Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia

by Pete Ford

Victorian London . . . but not one in any history book. In an alternate 1858, England has entered a golden age of technology, of steam and electricity. Airships fill the skies, mechanical computers command the trains and trams, and a country-wide communication network reaches into every home and office.

Newspaperman Cornelius Gunn investigates a series of thefts across London. Someone is stealing inventions and designs—for what purpose, Gunn can’t even guess.

While attempting to identify the criminals, he and his feisty wife, Sophie, meet the enigmatic Dr. Bohemia. Before they know it, they’re on the trail of a conspiracy, and swept into an adventure that carries them to Paris and back, and a fight against a mysterious and powerful enemy. The stakes are high. If they fail, all of Europe will be plunged into war.

Genres: Fiction, Steampunk

Unknown Binding

First published October 3, 2013

Reviews

[Craig Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid entry in the steampunk genre with quintessential characters and settings. There is plenty of action to keep things moving and enough twists and turns to keep things interesting.

[D.w. · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Pete Ford had done some tremendous things with Mr. Gunn and Dr. Bohemia, there are other aspects that detract and make what could have been a phenomenal read a vey good read instead. Gunn is a reporter in London during that later era of the Victorian age which is synonymous with Steampunk. Why he continues to refer to himself by his last name as if he were some schoolboy of the public education system makes little sense when we find that he is not part of that system. Or how he garnered a wife from the class structure is also a mystery except to suggest that the hero of the story has jumped the lines of class.

But that brings us to another problem of the era, where Mrs. Gunn wants to look for work. Surely donating her time would be allowed, but laws would prevent her from finding a wage paying job or taking one away from the many women who were unmarried, widows, who needed to earn money to keep food on the table and a roof over their head. To this twist of the way the Empire was run, we have the problem of a writer who switches Point of View from paragraph to paragraph so that we can see what is in the head of this character or that. And that after 100 pages or so, our two titled characters meet and seem to form that instant buddy bonding that will move this piece forward. Though hard to swallow when one of them have been on to the villains for years and only now gets tractions against them, and finds aid. (though that is what makes a story, just hard to suspend my disbelief when our enemy has a great many at his hand working for him, while our heroes are virtually friendless.)

The tale is filled with action and frying pan to fire jumps. Along the way a stronger look at how the characters portray their knowledge of danger could tighten the show versus tell aspect, and then when things are resolving, the authors creating an organization to give us a grater crime fighting capability in search of this villainous group shows that we didn't fully resolve matters in this book.

Put aside these problems and somewhere before the middle, you are in a page turner, staying up all night to see how it ends. There is enough Punk here to transform the novel from just Victorian Intrigue to something more, and enough cliff hanger endings to keep the adrenaline pumping.

Once complete the series may indeed be a reread for an evenings pleasure. Recommended for those who want more and more Steampunk.

[Penny]

As editor of this book, I decline to review it in order to reflect the most accurate, unbiased rating as possible. We want to show what readers think!