Dave said...I liked he book more as a mystery and an action story.
Evil Editor said...You mean more than as a romance or more than as steampunk? What about the hot sex?
Dave said...I'm not the world's greatest romance fan. It was interesting and attention grabbing sex but not bodice ripping, I gotta go get a kleenex sex. I liked the steampunk aspects. It made the world more interesting than a plain Victorian setting or a modern day setting.
Evil Editor said...Yes the contraptions, etc. made the book. It didn't need the romance, though I'm guessing it would have sold a lot fewer copies in the SF section. I guess steampunk is a subgenre of alternate history. What would the world be like if scientific/mechanical progress had gone in this direction?
Dave said...I think steampunk works because the reading audience like those "play of manners" and the ridged social conventions of the Victorians. The equipment is just fantastical enough to be recognized and easily accessible.
Dave said...There was a lot to Mina's character and makeup that wasn't said and she seemed (the word I'm thinking is constipated) inordinately resistant to having a romance with the Iron Duke. M. Brook doesn't really explain that other than bias against the former oppressors. I felt there was more to that story than this novel let on.
Evil Editor said...She thought that if she were involved with him it could ruin her family.
Dave said...I think that when crafting a story, either the characters themselves must be interesting enough to hold the reader or the setting has to be fascinating enough to involve the reader in its uniqueness. Steampunk fulfills on the second count in a way that future science (let's say like the MATRIX) can't...
Evil Editor said...I did enjoy this a lot more than the other romances we've done. Or the science fiction.
Dave said...It's a nice read. There's enough of a romance to fulfill the romance fans and the steampunk scifi settings are approachable and friendly. It's got enough action to satisfy the "bang, bang, boom, boom" crowd that likes car crashes and explosions. I looked at the cover and it says in a copper colored bubble -- A Novel of the Iron Seas -- I'm guessing that there is another story to fulfill the promise of that Tease...Perhaps it was deliberately not all revealing on the society aspect.
Evil Editor said...It's pretty common for any genre book these days to be a potential series.
Dave said...This is like "What do I like more?" The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" or "2010" and I think the answer to that is "League" because we can relate to it more and better. When I started reading, I didn't think that I would enjoy the book. By the murder I was happily surprised by it and liked it.
ril said...I feel guilty for not having read it now...
Evil Editor said...Did you buy it and not read it? Or just assume it would stink?
ril said...I didn't buy it. I'm way behind on reading what I've already got, and it's such a premium to get English book here, I'm a bit choosy. I think I need to get a Kindle...
Evil Editor said...Some of the supporting characters were cool in this book. The Blacksmith, Yasmeen, Scarsdale.
Dave said...Did you ever go back into a short story and flesh-out a supporting character and give them a deep, dark past? I have a feeling that M Brook did just that on one of the edits. There is an entire lost love or unrequited love story in the Redheaded Constable Newberry
Evil Editor said...These book chats aren't exactly drawing crowds. But I have to continue through August so the auction winner gets her prize. And one hopes it'll be a bigger crowd than this one.
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