Tag Archives: steampunk

Karen Memory

Book Review of Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear

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Karen MemortI picked up a copy of Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear at my local library (basically because I adored the cover).

Description from Goodreads:
“You ain’t gonna like what I have to tell you, but I’m gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I’m one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It’s French, so Beatrice tells me.”

Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes, would-be gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable’s high-quality bordello. Through Karen’s eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, begging sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, and who has a machine that can take over anyone’s mind and control their actions.  And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap—a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered.

Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper yarn of the old west with a light touch in Karen’s own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science.

Review:
This was a really quite enjoyable Wild West, Steampunk, Mystery Adventure. Yep, all those things. The narrator, Karen, has a very distinct, first person voice and I appreciated that the book even came around at the end and gave a reason for the first person narration. That’s balm to my soul that. It’s a pet peeve of mine to read first person POV and not know why I’m ‘being told the story.’

The book is also wonderfully diverse. There are characters of different races, nationalities, sexualities, and abilities. Several have prosthetic limbs, one blithely keeps a ‘pecker’ under her dress and several, despite being sorely uneducated, are still quite clever. It’s a quite endearing mix. I enjoyed this aspect of the book quite a lot. Probably just as much as I adored the fact that this is sewing machine mecha (just stop and imagine that for a moment) and that there are men and women working together without any underlying sexual tension. How rare is that?

However, I found the book quite slow. Plenty of action happens, but Karen’s narrative style means that it is all just sort of relayed to the reader in a somewhat flat manner. It mutes some of the effect, I think. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the way that same narrative tone highlighted her pragmatism about her profession and position. So, this was a bit of a double-edged sword. But it did mean there where times I found picking the book back up a bit of a chore.

Additionally, there are more than a few convenient coincidences that allow the plot to progress. Like meeting an airship pilot just hours before the characters suddenly had need of an airship. It felt contrived.

Despite my few complaints, I basically really enjoyed the characters and therefore their story. (I should probably note, just for accuracy’s sake, that the book’s description calls it a “Jack the Ripper yarn,” but other than murdering prostitutes it doesn’t have anything to do with that Jack. I might have accepted Jack the Ripper-like, but it’s not a “Jack the Ripper yarn.”)

Book Review of The Iron Duke & Heart of Steel, by Meljean Brook

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The Iron DukeI checked out Meljean Brook‘s The Iron Duke and Heart of Steel from my local library.

About the book:

After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power – and fear – of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession.

But when Mina uncovers the victim’s identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England. To save them, Mina and Rhys must race across zombie-infested wastelands and treacherous oceans-and Mina discovers the danger is not only to her countrymen, as she finds herself tempted to give up everything to the Iron Duke.

Review:
Oh, this was marvellous! I adored just about every aspect of it. Mina is a wonderful action-oriented heroine. The Duke is a great alpha hero. (He does come across as a little too alpha, borderline rapey in the beginning. But it’s also kind of fun seeing him learn how not to be that way.) And the side characters, they’re also amazing.

There are all the expected steampunk elements–mechanical men, zombies, kraken, airships, etc. There’s a very intricate and intriguing dystopian world, exotic local and romance.

But I also really appreciated that the book is adult themed. Not erotica or anything like that, but it explores some very dark human elements and a lot of people in it have a history of abuse. This was all handled without feeling extraneous to the plot or pointlessly titillating.

Plus, there are real, grown up main characters. She is almost 30 and he’s past his mid thirties. I appreciate not having to imagine 21 year olds with the bearings and life experience of older characters. Much better to just be given an appropriately aged character in the first place.

There was a bit of insta-love. I could have done without all Mina’s tears in the end and some of the ‘misunderstandings’ were cliché  and predictable.  But my final says is *winner.*

About the book:

Heart of SteelThe Iron Duke introduced the gritty, alluring adventure of the Iron Seas, where nanotech fuses with Victorian sensibilities—and steam.

As the mercenary captain of Lady Corsair, Yasmeen has learned to keep her heart as cold as steel, her only loyalty bound to her ship and her crew. So when a man who once tried to seize her airship returns from the dead, Yasmeen will be damned if she gives him another opportunity to take control.

Treasure hunter Archimedes Fox isn’t interested in Lady Corsair—he wants her coldhearted captain and the valuable da Vinci sketch she stole from him. To reclaim it, Archimedes is determined to seduce the stubborn woman who once tossed him to a ravenous pack of zombies, but she’s no easy conquest.

When da Vinci’s sketch attracts a dangerous amount of attention, Yasmeen and Archimedes journey to Horde-occupied Morocco—and straight into their enemy’s hands. But as they fight to save themselves and a city on the brink of rebellion, the greatest peril Yasmeen faces is from the man who seeks to melt her icy heart.

Review:
Well, we have another winner! I very much enjoyed Yasmeen and Archimedes’ story. Yasmeen was a great, strong female lead and Archimedes was like an anti-alpha. The man had some definite subby tendencies that I found adorable.

Though the world-building is as impressive as in the first book, I didn’t feel the plot was quite as expansive. Therefore, I wasn’t as wowed here as I had been with The Iron Duke (though I still really liked it).

I also thought Yasmeen’s attitude toward Archimedes seemed to shift suddenly and without a lot of clear reasons, especially considering how vested she was in not falling in love. Plus, as I’ve seen frequently in romances, the deeper in love she fell the weepier she became. This especially annoyed me as she was otherwise so…well, not unemotional, as she’s passionate and full of emotion, but also not one inclined to the softer emotions. Tears seem drastically out of character.

Despite a few little niggles, I’m in love with this series and hope my local library gets the rest of the series.

Memento Mori

Book Review of Memento Mori, by Katy O’Dowd

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Memento MoriAuthor, Katy O’Dowd sent me a copy of her novel Memento Mori.

Description from Goodreads:
Take tea with the Victorian Mafia – organized crime has never been so civilized 

Revenge is a dish best served cold. At the Lamb residence, it is also served on fine bone china. 

The untimely demise of Thaddeus Lamb leaves his son Riley in charge of the vast Lamb empire, which imports tea, picks pockets, extorts, and keeps men warm on cold winter’s nights. And so the Lambs grieve for their father in the best way they know how… Retribution. 

Hired by the new head of the Fox Family, a position recently vacated by another untimely demise, the assassin O’Murtagh is tasked with the utter destruction of all the Lamb Family’s business associates. They learn the hard way that there is no better hit man than a beautiful woman with tricks and weapons up her finely coiffed sleeves. 

Treachery and deceit abound in the streets of London, and no one is safe. Honestly, it’s enough to make anyone drink. Would you care for one lump or two?

Review:
Memento Mori is an ambitious novel. Taken on by a less talented writer, I think it could easily have been a flop. So many intricately woven plot points going back and forwards in time and revealing small clues before tying them all together in the last few pages surely too immense skill to keep straight, let alone produce readability. But O’Dowd manages it.

While I had a hard time warming up to Sunday (she’s not exactly the warm and fuzzy type), she is a marvellous assassin. (I joked at one point that she is the assassin Celaena Sardothien, from Throne of Glass, wanted to be.) So often female assassins in literature are shown to be emotionally crippled by their work in ways male assassins never are. Even authors who set out to write kick-ass killer heroines seem to feel obliged to maintain some semblance of the feeble female who can’t quite separate herself like a man. I often find myself irritated.

Sunday’s professionalism trumps her emotions time and time again and I appreciated this about her. And O’Dawd also never excuses Sunday’s unladylike profession by ensuring all her victims are monochromatically bad. I came close to tears over a mark at one point and actually cried at another. Oh, how I love an author who lets likeable characters go.

Similarly, I have never come across more likeable villains than the Lamb brothers and their dandified muscle, Michaels and Davids. They’re seriously bad men, who you just can’t help but like.

Despite all of the unexpected ways these characters’ lives intersected and the amazing writing it took to bring it all together, I did think the book drug for a while. Everything is told in a sort of staid, mellow tone that flows nicely but never really grips a reader. You meander toward the end instead of race to it.

It ended well though. By which I mean there is an actual ending. It’s definitely open for more, but it’s not a precipitous cliffhanger. Having finished the book, I feel I’ve satisfactorily finished this part of the story too. Definitely worth picking up if you like Victorian mob stories with light steampunk elements.