Gilded (The St Croix Chronicles #1) by Karina Cooper Avon (Dec 2012) | Paperback, 384 pages Steampunk GEMMA: Having anxiously waited for Gilded, I can honestly say that it was well worth it. Cooper has once again expertly managed to weave a story that takes you down one path, only to pull the rug out from under you on the second last chapter. What is really clever is the fact that you are so wrapped up in the main plot of Cherry investigating the deaths of the numerous Professors as part…
The Damnation Affair (Bannon & Clare #1.5) by Lilith Saintcrow | Orbit Books (Dec 2012) Ebook, 26 pages | Steampunk Saintcrow sets this tale in an alternative history, wild west with the prim and proper Catherine Barrow Browne jumping off the stage coach in the backwater town of Damnation in search of her brother. She has been hired as the town’s schoolteacher (schoolmarm) and covertly searching for the brother who she has lost contact with. One of the first to greet her is the town’s sheriff Jack Gabriel and the handsome hero finds he…
The Iron Wyrm Affair (Bannon and Clare # 1) by Lilith Saintcrow | Orbit Books (Aug 2012) Paperback, 323 pages | Steampunk Emma Bannon, a Prime sorceress specializing in dark magic has been given a job of finding and protecting mentaths by Queen Victrix. Mentaths are being killed and Emma finds herself responsible for keeping the last surviving mentath, Archibald Clare, safe which proves to be a dangerous job. They are proverbial chalk and cheese and establish an uneasy relationship in the beginning of the novel. Bannon is well turned out, has a…
The Janus Affair (Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #2) Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine | Harper Voyager (May 2012) Paperback, 416 pages | Steampunk Warning: contains a spoiler The second novel of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series, The Janus Affair, opens with the intrepid heroes, Wellington Books and Eliza Braun, witnessing the sudden disappearance of an acquaintance in a blaze of lightening so strong it burns those in the vicinity, including Books. This incident kicks off a chain of events that sends the pair on an investigation full of danger, mystery and…
Tarnished (The St Croix Chronicles #1) by Karina Cooper Avon Books (June 2012) | Paperback, 384 pages Steampunk For me, steampunk books can be a very hit or miss affair, with some books trying too hard to be quirky with its inventions or trying to be “modern” in a Victorian setting. Thankfully, Tarnished isn’t one of these books and to be honest should be tagged more as a thriller set in Victorian England, with hints of steampunk technology. This isn’t a bad thing and is actually a very fun read, as…
Phoenix Rising (Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #1) by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris | Eos Books (May 2012) Paperback, 402 pages | Steampunk The first novel of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, Phoenix Rising, starts with a bang, literally with a bang. We are quickly introduced to the Ministry’s Archivist, Wellington Thornhill Books Esquire, who has been kidnapped and about to be tortured by the evil organisation, the House of Esher. The House however, are thwarted in their attempt to extract information from Books by the feisty, dynamite loving, Kiwi and Ministry agent…
