Burning Up and Meljean Brook's new Iron Duke novella

Here There Be Monsters

by Meljean Brook

A novella available in the Burning Up paranormal Romance anthology

published by Berkley Sensation

cover art:Vladmir Wrangel, Kellie L. Folkert, Ferrin (all Shutterstock)

review copy sent to me by Velvet of VVB32Reads and Ms. Brooks.

In "Here There Be Monsters", a novella in the Burning Up paranormal romance anthology, author Meljean Brook has just released a steampunk novella about Ivy, a Blacksmith a young woman living in a slightly skewed version of our world during the Victorian age, a world where the mysterious Horde was just beaten back by “The Iron Duke”, but things aren’t quite normal in Ivy’s world, she is desperate to leave London and so approaches Mad Machen, a pirate captain, who she has little idea has been pining away for her love, all these years. He promises to take her anywhere she wants to go—for a price. Her, in his bed.

Well, Ivy’s not about to agree to that, and she runs.


Two years later, Mad Machen and crew find Ivy in a Norwegian town, tending to the town’s automatons, and he kidnaps forces her to build a steel kracken and to sleep in his bed. She isn’t fond of either prospect. But all she can really refuse is what he’ll do to her in his bed, by bargaining with her last few coins to keep her virginity. But, as they travel back to England, Ivy begins to realize that she’s falling in love with the tough ole pirate (as if the fact that she’s more than once offered to help him with his squeaky old mechanical leg isn’t enough?), just as Machen becomes soft enough to decide to let her go.


Will they come to their senses and admit they’re *ahem* made for each other? You’ll have to read to find out.


This is just a (very hot) taste of the new world Meljean Brook has created for her forthcoming Steampunk Romance series, The Iron Duke, the first novel of which is due out in October, and it is a hot story, and an intriguing world, filled with steam-powered machines, automatons, nanobots, old rickety pirate ships (she even throws in zombies)--heck, what's not to love there?
 My rating? The story was intriguing, and the world, very well drawn, so ....



If you’re interested, "Here There Be Monsters", or any of the other interesting reads in Burning Up the book can be purchased through all the usual venues (Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, borders.com) Do check it out!

Read More

Steampink week: Soulless review

Soulless
by Gail Carriger
cover art credit: Orbit/Lauren Panepinto/Derek Caballero
review copy provided by Orbit Books

In a nutshell, Soulless, the first novel by author Gail Carriger, is about a young spinster, Alexia Tarabotti who is attacked one night by a vampire, and she, naturally, fights back, killing the monster with her silver tipped parasol. The attack throws the London Vampire community into turmoil, as they, and Lord Maccon, Alpha werewolf and employee of the Bureau of Unnatural Registry, try to pinpoint who the vampire was and why he would commit such a gross breach of etiquette—and more importantly, why he didn’t know Miss Tarabotti is a Soulless preternatural.


What does that mean? Well, she can nullify a supernatural’s powers. And that is exactly why all the werewolves and vampires of London hold her suspect, and why the scientists in town are interested in her; add to that missing vampires, suddenly appearing vampires, a strange “wax faced man” that seems bent on kidnapping her, and a friend who has the shocking bad taste to love ugly hats, and that Alexia can’t keep her hands (or anything else) off Lord Maccon, and there’s a lot of trouble to go around here.

Impressions: This novel is a good example of what I’m starting to call the confusion of the genres. Look: Vampires. Girls in Petticoats? What do you think of when you think of that? If you said Dracula, give yourselves a cookie. ;) Now add a playing or two of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”, add the romantic scenes (lots and lots of them) and some humor (more than I was catching on to, I think—or perhaps the relentless jabs at Alexia’s Italian heritage were supposed to be taken as jokes?), add a pinch of steampunk, and viola! Or that’s what it seemed like. I’m not really sure what to think of this novel; I guess, in the end, it was a good first attempt, and I hope the follow up, (titled Changeless,  now available**) is even better, for this new young author certainly has quite an imagination. Give Gail Carriger's Soulless a try and see what you think.
My rating?



**The third volume, Blameless, will be released in September.

For more on Gail Carriger:
Gail Carriger's homepage
Steampod's interview with Gail Carriger
Gail Carriger's page at Hatchette Books

Read More

Steampink week: review of the steampunk classic, the Difference Engine

The Difference Engine
by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
review copy: purchased at Borders, 2009

Set in a Victorian Steampunkish London that takes a turn away from the Tory history of England we know so well, The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling offers up a mixture of fantasy, scientific conjecture, with a little romance and mystery to boot, that feels quite different than the usual crop of Science Fiction/Fantasy offerings.

Here we find Dr. Edward Mallory, a renowned paleontologist, who, having lost a battle to save a rather famous damsel in distress—one Ada Byron, the Queen of Engines—finds himself caretaker of the young woman’s cache of punch cards, and with them, in more trouble than he could have expected. Charles Babbage’s card-reading Difference Engine* drives everything in this steam-dependant Byron-led society, and it seems everyone wants to get their hands on the cards in Dr. Mallory’s possession. And so he’s dragged into the middle of the mystery concerning Lady Byron; Charles Babbage, Lord Byron (yes, the Lord Byron) and a host of rebellious Socialist radicals intent on bringing down England’s ruling class. There’s also a reporter on his heels, and his enemies at the Royal Society, who want nothing more than to discredit his theories, and destroy his credibility. There’s even a pretty girl or two caught in the middle; not to mention the murderers and thieves on every corner, just waiting get their hands on those cards, even if it means taking Mallory’s life (and anyone’s who happens to be in the way). And they’re all clamoring about in the horrid stench and fog rising from the stagnant Thames, in a summer about to explode in revolution and chaos.

And over it all is this mystery of the cards, and the Difference Engine, but Mallory doesn’t give a hoot what’s on the cryptic cards and would much prefer to be left alone. He’d rather be back in the Wyoming Territory studying his Land Leviathan, or if he has to be stuck in London, he’d at least like to satisfy his lecture schedule, but no. He can’t find a moment’s peace. So what is our overwhelmed Victorian Paleontologist to do? You’ll have to read The Difference Engine, and see

Intricate, yet dense, elegant, yet gritty, The Difference Engine reads like a well-written tale from the Victorian Era—a Gothic novel in the truest sense of the word. The recreation of London was, in my reading experience, dead on (with some very interesting quirks), and I feel it not too far from something Jules Verne or H.G. Wells could have written. To say I really enjoyed this novel would be an understatement. Yes, at times, it did get a little convoluted . . . Well, I won’t spoil it for you, but at any rate, this is the kind of thing I’d like to see coming off the presses more often! I hope you’ll give Sterling and Gibson’s The Difference Engine a try, and that you will find it as enjoyable as I did.

My rating?


If you'd like to read this novel, you can probably still get it at the online versions of Barnes and Noble and Borders, or at Amazon (or get it from my Amazon "I recommend" link over there, *points to sidebar*--please?) If all else fails, you can find it at local used bookstores, no doubt.
--

*A thing that was more or less a room-sized calculator, theorized by Babbage in 1822; what some call the first computer.

***(This review is also housed, and originally published, at my Examiner pages)

Read More

Steampink week

And to add just one more fun thing I just found,

the blog mistress of vvB32Reads is running a SteamPink week, June 4-12. :) A week of steampunk themed reads and goodies. Go here to check that out.

Read More

Waiting on Wednesday

For me, it's this one:
The Native Star by M.K. Hobson
September 2010 from Bantam Spectra
Genre: Fantasy 
Witches, trains, and danger....What's not to love? It'll be neat to see this, and I hope, Ms. Hobson does well. :)

Read More

Steampunk week at Book Smugglers

I apologize for not getting to this sooner--but in my defense, when I went by earlier, there seemed to be some technical difficulties: If you have not seen The Book Smugglers' Steampunk week, and if you like/are curious about the genre, you really should hop on over. There are various explanations of the genre to enlighten you, and some great book and movies reviews. You can find them at http://thebooksmugglers.com/.

Do go check it out. :) I'm sure you'll enjoy the visit!

Read More