'Girl Genius Volume One: Agatha Awakens' - Phil & Kaja Foglio (Tor)

If you were around a couple of days ago you'll remember that 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' didn't exactly set the world on fire for me. Quite the opposite in fact. If you haven't read the review yet, scroll down a couple of posts and you'll see what I mean.

I love reading comic books & graphic novels and it takes an awful lot to sour the experience for me. The experience was well and truly soured here though and I'll admit to not being too keen on getting back in the saddle straight away.

The 'Girl Genius' book did look intriguing though as did the comment next to my cover art post that the webcomic had won so many Hugos that it had been voluntarily withdrawn to give others a chance. That is really sweet of the authors isn't it? That's also a lot of hype for someone who hasn't read the books to deal with. Is any book so good that it has to be voluntarily withdrawn from the Hugos so the rest of the competition stands a chance...?

You're getting cut and pasted blurb again today as I'm writing this along with a lot of other stuff I need to be doing at the same time (that means the possibility of spoilers, you've been warned)...

The Industrial Revolution has become all-out war! Mad Scientists, gifted with the Spark of genius, unleash insane inventions on an unprepared Europe. For centuries, the Heterodyne family of inventors kept the peace, but the last Heterodyne disappeared twenty years ago, leaving their ally Baron Klaus Wulfenbach to maintain order with his fleet of airships and army of unstoppable, if not very bright, Jaeger Monsters.


At Transylvania Polygnostic University, Agatha Clay dreams of being a scientist herself, but her trouble concentrating dooms her to be a lowly minion at best. When her locket, a family heirloom, is stolen, Agatha shows signs of having the Spark in a spectacular, destructive fashion and captures the attention of the Baron—and the Baron’s handsome young son, Gilgamesh.

I had a whale of a time reading 'Agatha Awakens', that's the bottom line here. I wasn't too sure what to expect here but once I got going I couldn't stop reading (quite literally, this is a book that is all too easy to devour in a single sitting). To be honest, I don't pay a lot of attention at all to the Hugos but it's pretty clear why 'Girl Genius' has scooped a handful of these awards. It's an engaging read that is humorous and full of action in all the right places.

In the aforementioned cover art post, I did have a couple of reservations about a cover that looked as if it wasn't sure whether it wanted to be Manga or not. I didn't like the air of uncertainty that came over as a result and thought it could have benefitted by being one thing or the other. This theme remains the same going into the book but it somehow felt easier to deal with as the plot moved on. Most of this was down to the 'Manga Effect' only really applying to the characters and as I got to know them more it really didn't matter how they were drawn at all. Agatha, Gilgamesh and the rest are all characters that are full of life and people that you really want to get to know more about. More on that in a bit.
What really balanced things out though was the sheer amount of detail and colour on display. The world that Agatha has to find her way in is beautifully drawn with no expense spared in terms of detail. Now this is what I'm after in terms of a Steampunk tale, something fully immersive for all the right reasons.

The story itself starts out along familiar lines, and ends on a familiar note as well, but it's all the bits in between that make the difference with enough surprises and little twists to make you feel like you're reading something a little different even if you're not. The humour on display is infectious, to say the least, and I couldn't help but chuckle pretty much the whole way through. It's the cast, and the way that you get a real insight into their personal journeys, who made this for me though. Agatha, in particular, comes across as someone that you really want to get to know more about with her determination not to let the world get the better of her (even though the odds are stacked against her every day).

Phil and Kaja Foglio have come up with something very special here and I'll certainly be in line for Volume Two if I don't jump headfirst into the webcomic beforehand. It felt like I was the only person who hadn't read 'Girl Genius' before now but if you haven't read it yet then I recommend you set that straight right away.

Nine out of Ten

'The Battle of Blood and Ink' - Jared Axelrod & Steve Walker (Tor)

These days I normally have quite the low tolerance threshold for books that really aren't working for me. Fifty to a hundred pages in and if it's not working out then down the book goes. Every now and then though a book pops up that I end up finishing despite myself. 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' is only a hundred and thirty five pages long and I kept thinking to myself, 'it's not that much further to go, stick with it for a few more pages and then have some chocolate as a reward...' I also kept thinking, 'it's steampunk so something cool is bound to happen in a couple of pages.' It turns out that I was wrong.

In a slightly different approach to the normal reviews here you're getting a 'copied and pasted' blurb here (the reasons for which will become apparent later on...)

If you're visiting the flying city of Amperstam without the latest printing of The Lurker's Guide, you might as well be lost. This one-sheet is written, edited, and printed by Ashe, a girl raised on the streets of the flying city, and is dedicated to revealing its hidden treasures and deepest secrets-including many that the overcontrolling government doesn't want anyone to know. The stakes are raised when Ashe accidentally uncovers the horror of exactly how Amperstam travels among the skies and garners the attention of those who would rather that secret be kept in the hands of the city's powerful leaders.

Soon Ashe is on the run from thugs and assassins, faced with the choice of imperiling her life just to keep publishing, or giving in to the suggestion of a rich patron that she trade in her voice and identity for a quiet, comfortable life. It's a war of confusion for Ashe, but one thing is very clear: just because you live in a flying city, you can't always keep your head in the clouds.

I think my biggest issue here was with the art, or lack of it. We're talking about a steampunk graphic novel here and if steampunk is about anything it's about the whole look of the thing isn't it? We're talking all the ornate glory of 'Victoriana' with added airships and deathrays. At least that's what I thought until I opened the book and got reading. Everything is in black and white for a start and normally that doesn't have to be a bad thing if the detail is there to back things up (I'm thinking 'The Walking Dead' here). With 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' though, all the black and white art does is to show up just how little detail there is. It all feels very transparent and I was left very aware that I was looking at a backdrop to the story rather than a background that added to the proceedings in any way.

Moving onto how the characters themselves are depicted... It seems to be the fashion these days to give the reader a few preliminary sketches, at the back of the book, to show you how the character came to be (and what they could have been). 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' is the only graphic novel I've ever seen where the cast of characters actually regress from their preliminary sketches. It should have been the other way round, it really should. If that wasn't bad enough, the characters all look really awkward during the course of the plot; everything looks staged rather than in motion...

Moving onto the plot and I think that the nicest thing you can say here is that it is ambitious, wanting to say an awful lot about a number of things. The only problem here that there's only a hundred and thirty five pages to fit all of this ambition into and it was never going to fit. What you get instead is a passing nod to a number of themes, none of which are truly expanded upon. I'd like to think that this is all about setting things up for the future but we are led to believe that a few of these sub-plots are actually rounded off and finished up with. If they are then it's not a particularly satisfactory conclusion, not when you don't get to actually see how things work out. I did like the one page issue of 'The Lurker's Guide' though, I wish we could have had a little more along those lines...

I think a hundred extra pages could have done 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' the world of good as we would have been able to get a better look at the city of Amperstam and its inhabitants. We would have actually seen character development and why things were happening instead of being forced to take the books word for it. As it is though, 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' comes across as poorly planned and poorly presented. Don't let me stop you giving it a go (one man's meat is another man's, erm... something else?) but I can't see myself picking up any more books in the series.

Five out of Ten

‘Roil’ – Trent Jamieson (Angry Robot)

There are many variables to take into account when I’m deciding on what book to pick up next from the pile. There’s all the usual stuff (do I want fantasy or sci-fi for example) but other things that sometimes get taken into account include the likelihood of overcrowding on the tube (which cuts out anything by George R.R. Martin or Erikson) and how little sleep I’ve had the previous night (far too little this days...)
It may be a little shallow of me (and that’s a discussion for another time I think) but any cover art that catches my eye will always mean that the book itself is read sooner rather than later. What I’m finding though is that this mandate is beginning to cover bad cover art as well as the good. What kind of a book gets treated with such disdain that it has bad cover art slapped on it (before it’s even published sometimes)? There’s only one way to find out, read the book.

Take Trent Jamieson’s ‘Roil’ for example where a grim and foreboding cityscape is spoilt by the introduction of a figure that would look better placed on the cover of a very old Playstation game. I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the choice of cover and the blurb sold me. Having finished the book I’ve once again learned the lesson of not judging a book by its cover. ‘Roil’ may be a tough nut to crack initially but if you sticks with it then you will be rewarded.

The Roil is coming... A vast chaotic storm that hides hordes of monsters in it’s black depths, the Roil has already consumed eight of the twelve cities of Shale and left dark wasteland in it’s wake. Now another city lies directly in its path whilst another is being attacked from within. Shale is dying...
All hope isn’t lost though. There is one more chance to beat back the Roil and it lies within the hands of a drug addict, a four thousand year old man and a young woman out for revenge. Is it already too late though and is the chance to save the world worth using the weapons to hand...?

I’ve got to admit, the first few chapters of ‘Roil’ really didn’t do it for me at all and I found myself wondering whether to just put the book down and check out something else instead. ‘Roil’ found its feet in the end though and I would check out the next book to see if this early promise continues.

Considering the number of books already doing this, another book that opens with the death of a loved one leading to an orphaned teenager going on the run has got to pull something pretty impressive out of the hat in order to stand out and keep you reading. Unfortunately for ‘Roil’, its opening scenes didn’t do enough to engage me straight away. There was precious little to engage with in the character of David (who could barely engage with himself, proving that narrative about drug use can backfire if you’re not careful) and the end result was that I found myself looking for that ‘hook’ when the book really should have grabbed me a lot earlier.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the setting wasn’t particularly inspiring either; a dark and gloomy ‘steampunk’ city where politics can be lethal as the Mayor will do whatever it takes to stay in control and bring his vision to fruition. I read this and couldn’t get China Mieville’s ‘New Crobuzon’ out of my head; this feeling really didn’t do a lot to give the city of Mirrlees-on-Weep an identity of its own. To be fair, there are hints of something more science fiction based that really flesh things out (and provide that sense of identity) but this all comes much later in the plot so you’re pretty much stuck until then...

I stuck with it though and am glad that I did.

As the book moves on it gains a momentum and identity all of it’s own that pushes things forward in all the right ways and offers intriguing possibilities for books to come. I’ve mentioned the tenuous sci-fi link already but, to my mind, the real star of the show is the Roil itself. We’re talking about a massive (possibly continent spanning) storm that advances at a relentless pace, it can only be halted for a short while and then it will grind you right down with the various monsters that lurk within it. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Roil (and its inhabitants) has somehow developed the capacity for rational thought. The Roil won’t just come at you mindlessly; it will fight you with weapons that you thought only you possessed. What was once a stand up fight has now become something far more insidious and offers possibilities that this book positively thrives upon. The manner of weaponry employed by humanity, in this fight, also makes for some refreshing reading as well as some awesome battle sequences.

As the fight spreads across the landscape we are slowly given more of an idea of what Shale is like to live in. It’s an unforgiving world but the only alternative is far worse (as we are made only too aware of in certain scenes)! This lends the story the urgency it needs to push on, there’s a real sense of ‘race against time’ here. It’s a shame then that the group of characters fighting to save Shale aren’t really given the same treatment. Margaret is too set in her ways (and hence one dimensional) to really develop further. Paul suffers from the same kind of treatment but the payoff here is that he is being set up to do more in the next book (that may not help you here though...)
The big draw for me was Cadell, a four thousand year old man guilty of something terrible and weighed down heavily by whatever it was. He is a man still capable of terrible things and whenever he does he is so apologetic as he really has no choice when some of his darker needs come to light. It’s this contrast that makes him a character that you just have to keep following.

‘Roil’ is a real book of two halves in terms of readability but luckily the stodgy stuff comes at the beginning and the good stuff takes over soon after. The second half of the book offers a tantalising glimpse of what might be a series worth keeping an eye on. Look out for ‘Roil’ at the beginning of September this year.

Eight out of Ten

‘Anno Frankenstein’ – Jonathan Green (Abaddon Books)

If you’re anything like me then you’ll find yourself with a clutch of favourite authors who you know publish their work on a very regular basis; so regular in fact that a large chunk of your reading schedule takes care of itself. It’s June? It must be time for another book from Author X, I’ll just pop the kettle on...
Now, as you all know by now, my reading schedule is pretty much shot to hell but that doesn’t stop me keeping an eye open for those favourite authors of mine and having all the best intentions of picking them up as soon as possible. Jonathan Green and his ‘Pax Britannia’ novels fall very firmly into this category. I’ve been having a lot of fun with these books ever since the blog began and I don’t see that fun stopping any time soon; I can’t get enough of this series and if you’re a fan of steampunk adventure then I reckon you’ll be the same.  When one of these books comes through the door then I know I’m in for a good read, even if it takes me a little longer than normal to get to it.
I got there in the end (in your face life!) and finished ‘Anno Frankenstein’ off yesterday. As good a read as ever but I had my reservations in places...

Ulysses Quicksilver, agent of the crown, was last seen following the insane Daniel Dashwood into the depths of the time vortex. Both have found themselves in the Germany of the Second Great War but each of them is there for very different reasons. Dashwood wants to share modern technology with Hitler’s forces and change the very shape of history. Quicksilver must stop him otherwise the world he knows (in the future now) will never have existed...
The Nazis are bolstering their ranks with the necrotic flesh of undead super soldiers and this is what Quicksilver must fight through if he is to win the day. Quicksilver has his own allies though. A team of undercover female spies are working their own brand of havoc behind enemy lines and Ulysses Quicksilver’s own father is there too, wondering just why the British Government has partnered him with the weakling scientist Dr. Jekyll. Anything could happen, especially when the hills around the Nazi castle reveal yet more surprises...

As much as I love to take a chance on new reads, I also love the knowledge that I can pick up certain authors and be guaranteed a good time. That’s just what I got with ‘Anno Frankenstein’, a book that I should have got round to sooner but was polished off in record time anyway.

The danger with reviewing books in a (relatively) long running series is that, almost inevitably, you’re going to run out of original things to say; especially if the writer in question has found his groove and is doing what he does best. Is this such a big deal though? Thinking about it, I’d have to say ‘actually it really isn’t’. You can only review what’s in front of you after all so here goes...

If you haven’t read any of the preceding ‘Pax Britannia’ novels then this really is the wrong place to get started. Not only is there a lot of back story that you’re missing out on but you’re also missing out on six books worth of devious villains, dashing heroes, well drawn steam punk weirdness and stuff getting blown up. You can’t fail to enjoy this stuff so go find yourself a copy of ‘Unnatural History’ and get going.

For those of you who have read and enjoyed the previous six books then you’ll be pleased to know that you’re in for more of the same here. In the best traditions of pulp fiction, Green sets the stakes incredibly high and then has his hero go about his job in the best possible way, all wise cracks and flirting but with a propensity for violence when it’s needed. These are the moments where you look at what’s happening on the page and think to yourself that it wouldn’t be out of place on the big screen, I’d love to see it. Set pieces flow into cliff hangers which result in more set pieces. It all happens so quickly that this approach doesn’t feel repetitive in the slightest, there’s no time for anything else but being swamped by everything that’s happening on the page.

It’s not all about the action though (although there’s plenty of it). Green handles the meeting between Ulysses and his father in a delicate way that lets us all know about one of the big dangers of time travel (especially given what Ulysses knows will happen in the future). You’re not really told an awful lot about Ulysses’ father but enough inferences are made for you to be able to build up a picture of your own.
On a slightly different note, I’ve always been a fan of the way that Green brings pop culture into this series and although it was a bit of a mixed bag this time round there was still plenty to make me chuckle. The ‘Star Trek’ reference was a little heavy handed and overdone but bringing the Incredible Hulk into the story was a touch of genius. The ‘Quantum Leap’ reference was inevitable but handled very well nonetheless.

There was one issue that I had with the book and, funnily enough, it was an issue that I’d had with the preceding book ‘Dark Side’. For me, part of the appeal of Ulysses Quicksilver’s adventures was the gloriously gawdy, yet dark, steam punk backdrop of Green’s British Empire. The character and this backdrop dovetail superbly but the plot is gradually moving away from the backdrop and things somehow feel like there isn’t so much to sink your teeth into and be a part of. You’re there for the story but there isn’t that same level of detail in the background that makes you want to stick around a little before turning the page. I can’t really complain, given what else is on offer, but I’m left hoping that the action heads back to Magna Britannia very soon.

That to one side though, ‘Anno Frankenstein’ is another rip-roaring instalment in the adventures of my favourite British secret agent. I can’t wait for the next book but it’s not like I have much choice in the matter...

Nine out of Ten

‘The Falling Machine (The Society of Steam Book One)’ – Andrew P. Mayer (Pyr)

You all know this already but I’m a real sucker for well done cover art. If you’re an author and your cover artist has done a good job on your cover then you’ve more than likely already won half the battle in getting me to pick your book up and give it a go. Shallow? Probably but that’s just the way it seems to go sometimes. The other half of the battle lies in the blurb, the very next thing I look at after your cover art has caught my art (sometimes it goes the other way round but you get the general meaning here). If the story looks interesting then I’m in, no question about it!

On first glance, ‘The Falling Machine’ looked like it had things covered on both fronts. Check out that cover art for a start. A giant robot with a Gatling gun for an arm always gets me interested but look at the detail and effort that must have gone into it; lovely stuff. The blurb on the back caught my eye as well so I made sure that I got round to this one a lot quicker than I normally would.
It was a real shame then that I felt more than a bit let down by the time I’d finished reading...
It’s the eighteen eighties and New York’s foremost band of gentlemen adventurers (The Society of Paragons) are powered by the discovery of ‘fortified steam’ in their never ending fight against crime. Sarah Stanton is the daughter of one of the Paragons but has been deliberately kept at arms length from what is a very dangerous world. Her dreams of being a hero have only been dreams, until now...

When the leader of the Paragons is killed before her eyes, a chain of events unfolds that will reveal the lie beneath the surface of the Paragons as well as having Sarah running for her life from some particularly sinister villains of Manhattan’s underworld. Her only ally is the mechanical man known as the Automaton but with the hand of every Paragon set firmly against the Automaton is there any hope that Sarah will be able to bring the truth to light and thwart the plans of Lord Eschaton...?
So... Steam powered superheroes and villains, a feisty heroine and a self aware automaton with a dirty great gun as an arm. These should have been the ingredients for an amazing tale of adventure and for you they might be. Not for me though...
I’ve got to be fair at this point and say that a lot of groundwork is obviously taking place in ‘The Falling Machine’ in preparation for the next book(s) in the series. That’s fair enough I guess, the groundwork has to happen somewhere and I’m sure it’ll make all the difference when the series is complete and the big picture revealed. What I found ‘The Falling Machine’ to be though was a book that was all about setting the scene and not really about telling a story in its own right. Again, all well and good in terms of the big picture at the end but what good is that if the approach taken at the beginning leaves you not wanting to read the rest of the series (that’s where I’m at right now)? There is a lot of info-dumping going on here and I do mean a lot. Everything has to be explained and the story itself doesn’t get to breathe as a result (there is a neat little mystery lurking somewhere underneath all this...). Things move very slowly for the most part and when they did speed up I was left wondering why the rest of the book hadn’t been like this. Mayer can do it but for some reason it felt like he chose not to. I did enjoy his depictions of a gloomy, poverty stricken Manhattan though.

A lot of this could have been bypassed easily if I’d been able to get on with the lead character Sarah Stanton but I was denied even this. This is a little more subjective as Sarah Stanton may well be your cup of tea but she didn’t work for me, especially when she came out with the line, ‘I think I’ve been falling in love with you Professor, perhaps for quite some time.’ That really grated.

While Sarah does do a lot throughout the course of the book I never really got a feel for exactly why she was doing what she did. The best I got was that it was all because her father had told her not to... I’m sure things will pick up in future instalments but what I was left with in the meantime was a very shallow character that almost didn’t want to be engaged with. There were certainly others who were worth my time, the Automaton for example. Watching all of his well intended actions fall apart was sad to see.

‘The Falling Machine’ may work for you (if you can get past the info-dumps then the plot does have the potential to be very interesting with lots of questions asked) but I personally can’t see myself picking up the next book in the series.
Six out of Ten

‘Dark Side’ – Jonathan Green (Abaddon Books)

I told you it wouldn’t be too long before I got round to reading ‘Dark Side’... It’s an occasionally bumpy ride but I know that anything involving gentleman adventurer, and agent of the crown, Ulysses Quicksilver is guaranteed to be nothing short of entertaining. The quickest way to explain the series (other than telling you to go and find yourself a copy of ‘Unnatural History’ and get reading...) is to sum it up as a ‘Steampunk Blockbuster’ where the heroes and villains positively brim over with their requisite traits and the resulting antics are crammed full of rooftop chases, frantic cliff hangers and climactic fights in submersibles or zeppelins... Lightweight? Maybe. Fun? Definitely!
All of this brings me onto ‘Dark Side’; a book that I was eagerly anticipating following the insane events of ‘Blood Royal’ and a book that I subsequently polished off in no short order. I was left wondering if ‘Blood Royal’ set the bar a little bit too high and whether it was too tough an act to follow. ‘Dark Side’ is a great read in itself but there was something missing...

Having saved the world yet again, Ulysses Quicksilver could really do with a holiday. He could certainly do with getting away for a bit as holding a gun to the Tsarina’s head hasn’t gone down well in some circles, no matter how good his intentions... If you’re looking to get away from it all then there’s no better place to go than the British Lunar colonies but Quicksilver has other plans in mind than a mere holiday. Ulysses’ brother Barty has fled to the Lunar colonies in an attempt to escape his problems on Earth; Ulysses wants to track him down and help him out.
What Ulysses will find though is far more dangerous than a sibling in a spot of bother. Why are people constantly trying to kill him? Can he convince the Lunar Police Force that he wasn’t involved in one particular murder? What is going on at a hidden base on the dark side of the moon? And will he ever be cast in anything but a bad light in front of his former fiancé? Three of the questions could well lead to a catastrophe beyond all proportions...

Picking up a ‘Ulysses Quicksilver’ book is like catching up with an old friend. You know roughly what he’s been up to and you just need to know the details. ‘Dark Side’ treads familiar ground in terms of plot and reaps the benefits of a tried and tested formula; namely throwing everything possible at Ulysses and seeing how he handles it. This book takes a couple of significant diversions from it forebears though and one of these ends up being to the detriment of the book itself.

The world of Magna Britannia, and London in particular, are as integral to the series as is Quicksilver himself. This heaving mass of humanity provides a rich and incredibly deep backdrop to the ongoing adventure and it’s a backdrop that I could quite happily lose myself in for hours at a time. It’s dark, dangerous and there is always something going on that sheds light on what a nasty (yet compelling) world this really is. I don’t have the link to hand but Charles Stross had a few words to say recently about Steampunk covering up the seamier side of what the British Empire was built on. While I haven’t read an awful lot of Steampunk, I would say that Green’s setting goes some way towards addressing these particular issues. You get to see the high life here but you are left in no doubt as to what the foundations are...

Moving the action to the Moon then is a bit of a risk and, for me, it didn’t entirely pay off. I can see the sense in introducing fresh scenery that will throw fresh problems at Quicksilver as well as broadening the scope of the Empire in this series. I’ll also quite happily agree that it may be a case of waiting for this new background to ‘bed in’ with the rest and things may seem different in a few books time. For me though, the transition to a new setting didn’t flow as easily as I was hoping.
What the reader is basically doing here is going from a rich tapestry to a relatively blank canvas. Of course it was going to be relatively blank; we’re talking about the Moon here! The thing is though, Quicksilver’s adventures work very well with the level of detail that they’re set against. Without that detail, things didn’t feel quite right. Maybe it’s something that I need to get used to but it didn’t sit well in the meantime...

Can I really complain though when the rest of the book is a glorious medley of time travelling Nazis, giant robots tearing up stuff and an ultimately tragic murder mystery? No, not really!
Green attacks the plot with his usual zest and vigour, giving us a story that rockets along with a mix of heady spectacle (I’m thinking of the giant robots here, loved that bit) and murderous intrigue. Mysteries abound and Quicksilver has to solve them all; the plot moves far too quickly for the reader to have any choice left but to come along for the ride and what a ride it is. There is plenty going on but Green has no trouble keeping everything in the air and ticking along nicely. And what a cliff-hanger ending! Whereas previous books have stood well on their own, ‘Dark Side’ is all about setting up the finale in the book to follow. There is no doubt at all that I will be around for that instalment, especially if things follow the background described in Al Ewing’s ‘El Sombra’.

The shift in setting causes ‘Dark Side’ to stumble a little after the magnificent sprint that was ‘Blood Royal’. In terms of sheer entertainment though, you can’t fault what turned out to be another gripping instalment in the adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

‘Pax Britannia: Blood Royal’ – Jonathan Green (Abaddon Books)

Christmas is a time for lots of things and, for me, one of those things is to go back and revisit a favourite author or two when the weather outside is frightful (and the fire is so delightful...) Jonathan Green sits firmly on that particular list with his ‘Pax Britannia’ series being just the right reading for this time of year. If you’re looking for something highbrow then you might just want to look somewhere else but if you’re looking for a highly entertaining read that’s a lot of fun then you’ve come to the right place! The hero is appropriately dashing and if the villains had moustaches then you can bet that they would be twirling them devilishly. The ‘Pax Britannia’ books are guaranteed to take you away from the tedium of everyday living and dump you right in the middle of a steampunk London where every shadow holds a knife and enemies of the Empire plot against the throne. You can tell that I highly recommend these books...
This brings me onto ‘Blood Royal’; a book that I’ve been saving up to read while things gently wind down towards the New Year. ‘Evolution Expects’ was clearly setting up events for future books and, while this lessened the impact of the book itself, this approach had me looking forward to seeing what happened next. I’m pleased to say that, with ‘Blood Royal’, Jonathan Green has turned in his best instalment yet.

Following the events of ‘Evolution Expects’, large chunks of London are barred to the public as they are now home to vicious insect/human hybrids that are barely contained behind makeshift barriers. That’s not going to stop Ulysses Quicksilver though! When a kidnapping goes horribly wrong and a friend’s daughter is spirited away to the locust nest in St. Paul’s Cathedral only Quicksilver can save the girl and the day. This adventure soon proves to be only a small part of something much larger though and Quicksilver once again finds himself embroiled in a plot that could have grave consequences for the Empire... What was Dr. Gallowglass working on before his untimely death and why does the trail lead to a remote region of Russia? And what is the connection to a very familiar looking killer stalking the streets of Whitechapel with a knife...?

I had my reasons for putting ‘Blood Royal’ to one side until now. I wanted to have fun with my Christmas reading this year and I knew that’s what I’d be getting with this book; it made sense to wait until now for the read. Having said all that though, I still found myself wondering I hadn’t picked this book up a lot earlier. It’s one hell of an entertaining ride and I’m not going to wait as long before picking the next book up!

Usually, when an author throws everything (he can get his hands on) at the plot it will be at the overall expense of the story. Not everything will stick, for one thing, and that inevitably leads to a fragmented book that doesn’t flow anywhere near as well as it should.
Not so with Jonathan Green and ‘Blood Royal’. Throughout the course of the book, Green really does throw everything bar the kitchen sink at the plot. Are you looking for a tale with a long dead serial killer rebuilt in cyborg form? It’s here. Were you looking for a tale of biological warfare involving vampires and werewolves? ‘Blood Royal’ comes up trumps there as well. By this point you’re probably thinking that ‘Blood Royal’ cannot possibly contain Mongol warriors riding Pterodactyls, can it? It can...
The beauty here is that everything Green throws at the plot not only sticks but sticks in such a way as to work with the plot instead of merely being decorative. What you get as a result is a plot that moves at a frantic pace whilst making complete and utter sense. Each madcap spectacle flows seamlessly into the next and I was totally caught up in the rush of trying to get to the bottom of a very mysterious murder. It’s very obvious who the murderer is but, at the same time, it’s a lot of fun to see this particular character in a new setting. I think we’ll be seeing more of him in the future...

Green’s ‘scattershot’ approach to the story also has the welcome affect of giving his readers a much more in-depth view of the world of Magna Britannia and the elements that keep the Empire running. The plot may be a little light weight and pulpy but the detail in the background offers clear evidence that this is a world that has been carefully planned and thought out. It’s a firm setting for the plot to rest on and the story benefits from being able to do its own thing without having to justify some of its wilder excesses.

Just like watching your favourite ‘Indiana Jones’ film on Christmas afternoon (‘Temple of Doom’ if you’re asking...) ‘Blood Royal’ has it all going on and at such a speed that you are almost physically compelled to keep reading. Apart from a couple of the ‘journey’ passages that is. Sometimes things just don’t happen on a long trip but that still means things can get a little on the boring side; especially when the rest of the book is such a riot of action. Tying it all together though is that dashing hero of the British Empire Ulysses Quicksilver. As always, Quicksilver is just the right kind of character to drive a plot like this with his ability to take charge of the moment and get things done. He also has a nice line in repartee and dazzling swordplay; you can’t really ask for too much more from your leading man!

‘Blood Royal’ is another thoroughly entertaining read from Green that will set the standard for the rest of the books in this series. I’m hoping for more of the same from ‘Dark Side’ and will let you know how it goes...

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘The Affinity Bridge’ – George Mann (Tor)

I received a copy of George Mann’s ‘The Osiris Ritual’, for review, a few days ago and my first thought was, ‘this looks cool but wasn’t there another book that came before it...?’ I wasn’t mistaken, how could I have been? A couple of years ago now, it felt like everyone was saying what great fun Mann’s ‘The Affinity Bridge’ was but it turned out to be yet another book that I never quite managed to get round to. When you’ve got a reading pile that’s spilling off the shelves and onto the floor, sometimes it really is best to try and read what you’ve got first before finding yet more stuff to read!
It’s better to arrive late to a party than not turn up at all though! Especially when there’s that ‘warm afterglow’ of everyone having enjoyed a book and you can fit right in nicely. At least that’s what I thought when I asked for a copy of ‘The Affinity Bridge’ to go with ‘The Osiris Ritual’. I actually ended up feeling wondering what the fuss was all about...

Victorian London sits on the very edge of an unprecedented industrial revolution. Airships add a new feature to the city’s skyline while trains rumble through the streets and automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks across London. All of this is overseen by a Queen Victoria kept alive by a primitive life support system and this isn’t the only dark side to London. A zombie plague sweeps the slums and there are reports of a glowing policeman hunting the streets for his unsuspecting prey. An automaton pilot missing from a crashed airship could be just the thing to tie these two events together and it’s the job of Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes to solve an unfolding mystery that could have dire consequences if it’s not dealt with...

A blurb like that can’t fail to impress can it? I’ll bet you read it and found yourself thinking that you wouldn’t mind some of that yourself. The reality for me though was a little different...

‘The Affinity Bridge’ is a perfectly serviceable detective novel with a mystery that I for one wanted to see resolved. Revelations hang together (albeit very loosely) and everything does fit together by the end of the book. The steampunk flavour to the setting initially promises much as well; I don’t know an awful lot about steampunk but I like what I’ve see so far and I was looking forward to more of the same here. And there are zombies to be found as well! If you know me at all then you will know that it only takes the merest hint of zombies for me to pick a book up and get reading. When the zombies don’t turn up until page two hundred and fifty four of a three hundred and thirty six page book though... Even a zombie fan like me can end up feeling a little short changed though. They’re in a very brief prologue and then that’s it until well over halfway through the book!

This example is symptomatic of the issue that I had with ‘The Affinity Bridge’; namely that George Mann decides to sidestep everything slightly outlandish that he’s put in the book (to make it great) in order to concentrate on the more mundane areas of the plot. There are just enough elements of steampunk for the book to fit in the subgenre but certainly not enough to make it feel like the steampunk book it purports to be. I came away with the feeling that I’d been reading about historical Victorian London with a few extra bits bolted on to make it stand out a little. I’m not saying that Mann had to really over egg the cake but a little more flavour could have made all the difference here. When the robots and automatons finally attack, Mann proves that he can write an exciting scene to set pulses racing but it just left me thinking, “Why haven’t you done this some more...?” Same deal with the big revelation right at the end. Although it has been done before, the evil plan of Mann’s villains is dressed up superbly and makes for a fine read right at the end of the book. The problem I had with it though is that the outlandishness here is completely at odds with the more mundane London that Mann has painted earlier. The two pieces didn’t quite gel and that made the story stumble when it should have soared...

As I mentioned earlier, what you’re left with is a detective story that does its job well enough but isn’t as eye catching as the subject matter could have made it if it had been properly employed. I will be back for ‘The Osiris Ritual’ though, purely because of the relationship gradually building up between Newbury and Hobbes as well as the characters themselves. Both are ‘pleasingly pulp’ and worth following, even though I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive Mann for the ease with which Newbury escapes the aftermath of a lethal situation. If you’ve read ‘The Affinity Bridge’ then you’ll know what I’m talking about...

It’s the characters that will have me back for the next instalment and I’m hoping that the world building elements of ‘The Osiris Ritual’ will be of a higher standard than they were this time round. ‘The Affinity Bridge’ is a novel that promises much and then only delivers half of it...

Six out of Ten

‘Johannes Cabal the Detective’ – Jonathan L. Howard (Doubleday/Headline)

Jonathan L. Howard’s ‘Johannes Cabal the Necromancer’ was one of those books that sounded intriguing but I somehow never got round to reading. ‘So many books, so little time to read them all’ and other excuses... ;o) It didn’t so much fly under my radar, more a case of being pushed. In one of those strange quirks of fate, ‘Johannes Cabal the Necromancer’ ended up being one of those books that everyone else seemed to like (seriously, check out Here and Here for starters) but I still never seemed to get round to picking up. My ongoing resolution to be in at the start of potentially great series took a bit of a knock here but I resolved not to be beaten (at least, not too badly). When I was asked if I would like to see a copy of the sequel I jumped at the chance, both to see if all the good words were justified and also to see if I could jump on here without having read the first book (as I like to give this a try every now and then)...

Fresh from the events of the first book (which I won’t go into for fear of spoilers for those who haven’t read it) Johannes Cabal is about to face an enemy far worse than those who lurk in the lowest pits of Hell... human politics.
An attempt to steal a rare book leads Johannes Cabal to a voyage on board the airship ‘Princess Hortense’ (under an assumed identity) via the resurrection of a dead emperor and the subsequent breakdown of law and order in a small country. A voyage should be the ideal way to relax, after such exertions, but life is never so easy for our necromancer hero. A death on board the ‘Princess Hortense’ provides an intriguing mystery for Cabal to chew on; an attempt on Cabal’s life makes solving the mystery a little more urgent... Things aren’t quite as they seem on board the ‘Princess Hortense’, Cabal must get to the bottom of things before he becomes just another body falling from the decks of the airship...

Going with the second reason (for picking this book up) first... I found ‘Johannes Cabal the Detective’ to be a book that was very accessible despite not having read the first book. What we’re looking at here is a book with a self contained plot where a thorough examination of the main character means that you don’t have to have read the first book in order to enjoy this one. And you will enjoy it, more of that in a little bit though...
Having said all that though, Howard appreciates that there are those among us who will want to know at least some of the events that led up to Johannes Cabal being in the situation that he is. For these people, Howard populates his text with little snippets of background history to flesh things out and fill us in. I particularly liked the way that this was done, I came away knowing a lot more about the character (than I did previously) but never felt that this information had got in the way of the story at hand. If only more books could be like this...

I said that you’ll enjoy ‘Johannes Cabal the Detective’ and I wasn’t lying. You’ll have to work for it though... Johannes Cabal himself gradually becomes an absorbing character who carries the plot beautifully but he’s not someone whom it’s easy to get to know and that can make the plot drag a little at the same time. Cabal is a man of science, as well as a criminal mastermind, and his resulting detachment from the rest of humanity seems to be the only part of him that we really get to see much of. While this approach makes for some deliciously devious and funny moments at times it can also feel a little overplayed (over the course of an almost three hundred page novel) and the joke does wear a little thin as a result. Hints of other facets of Cabal’s personality promise good things for future books but he’s more than a little one dimensional at the moment. We’re lucky in that the one dimension comprises witty sarcasm, a sharp mind and a capacity to surprise his enemies; I wouldn’t have minded seeing a little more though...

Once you get past this, the rest of the story is a joy to read; a gripping detective tale with answers that are hidden in plain sight but hidden so well that you won’t notice them until Howard wants you to. When you are shown the answers, it all makes perfect sense and you’ll wonder why you didn’t see it right from the start.
The reason is that Howard proves to be more than adept at carefully planting the seeds of questions (along with innumerable red herrings) throughout the book. Readers are led up blind alleys only to find that their questions still haven’t been answered, they’ve got to keep reading to have any hope of that. This is what kept me reading; Howard delivers a mystery that you just have to get to the bottom of and the payoff more than matches the build up. The revelation is all the more effective for its sheer simplicity.

Not only does Howard deliver a devilish mystery but he also wraps it all up in a gorgeous ‘steampunk noir’ atmosphere that had me slowing down, every now and then, to enjoy either skulking in various European alleyways or flying high above them in the ‘latest flying machine’. The character Leonie Barrow also makes for a fine partner for Cabal’s crime solving exploits as her ‘up front’ approach forces Cabal to come out of himself as the book progresses. Add in Howard’s tendency to go off on comedic tangents (comes close to being overdone but isn’t ) and I was pretty much onto a winner the second I started reading.

‘Johannes Cabal the Detective’ initially has its problems but overcomes these and proves to be nothing less than a thoroughly entertaining read. I still may not find the time to read ‘Johannes Cabal the Necromancer’ (too many other books to read first) but you can count on my being there when the next book is published. I’m looking forward to it already... 'Johannes Cabal' is published by Doubleday in the US and Headline over here in the UK.