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The Procurement of Souls
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Magnus Drinkwater is close. Close to harnessing enough power to fuel his modified pocket-watch and stop time. But the answer continues to lie out of reach and when his daughter discovers a young woman no longer in possession of her soul, it quickly becomes clear that his own frustrations are the least of his worries. Someone with altogether darker machinations is busy work
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ebook
Published
July 1st 2018
by Benjamin Hope
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I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars.
A commendable debut, The Procurement of Souls is a dark and fantastical tale that will satisfy gothic fans.
Right from the very start, there was a disturbing scene of a man trapped and strapped down on a chair by a mad scientist, Dr Weimer, who duly inserted a long tube with a metal barb at its end down his victim’s mouth, throat and even further to extract something out of that poor man. And that something i ...more
3.5 stars.
A commendable debut, The Procurement of Souls is a dark and fantastical tale that will satisfy gothic fans.
Right from the very start, there was a disturbing scene of a man trapped and strapped down on a chair by a mad scientist, Dr Weimer, who duly inserted a long tube with a metal barb at its end down his victim’s mouth, throat and even further to extract something out of that poor man. And that something i ...more

Recap: Magnus Drinkwater, eminent scientist, and his daughter Clementine get embroiled in a mystifying missing persons case which leads them to discover a nefarious plot by the deranged Dr Weimar to harness souls for power.
Review: I really enjoyed reading this. The bad guys made me want to boo and hiss every time they came onto the page, so incredibly unlikeable. An excellent blend of Victorian beliefs and author imagination helps to create interesting and believable technology that has horrifyi ...more
Review: I really enjoyed reading this. The bad guys made me want to boo and hiss every time they came onto the page, so incredibly unlikeable. An excellent blend of Victorian beliefs and author imagination helps to create interesting and believable technology that has horrifyi ...more

SPFBO dnf
Magnus Drinkwater is fixated on his research to stop time. His daughter Clementine, is fixated on helping find the women that have gone missing. And Dr. Weimer just wants to control the world’s population by creating an army of underlings with his soul-stealing machine.
I started this once before and ended up dropping it and coming back to it again. It wasn’t catching with me the first go around and I wasn’t sure why because it seemed like it would be right up my alley. This was quite di ...more
Magnus Drinkwater is fixated on his research to stop time. His daughter Clementine, is fixated on helping find the women that have gone missing. And Dr. Weimer just wants to control the world’s population by creating an army of underlings with his soul-stealing machine.
I started this once before and ended up dropping it and coming back to it again. It wasn’t catching with me the first go around and I wasn’t sure why because it seemed like it would be right up my alley. This was quite di ...more

First thing's first: I did receive a free copy of this book from the author. Not in exchange for a review but just because I won a raffle he was doing. Still requires the disclaimer though.
The Procurement of Souls is a difficult book for me to rate, because the questions of "Did I enjoy reading it" and "Is it a good book" have different answers.
The Good: Hope has an excellent grasp on the aesthetics of his setting. I'm not sure if it qualifies as steampunk or clockpunk or what, but it is quasi- ...more
The Procurement of Souls is a difficult book for me to rate, because the questions of "Did I enjoy reading it" and "Is it a good book" have different answers.
The Good: Hope has an excellent grasp on the aesthetics of his setting. I'm not sure if it qualifies as steampunk or clockpunk or what, but it is quasi- ...more

The Procurement of Souls by Benjamin Hope is a steampunk novel set in Victorian England. It is essentially a battle between the positive and negative forces of science.
I have to confess this is a genre that I haven’t read before and consequently it took me a while to get into the rhythm of the story. Basically it suspends any notion of reality as an evil scientist is able to remove the souls of humans and then control them like puppets. There is no grey area in this story and the villains really ...more
I have to confess this is a genre that I haven’t read before and consequently it took me a while to get into the rhythm of the story. Basically it suspends any notion of reality as an evil scientist is able to remove the souls of humans and then control them like puppets. There is no grey area in this story and the villains really ...more

This is the first steam punk novel I've read so I wasn't sure how I would feel about it, but I really enjoyed it. The adventure starts right away and it's fast paced throughout. The good vs evil battle keeps the pages turning. Dr Weimer and his crew are classic nasty baddies which I love - sassy Marina is my favourite. You feel transported to the dark city back alleys of this world at times.
The author clearly has a great imagination and I look forward to more from him. I just heard there's an au ...more
The author clearly has a great imagination and I look forward to more from him. I just heard there's an au ...more

I really struggled through this book. It was gifted by a friend who loves it and to be honest if it wasn't for her I would have put it down a long time ago. The ending was actually good, albeit overly long. I often found myself feeling like I was being patronised and rolling my eyes at the writing style.
There's not enough focus on any single character to be invested in any of them. For a more detailed review read Lyn Clark's thoughts; her review sums up my opinions pretty well ...more
There's not enough focus on any single character to be invested in any of them. For a more detailed review read Lyn Clark's thoughts; her review sums up my opinions pretty well ...more

This book is great fun and a romping adventure which took me through winding city streets, salacious dockyard slums, creepy underground catacombs and corrupt government buildings. A band of characters had me laughing, booing and cheering throughout. It's a real page turner and fans of CJ Sansom, Abercrombie and Dahlquist will love it.
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I have to say I was rather blown away by this debut. A gripping story through which we are propelled at an exhilarating pace! I cannot wait to read more by him. I need some more time to digest the book (I've only just set it down!) and will update this review but for now... wow. Just wow.
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topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Sci-Fi, fantasy a...: Victorian gothic-steampunk debut, The Procurement of Souls, for review | 2 | 10 | Aug 29, 2018 01:37PM |
Benjamin Hope is the author of fantasy novel, The Procurement of Souls. He blogs regularly on the writing process and offers up recommendations in 60 words for novels within speculative and gothic fiction. He also occasionally guest lectures at universities on public speaking. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and daughter. Find him at www.benjamin-hope.com or follow him on Twitter and Insta
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