The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley

 63%

18.12.21

A delightful story, pleasingly written with nice characters - all of which sounds like a criticism but it's not at all. It does, however, read like a trial run for the more complex and satisfying The Kingdoms. And it's always nice to see the unjustly unfashionable Gilbert & Sullivan featured in a story.

The Affinity Bridge - George Mann

47%
10.04.19

Oh, for a structural edit, or at least a thorough copy edit, to make this promising steampunk mystery actually readable. Trim the cliches here, delete the awkward phrasing there, cut some of the endless fight scenes and develop the characters into three-dimensional beings and you might have the framework for something quite fun. It does get extra points for having a character called Sandford, though.

Etiquette and Espionage - Gail Carriger

53%
30.12.16

The first odd thing is that the cover is almost sexy but actually the content is the sort of thing my 8-year-old reads. The second odd thing is that it tries so hard to be steampunk cute that it loses most of the charm it's aiming for. And the third odd, but common, thing is that it's determinedly 'first in the series' and therefore is more of a prologue than a self-contained story. Disappointing.