author likes to hear they've done a good job.

http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

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Posted in Scott Westerfeld , Steampunk , Young Adult

The Affinity Bridge

If you are like us, when you go to a bookstore you let your eye wander. If you already know what you want to buy, and you walk right to it and pick it up, you've missed a golden opportunity. When you let yourself browse the bookstore, you get the opportunity to let books choose you, in a sense. This is how we discovered THE AFFINITY BRIDGE by George Mann. The art design on the cover is incredible--some of the best we've see this year, in fact--and we knew right away that we wanted to read it. So, we each picked up a copy...

...and remembered that, unfortunately, we are poor. So we put the copies back, and went to the library. It was a bummer.

The second anyone sees this cover, they will know that it is Steampunk. For the uninitiated, there is only one thing you need to know about the sub-genre. Steampunk = awesome. THE AFFINITY BRIDGE is no exception. Airships, automatons, steam-carriages, tea, and zombies (wahoo!!!). Yeah, this has all the good stuff.

But you know what really made this novel great for us? The feeling that it was a Sherlock Holmes novel. In a Steampunk setting. Where Watson is a chick. And the Queen is a Steampunk monstrosity. Geez...it's exciting and cool just thinking of it.

There are several plots afoot (we've always wanted to say 'afoot') that are happening all at the same time in Mann's novel. A mysterious glowing policeman is killing people. There are zombies running around the streets of London (once again, WAHOO!). However, the main investigation taken by our PoVs Newbury (the Holmes character) and Hobbes (the female Watson character), is an airship that crashes Hindenburg style, killing all of its occupants. The plots, and their resolutions, are completely fantastic. In all seriousness, THE AFFINITY BRIDGE is a standard mystery novel, yet...if feels so fresh. Maybe it is the nostalgic Sherlock Holmes feel, or maybe it is the Steampunk setting. Perhaps it is even the simple added possibility that the supernatural actually exists in this world created by Mann. Whatever the cause, we loved every minute.

This story would have failed terribly without good characters. Newbury, the main PoV, is perfectly written in our opinion. From his drug addiction to his obsession to the occult, he his a flawed and real character. Hobbes--Newbury's assistant--is a strong female character who really deserved more "screen-time." And just wait until you read the epilogue. It really made the Hobbes character awesome for us, and we imagine it will give her more PoV time in the following novels. The side characters were well done, as are the villains (thankfully, the villains weren't crazy over-the-top like in most mystery-like novels). One of the side characters, The Fixer, was fabulous. His small section in the story illustrated perfectly how to show off "cool-stuff" in a story without it feeling tacked-on. Budding authors, take note.

There were a few issues we had. The PoV switches were very poor in some places. There were times where you had two or three different PoVs in a single paragraph. It didn't happen all the time, but often enough to make note of. In addition, setting description was very light at times. We would have liked some time dedicated to showing us the differences in this London from the real historic one. But hey, all of the good plot and character made up for these small problems.

Like so many novels lately, this one has been out in the UK for a bit now, and the sequel already came out as well. If the price for importing wasn't so high, we would consider sending for the second one. But once again, we are poor. It makes us sad pandas. That being said, we fully intend to read everything that George Mann releases. He has his next Newbury & Hobbes novel coming out next year (book 2 for the US, book 3 for the UK), as well as another novel titled GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN coming out through Pyr SF&F in April (looks like the UK gets it in May). Go grab a copy of THE AFFINITY BRIDGE (it is worth every penny of the cover-price), and while you are at it, preorder Mann's next novels.

The Affinity Bridge - A Newbury & Hobbes Investigation Book 1
The Osiris Ritual - A Newbury & Hobbes Investigation Book 2 - UK EDITION
The Immorality Engine - A Newbury & Hobbes Investigation Book 3 - UK EDITION
Ghosts of Manhattan

Simply put: we can't wait to read more George Mann!

Recommended Age: 13 and up. This novel is perfectly accessible to all ages.
Language: Nope.
Violence: Yeah, there is some, especially towards the end with the zombies and such. It's great.
Sex: Nope.


Steve's Note: I'm a big sucker for mystery novels, and I tend to read quite a bit in the mystery/thriller genre. Lately, however, the genre has gone stale, and I've looked for my mystery fix in other areas--namely horror or classics. Mann's THE AFFINITY BRIDGE was picked up strictly based on its cover, but the mystery novel inside really made me excited for mystery again. It also made me pick up the Complete Annotated Sherlock Holmes collection. Three huge hardbacks with every Sherlock Holmes short story and novel. They look pretty, but my wife won't let me read them until Christmas.

Seriously, give Mann's Steampunk novel a try. Not only will it give you an appreciation for the awesomeness of Steampunk, but it might restore your belief in mystery novels again.

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Posted in Books We Like , George Mann , Steampunk