Infernal Devices

Steampunk, ahoy! And hey, did you know that Jeter coined that term? Remember when those fantastic adventure tales whose main goal was to tell a fast-paced story with some interesting ideas used to clock in under 250 pages and could be enjoyed in one long afternoon? Probably not and I'm probably datin......more

The Good: There were some cool ideas here, and the Victorian setting is a firm favourite of mine. The first person voice – an extremely proper English gentleman – is very well done. The Bad: Some of the ideas are a bit childish and stupid. Plus the characters are just unbelievably one dimensional, and......more

I've had this book vaguely on my mental list of books that might be interesting for a long time, but I picked it up on pure whim. I'm interested in how many low reviews it has: I think the problem is that people expect something great and marvelously written from the book that inaugurated such a hug......more

This is one of the pioneering works of steampunk, and I'm glad I read it. It has many of the staples of the subgenre, from the Victorian setting to clockwork men, from time travel to not-so-mythical creatures (in this case, selkies). There are several well-crafted moments of ironic social commentary......more

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature. George Dower's father was a watchmaker, but he didn't just make watches. Some of his special customers knew he was a genius with all sorts of gear work. When his father died, George inherited the watch shop. Unfortunately, he didn't inherit his father's genius......more