Titan's Fire

by Rod Gillies

The world is swept by the flames of conflict in an alternative history of steam-driven adventure!

High above the Mediterranean, Major David Jones takes a desperate gamble to break the deadlock of war, whilst on the streets of Boston, Captain John Kowalski fights to stop rebels opening up a new front in the Empire's own back yard.

And somewhere, hidden in the distant desert sands, a ruthless enemy plots to unleash an ancient evil.

Genres: Steampunk

248 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 2014

About the author

Rod Gillies lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. The son of a naval engineer, he was a "steampunk" before he knew there was such a thing.

Rod published his first novel "Red Mercury" in 2012. Pleasantly surprised by its reception, he produced two follow-ups "Neptune Rising" and "Titan's Fire". The stories were revised and collected as "The Empire of Steam Trilogy".

More recently, he released a Puzzle Novel - a conspiracy thriller where the plot unfolds through the reader solving puzzles, cracking codes, and following clues online. "Extraordinary Investigations: The Morgan File" is the first in a planned series of these puzzle adventures.

In the real world, Rod works in marketing and innovation for a whisky company, which he claims is the best job in the world. Away from work, he's generally either writing or building with LEGO bricks. He has built original models for many of Dorling Kindersley's LEGO books and he was invited by LEGO to display his creations in the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO House in Denmark.

Reviews

[Sarah-Jayne Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I nearly wasn't able to finish reading this book, because it got wedged down the side of the sofa. I managed to extricate it, though.

Ideally, I'd give this book 3.5 stars. The plot was entertaining and kept me engaged throughout the course of the book. There were a few times that I got confused with some of the characters, though.

This was a fairly interesting alternative world imagining of that time period. I liked seeing the different types of science and technology that was used. I would have liked to see more of the airships and how they differed to normal airplanes.

I did like quite a few of the soldier characters in this and it was interesting to see the similarities between Sullivan and Faulke, the only real difference in them being the side they were on.

There were some really creepy moments in this book, especially with the experiments. The descriptions of those were really well-written... and very disturbing.

I would have liked a bit more background on the enemy and some evidence that there are good and bad people on both sides in a war.

I probably would read the other book/s in this series at some point in the future. This was a fairly quick, easy read and there were interesting characters whose fates I cared about. I'd like to see more of those characters and the world in general.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads giveaway, but I was not required to provide a review.

Positives:
1) It was an enjoyable read.
2) It has pretty decent character development.
3) This was the first book by Rod Gillies that I have read, my understanding is that the other two book by him have characters from this one, but I did not feel like I was lost by just jumping into this book. Until reading the information at the end of the book I did not even realize that there were others.
4) After reading this I will likely at some point read the previous books, because of how much I enjoyed this one.
6) Did not notice any grammatical flaws.

Negatives:
1) Only thing that semi bothered my was not having any actual chapters. Not a major thing, but felt weird reading it.

Conclusion:
Not sure if it was meant as a standalone book, but it works very well as one, and I think that anyone into adventure, sci-fi, alternate history, or maybe even a little steampunk will enjoy it.

[Warren Stalley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Titan’s Fire is the third novel in a steampunk themed trilogy by talented author Rod Gillies. Major David Jones is sent by the British government on a top-secret mission into a Mediterranean warzone. What follows is a gripping alt-history Boy’s Own adventure full of hovering zeppelins, stealthy submarines, gruesome mutations, wicked villains and heroic soldiers. Titan’s Fire is bursting with imagination, drama and horror – mixing the spirit of Jules Verne and HG Wells with wartime conflict. Mr Gillies develops a strong narrative and pace which never lets up until the explosive and satisfying conclusion. Although there is no need to have read the previous novels in the series Red Mercury and Neptune Rising first I would highly recommend looking out for Empire of Steam which combines all three novels into one marvellous collection. I look forward to seeing where Mr Gillies takes his imagination next.