A Whole New Beat

Bronze Gods is the first steampunk novel that I have read and it blew me away! The husband-wife author team did a fantastic job of weaving fantasy, mild historical flavor, suspense and romantic tension together to create this excellent first installment in their new series. Their individual writing strengths of world-building and characterization really shone through and combined to produce a real treat.

The setting of Hy Breasil is both recognizable and alien, presenting a hypothetical world in which humanity invaded the fey (Ferisher) territory and interbred. The technologies work like those of an industrialized human world, but function because of more supernatural energies: elementals fuel lighting and transportation, and "mirror stations" stand in place of the telephone system. It all creates a surreal but utterly believable atmosphere that the reader can become immersed in without difficulty.

The dynamic cast of characters allows for a wide range of emotions, biases, and motives to collide head-on and create the chaos our crime-solving duo rise to the challenge of sorting out. Celeste Ritsuko and Janus Mikani are a delicious case of opposites complimenting one another to form a formidable cohort of justice. Their personal lives - which become ever more entangled as the story goes on - play out along side the unfolding horror of a vicious agenda and ever rising stakes. While the majority of the book is told from the alternating perspectives of Ritsuko and Mikani, the voice of Aurelia Wright breaks in from time to time in order to provide another illuminating account of what is happening and why. Together the three POVs allow the reader to get a broad view of the progress of events, providing telling incidental clues, though not overtly revealing everything until the climax.

A richly enjoyable read, I highly reccomend Bronze Gods to both veteran readers of the genre and newcomers. Bravo!

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LOOK FOR SILVER MIRRORS, BOOK #2 OF THE APPARATUS INFERNUM

AVAILABLE APRIL 29th!