"The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack" ~ Mark Hodder

THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING HEELED JACK

Burton & Swinburne #1

Mark Hodder

Sir Richard Francis Burton: An explorer, a linguist, a scholar, and a swordsman. His reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead. 

Algernon Charles Swinburne: A promising young poet, a thrill-seeker, and a follower of the Marquis de Sade. For him pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin!

They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicentre of an empire torn by conflicting forces: Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labour; Libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behaviour to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy.

The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as SPRING HEELED JACK, and to find out why werewolves are terrorising London's East End.

Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age -- and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all!

Okay, I confess: I bought this book purely because of the cover. I mean, look at it. It's gorgeous. It just screams "steampunk" at the top of its lungs.

Why, no, I haven't yet learned my lesson about judging books by their covers.

In this instance, I'm delighted I did pick this book up because of its cover! The blurb was far more promising than anything I'd previously picked up in my pursuit of good steampunk novels (read: steampunk, not paranormal romance). More than that: it promised an explanation (of sorts) for the world it created.

I won't give away too much of the plot, but succinctly: the book begins with Sir Richard Francis Burton (an actual historical figure, as are many others in this trilogy -- a very impressive choice on Hodder's part) learning of his former partner's (John Speke) attempted suicide. Very quickly Hodder establishes an extremely strange world: not the Victorian Era that we know, but rather an 1861 where there is only a King Albert. Strange genetic mutations are technological advances, society is in decay, and it is up to Richard and his poet friend Algernon Swinburne to investigate a series of assaults on young women... committed by the legendary Spring Heeled Jack.

Prior to reading this book, I actually knew relatively few Victorian Era figures, and I certainly knew nothing about Spring Heeled Jack. I did a quick Wikipedia search that filled me in on the legend, and once I continued reading I was promptly mind-blown by Mark Hodder's version of the Spring Heeled Jack myth.

There are a lot of things happening in this book; things, apparently, that are also happening in its two sequels. 

The world Hodder creates is unique, even for -- I believe -- the genre of steampunk. It doesn't have ladies in leather or metal corsets running around with guns and clockwork cats, but it does focus on the world and the social context of the early 1860s in this alternate universe. In fact, it's so interesting that for one of the first times in my life, I have enjoyed a book because of the world or the concept more than the characters. This is not to say I disliked the main characters: I merely found them less interesting than they could have been, but Burton and Swinburne get more character development as the trilogy progresses. No, I loved this book because it was innovative, interesting, and just rollicking good fun while also dealing with some serious issues of the old Empires. 

I'm currently halfway through the third book in the series, Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon. A definite recommendation for anyone who loves steampunk and intelligent alternate universes.

I give this book a 4/5.

★★★★

Hodder, M. 2010, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Pyr, New York.

"The Dark Clue" ~ James Wilson

THE DARK CLUE

A Novel of Suspense

James Wilson

'This is a book begun, but not finished. I could not finish it. Many times I have come close to destroying it, thinking I should have no rest while it remained to reproach me. I could not bring myself to do it. I have therefore given instructions that it should be sealed in a box, which is to remain unopened until I, my wife Laura, our sister Marian Halcombe, and all our children are dead.'

So begins James Wilson's brilliant imaginative recreation of the Victorian sensation novel as the characters from Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White - Walter Hartright and Marian Halcombe - are involved in another dramatic and dangerous conspiracy. Walter is commissioned to write a biography of the greatest of English painters, J. M. W. Turner, whose life was shrouded in mystery. His researches take him to the dark secret at the centre of Turner's work and involve him and Marian in confronting crimes and human degradation that threaten their sanity and their lives.

The Dark Clue takes us into Victorian England in all its staggering extremes; of poverty and wealth, of slums and stately homes, of public morality and private vice in an unforgettable tale of suspense.

I became interested in this book because it advertised itself as an epistolary mystery/detective sequel to Wilkie Collins's 1861 novel The Woman in White, which is one of my favourite books of all time. I'm aware that sequels written by different authors are always underwhelming, so I ensured my standards were low before starting.

It started off quite well, if I'm honest. The Dark Clue has absolutely nothing to do with The Woman in White, so much so that I'm uncertain why James Wilson even decided to use the same characters. Wouldn't it have been better to give them original names? They could hardly be mistaken for the characters of The Woman in White at any rate. Nonetheless, the book started off strongly, introducing us to a Walter Hartright who has become bored with his middle-upper Victorian class life. He finds an intellectual equal in his sister-in-law, Marian Halcombe, who in turn identifies his mid-life crisis and decides to distract him by introducing him to a woman who wants him to write a biography on the late painter, J. M. W. Turner. From there, Walter and Marian set off to uncover the secrets of the mysterious man's life. But Walter finds himself increasingly seduced by the dark world of J. M. W. Turner and deludes himself into believing that he has found a deep, personal connection with the painter as he retreads his footsteps. For some of his journeys into his darker nature, he calls himself Mr Jenkinson, giving us a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde allusion that for at least one scene, works very well.

Up until about three-quarters of the way through, I was quite entranced. I was most fascinated by the relationship of equals between Marian and Walter, the way I had been during The Woman in White, and I was interested by Turner's life and the dark secrets Walter was uncovering. I was also interested in Walter's descent into madness... until a certain point. I can't quite pinpoint when it was, but I suddenly became completely disinterested in Turner and found myself skipping pages. I didn't care for his mysterious life, or what he did or how many people he knew who refused to talk about him, or all had some mysterious little anecdote about him. I skipped so many pages because it was boring, and I just didn't care. The blurb is also a lying liar that lies; this book contains only a few elements of the Victorian sensation novel, but none of the sensation itself - or if it did, then it quickly loses track. It was repetitive and directionless, and in the end, I didn't care much for Walter; in fact, I came to despise him. There is a scene, at the end, where I lost all sympathy for him - but more so, I lost all respect for the writer who completely ruined Marian Halcombe's character. Had the author used original names or characters instead of sullying the great heroes of The Woman in White, I might have looked more kindly upon this. But if a writer is going to use the names of two powerful characters from a brilliant work of fiction, they had better keep true to those characters. Wilson, for his part, has no concept of the character voice. There were times where Walter's voice was indistinguishable from Marian's.

Overall, this book was extremely disappointing. I already had low standards, but this book didn't even meet them. If there had been some direction or overall plot, other than Walter's descent into madness, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more. That is not to say I do not appreciate books that do detail a person's descent into madness; in the hands of the right author, it can be brilliant. But here, it is boring, careless, directionless, a waste of time, and an insult to Wilkie Collins.

I give this book a 2/5.

★★

Wilson, J. 2002, The Dark Clue, Faber & Faber, London.

"The Necromancer" ~ Jonathan L. Howard

THE NECROMANCER

(Book One of the Johannes Cabal series)

Jonathan L. Howard

Johannes Cabal, a brilliant but reclusive scientist, has never pretended to be a hero. There is, after all, little heroic about robbing raves, being chased by torch-bearing mobs, and selling your soul to the Devil. All routine inconveniences, however, when your business is raising the dead.

But now Cabal wants his soul back and he descends to Hell to retrieve it. Satan, incredibly bored and hungry for a challenge, proposed a little wager: Johannes has one year to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will lose his own forever.

With little time to lose, Cabal raises a crew from the dead and enlists his vampire brother to help out. One the road, Cabal wields weird science and black magic with the moral conscience of anthrax, but are his tricks good enough to beat the Devil at his own game?

This was an interesting book.

I bought this book more than a week ago, having passed it by countless times in the bookshop I work in. What convinced me to read it was the promise of "comic fantasy" (almost urban fantasy) and a plausible anti-hero protagonist. I don't often find books with anti-heros for protagonists, which is a shame because they (or rather, the idea of them) absolutely fascinate me.

Johannes Cabal is a necromancer, and not a very nice person. In fact, he's downright horrid most of the time, but that's actually what I liked about him. He doesn't pretend be a hero, nor does he want to be one, nor does he angst about himself. He knows what he is and he isn't ashamed. As a person, I'm sure I'd hate him, but as a character, he's everything I want in an anti-hero/anti-protagonist. His brother Horst Cabal is a lot more likeable and relatable (and far easier to sympathise with) and just as much fun to read.

The plot itself was, for lack of a better word, weird, but not necessarily in a bad way. It wasn't bad, it was just weird, and I enjoyed it, even if I was a little confused at times. For instance, we're never quite sure what time period this book is set in. Definitely some time after WWI, but I don't think things get more specific than that. 

Some of the larger qualms I have with this book is that it never quite seemed to deliver what the blurb says. This isn't the fault of the author, as I know authors don't have much input on the blurb, but I was looking forward to seeing more of Johannes being a brilliant scientist and seeing him actually sign souls up to the Devil. We see things occasionally from other peoples' points of views, which gives an undeniable interesting taste to the book, but I would have liked to see more of the people Johannes was signing up. We learn from his vampire brother (whom I also would have liked to see much, much more of) that Johannes is mostly getting people who would have gone to Hell anyway to sign their souls away, but still. I have to say, the most interesting characters came in right at the end, including an actual heroic protagonist and a tragic figure. But because they were right at the end, there wasn't enough time dedicated to them. Same goes for all the characters, actually, including the titular character. This book places a lot more emphasis on the setting of the carnival, the experience, rather than character development.

Stylistically, it was engaging and very beautifully written, although a tiny bit off-putting at times. Howard sometimes begins to write a paragraph or a large chapter from one character's point of view, then switch over to another's. The book started off with the promise of being funny, and I won't deny it had occasional moments of hilarity (possibly more tongue-in-cheek than laugh-out-loud humour), but it was an awful lot more tragic and angsty than I expected a work like this to be.

Nevertheless, this book was very entertaining and interesting and has a lot of promise. It currently has two sequels, The Detective and The Fear Institute, both of which look equally entertaining and suggest more development for Cabal's character. I look forwards to reading both in the near future. I recommend this book to people who enjoy atmospheric urban/paranormal fantasy books. It isn't quite the right book for people who love character stories, but I enjoyed it very much regardless.

I give this book a 3/5.

★★★

Howard, J. L. 2009, Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer, Headline Publishing Group, Great Britain.

"Something From The Nightside" ~ Simon R. Green

SOMETHING FROM THE NIGHTSIDE

(Book One of the Nightside series)

Simon R. Green

Taylor is the name, John Taylor. My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding lost things. It's part of the gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside.

I left there a long time ago with my skin and sanity barely intact. Now I make my living in the sunlit streets of London.

But business has been slow lately, so when Joanna Barrett showed up on my door, reeking of wealth, asking me to find her runaway teenage daughter, I didn't say no.

Then I found out exactly where the girl had gone.

The Nightside. That square mile of Hell in the middle of the city, where it's always three A.M. Where you can walk beside myths and drink with monsters. Where nothing is what it seems and everything is possible.

I swore I'd never return. But there's a kid in danger and a woman depending on me. So I have no choice - I'm going home...

Ye gods. Where do I start with this book?

I'd best give some backstory first. Over the past few weeks, I have steadily been reading through Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series. They are, without a doubt, some of the best books I have ever read. After finishing the latest one in the series, the just-released Ghost Story, I found myself in want of some good urban fantasy, and started hunting around for similar books.

On the website Fantastic Fiction, I saw a book that was actually recommended by Butcher. The book was called Something From The Nightside by Simon R. Green. I'd never heard of it before, but it sounded similar to The Dresden Files, so I went to the local library and borrowed it.

Boy. The disappointment. It still hurts.

Where The Dresden Files has a cast of characters that I actually deeply care about, laced with laugh-out-loud humour, is very well-written, and is an intricately detailed world, Something From The Nightside reads like a very poorly-written rip-off.

The main character, John Taylor, is a wannabe-Harry-Dresden, who acts all badass and cool and knowledgeable. The entire book he is Mr Exposition. Where Butcher showed us a lot of the supernatural world that existed within and parallel to Chicago, Green yanks us out of merry old London before we've even begun and introduces us to "The Nightside", which is set up as something dark and mysterious, but is really just eye-rolling worthy. 

The writing is pretty poor as well. There is a lot of telling, rarely any showing, and every other sentence ended with the words "in the Nightside". (Yes, okay, we get it, it's dangerous in the Nightside. Thank you.) The plot was... really choppy, rushed, nonsensical... basically, cringe-worthy. I couldn't sympathise with any of the characters, which was a bit shocking because they're all pretty blatantly based on Butcher's characters. John Taylor for Harry Dresden, Susie Shooter for Karrin Murphy, Razor Eddie for Thomas Raith... heck, even Taylor's backstory is practically the same as Dresden's.

For such a dark and deadly world, there was a shocking lack of development. We saw snippets of it here and there, and everything else we knew was because of Taylor's constant exposition when he wasn't telling us that something was so horrifying we don't want to know.

It was lazy writing, lazy plotting, and lazy character development. Usually I don't care about the first two so much if the characters can make up for it, but let me tell you now - they don't. They're why I really did not enjoy this book. And it was really heartbreaking, because I did want something similar to Butcher's Dresden Files. Looks like fan fiction will have to satisfy me until the next TDF book comes out...

It could have been worse. But it also could have been a lot better. I'm glad I decided to borrow it instead of buying it. If you're a fan of Jim Butcher, you may like this book, but it honestly didn't do anything for me.

I give this book a 1/5.

★

Green, S. R. 2003, Something From The Nightside, Ace Books, New York.

"The Uncrowned King" & "The Usurper" ~ Rowena Cory Daniells

THE UNCROWNED KING & THE USURPER

(Books Two and Three of the Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin)

Rowena Cory Daniells

Sequels to The King's Bastard.

I decided to review these two books together, because I read them back-to-back. Because these two books are sequels to The King's Bastard, I won't give too much away regarding plot, which is why I have also not included the blurbs of the books in this review. 

After enjoying the first book in the series so much, I immediately ordered these two books. Needless to say, as soon as they arrived I launched straight into The Uncrowned King - and couldn't put it down. The Uncrowned King picks up straight from where The King's Bastard left off. Once again told from the perspectives of three characters (Byren, Fyn, and Piro), we watch the kingdom of Rolencia fall and the three siblings separated from each other, each believing the other to be dead.

The Uncrowned King is all in all a rather frustrating book, but I meant that in the highest of compliments. The constant near-misses within the plot were very well done and kept the suspense running high. I'd probably consider this book more of a "filler" book, one that is a stepping stone from the first to the third, but it was nevertheless very well written and the characters, as I praised the first book with, were a pleasure to read.

The Usurper picks up from where The Uncrowned King finishes. Again, I will avoid spoilers, but I will say that this book also ends on a cliffhanger. Daniells intends to write a second trilogy of King Rolen's Kin, and I can't wait for it to be released. The only real issue I have with The Usurper is how the plot hinges on pure coincidence a lot, and that the ending, while wrapped up neatly, also left a number of questions and plot ends unanswered - I suppose they'll be dealt with in the next series. Like with the first book, there is a very clear distinction between Good and Evil. At times the writing felt like it was aimed at a Young Adult audience, perhaps, but some of the issues and plot construct are clearly aimed at an adult audience.

A close friend of mine joked that the books could be classified as "high fantasy soap opera", and, yes, I can see how that might apply. I think I managed to draw out a love "octagon" between the characters involved in the main love stories. Normally I can't stand soap operas or convoluted love stories, but... you know what? I totally let out a fangirlish SQUEE! with this love octagon. I think, for me, it has a lot to do with the characters themselves.

I said it before, but I'll say it again. Daniells has an incredible way with characters. While there might be issues with plotting and the lack of grey morality in the series, and my frustration that the trilogy ends on a cliffhanger, the characters made it all very worth reading. I also commend Daniells on her brilliant female characters. It isn't very often I enjoy reading female characters, as they sometimes feel two-dimensional or if the author is trying too hard. Daniells creates at least three main female characters who are all very inspiring and joys to read - well developed and very human and easy to identify with. Out of all of them, I'd have to say Isolt of Merofynia is my favourite female character.

All in all, I deeply enjoyed this trilogy, and I can't wait for the next book to come out!

I give both books 3.5/5.

★★★ 1/2

Daniells, R. C. 2010, The Uncrowned King, Solaris Publishers, United Kingdom.

Daniells, R. C. 2010, The Usurper, Solaris Publishers, United Kingdom.

"Batavia" ~ Peter FitzSimons

BATAVIA

Peter FitzSimons

Described by author Peter FitzSimons as a true, adults-only version of Lord of the Flies meets A Nightmare on Elm Street, the story of the Batavia takes place in 1629.



The magnificent ship - the pride of the Dutch East India Company - is on her maiden voyage from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to ever leave the Dutch Republic. She is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to be put into action when, just off the coast of Western Australia, she strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night.



While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the longboat across 2000 miles of open sea for help, his second in command, Jeronimus Cornelisz, takes over, quickly deciding that 220 people on a small island is too many for the scant about of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts forward a plan to 40-odd mutineers to save themselves by killing most of the rest, sparing only a half-dozen or so women, including his personal fancy, Lucretia Jans - one of the noted beauties of the Dutch Republic - to service their sexual needs.



A reign of terror begins, countered only by a previously anonymous soldier, Wiebbe Hayes, who beings to gather to him those prepared to do what it takes to survive ... hoping against hope that the Commandeur will soon return with the rescue yacht.



Betrayal. Shipwreck. Murder. Sexual slavery. Courage. A spine-chilling chapter in Australian history.

This book is, without a doubt, one of the best books I have ever read. I don't especially like Peter FitzSimons, but he is an incredible writer. In Batavia he tells the incredible - and undeniably horrifying - story of the titular ship. It's "creative history"; he takes liberties with dialogue, even personalities of the historical figures. And it works. So well. Before this book, I'd never heard of the story of Batavia. I imagine it'd be something more well-known in Western Australia, as the wreck happened off the west coast, but it is definitely a story that should be more well-known.

As I'm sure you're aware, I'm always captured by the human and real-life aspect of books. This isn't just a human story - it's history. There's something very awe-worthy, after reading the book, in actually saying to yourself, This actually happened. It's nothing short of terrifying and breathtaking.

Recommended for anyone and everyone. If you like history, this is a great book for you. If you like fiction, this is still a great book, because in some areas it doesn't read like history and reads more like an actual novel.

I give this book a 5/5.

★★★★★

FitzSimons, P. 2011, Batavia, Random House, Australia.

"A Blight of Mages" ~ Karen Miller

A BLIGHT OF MAGES

(A Kingmaker, Kingbreaker novel)

Karen Miller

Barl Linden is one of the greatest mages Dorana has seen, but she is still socially inferior to those she works with. In fighting for the right to be treated as an equal, Barl comes to the attention of the all-powerful Council of Mages.

Morgan Danfey is the youngest mage ever to be appointed to the Council. Proud and talented, he senses that some terrible, unknown danger looms ahead for Dorana ...  problem is, he can't prove it.

When Barl and Morgan cross paths the sparks fly, and a chain of events is set in motion that will change their lives - and the fate of nations - forever.

WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

There are so many reasons I love this book.

A Blight of Mages by Karen Miller is a prequel to her Kingmaker, Kingbreaker and Fisherman's Children duologies. In order to understand the novel, a bit of background knowledge is recommended, but not required.

The books begins by introducing the character of Barl Linden. To those who have read the other books in the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books, she is hailed as a saviour and heroine to the characters, admired for her bravery and power and exulted as a goddess-like woman. In Blight, we are introduced to her humble beginnings.

We are shortly after that introduced to Morgan Danfey - who is known to readers of the other books as Morg, the Bad Guy. But here, we see his humble (or not so humble, as it turns out) beginnings as well. 

Doranen society is rigid and unfair. It is based on a class/blood structure - only those born into high society have the chance to move forward in life, and those who are 'commoners' are stuck in the lower tiers, regardless of how powerful they are. Doesn't matter if those in the lower tiers are more powerful than those in the high society - where they are born, they are stuck. Barl Linden is one such mage: powerful, intelligent, and stuck in a lower tier because of her parents' status. Morgan Danfey, on the other hand, is powerful, intelligent, and at the top of the ladder in Doranen society.

Karen Miller writes character stories. The characters are her plots, and it works unbelievably well - here, and in all of her others as well. The story itself is very good - the construction of Doranen society and how its flaws carried through to the Doranens in Lur from Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, was executed very well. It was by no means an intricate plot, because it wasn't necessary. What it did do, however, was cleverly tie up the loose ends that Fisherman's Children left, and essentially brought things into a complete circle. Questions that I still had from Kingmaker, Kingbreaker and Fisherman's Children were answered. But that aside, it is like I said - the characters are the plot. 

I said before in my review of Jennifer Fallon's Wolfblade that with books, I am generally not picky when it comes to plot and pacing as long as there is redemption in form of the characters. Yes, there are a few tiny issues with the overall plot and the pacing - the ending, for instance, felt a little rushed, and it was a bit repetitive in areas... and I would have liked to have seen more magic and what the magic actually does - but the characters made up for it, and much, much more. I've made it no secret that the characters are my favourite part of any book.

Karen Miller possesses an uncanny ability to make me care about the characters - whether they are 'good' guys or 'bad' guys. I don't often get that connection with characters in books I read. In Blight, this was particularly prominent. Before A Blight of Mages came out, I had in my mind that Barl was an angel-like figure and Morg was the devil in disguise, based on what I'd read in the other Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books. But I was completely surprised - and it was a very satisfying surprise as well, because it makes sense. Truth is often lost in history, and history is written by the winners - that shows here, very well.

With the characters, what I loved most about this book was that there are always things to empathise with them. For Barl, I ached with sympathy for her situation and struggles, and the way the unfair rigid society of Dorana restricted her. But at the same time I was wary of her flaws. That's perhaps the best thing about her character - Barl is certainly not the nicest of people, but despite that I cared about her. She is a character with many virtues and vices, but so very human in her flaws.

The same goes for Morgan - if not more. He was not the villain I was expecting at all. He was so human in his flaws. I empathised with him - I cheered him on as a hero, and wept when he fell. He is certainly not your classic villain in this book. Morg is known to be the Big Bad in the other books in the series, but here he is your tragic hero. 

(Also - this book made me cry. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but... there is one part that just made me burst into helpless tears.)

Even though Miller writes books set in fantasy worlds, her characters transcend their settings. They're so real, and the ability to make me feel so deeply for the characters that I burst into tears for them is a rare one. I love A Blight of Mages for many reasons - the writing is fluid and engaging, the plot is captivating, and all the characters are all very, very well-written. But I think the reason I loved Blight so much was because of Morgan Danfey.

A Blight of Mages is probably one of Karen Miller's best books to date. If you can manage to get hold of a copy, I highly recommend it. It might be better to read the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology (Innocent Mage and Innocence Lost) and the Fisherman's Children duology (The Prodigal Mage and The Reluctant Mage), but it works very well on its own.

I give this book a 4.5/5.

★★★★ 1/2

Miller, K. 2011, A Blight of Mages, HarperVoyager, Australia.