bookshelves: book-group, victorianisms
I never thought I would give less than a 5 out of 5 to any steampunk novel with zombies and airship pirates in it, but this wasn't perfect. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but I got kind of bored with "oh, the rotters are attacking again" simply because it seemed every time either narrative thread's main character was running from the "rotters" or someone else, we didn't learn anything more. It was slow in a fast-paced way. The book is printed in brown ink, and THAT was awesome, as were the descriptions of the wardrobes of the people inside the walls of a poisonous gas and zombie-filled city of Seattle in the 1880s. I liked the spunkiness of the heroine, the Deadwood-sans-"cocksucker"-ness of it all at times, and the little bit of twist at the end, and I adored some of the minor characters. ]]>
bookshelves: mysteries
This is set both in the present and in a theatre in Blitz London; these crimes are connected, so we meet our detectives near the end of their careers at the Peculiar Crimes Unit and see them solve their first case at the same time. The characters are clever and pretty well-drawn. One thing I really liked (besides the earlier setting, which I realize I love more and more) was that we met most of the victims right before they died, and met them from inside their own heads. They weren't well-rounded, but they weren't one- or two-dimesional either, if that makes sense. I'm a fan of golden age mysteries (although I read contemporary mysteries as well), and this satisfied, at least to some extent, my constant jones for golden age. I got this as a buy one, get one half off mystery at B&N, and I'll definitely read more. ]]>
bookshelves: to-read
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Leah added 11 books to this list. Add your votes » add a comment
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Incredibly sad, but hell, that's the plague in medieval England for you. A fascinating frame world of academic time travelers, and a main story that is a consistently well-executed historical novel. ]]>