S.C. Barrus

I’m a huge fan of steampunk, but I will admit to having trouble really getting into this book. The narration is all in first person, written for the most part as if the main character Freddy is writing a book about his travels. At two different points the book switches from Freddy’s narration to other characters relating what happened to them on the island. However, the first person narration left me confused for multiple pages at one point about who the narrator was.

The narrative jumps around a bit, with several flashbacks about Freddy’s past, and flashforwards regarding the events after the island. At other places, we get to see the same events from a different POV.

My main problems with the book are the main character lack of motivation, or maybe a lack of ambition. He is solely tagging along on the expedition to write a novel. There is no main antagonist.

My other problem is that a lot of dangling plot-threads just get abandoned. For example, in the first quarter of the book the group runs afoul of another Archaeology group, and gets in a bar-room brawl with them. This group was set up as the perfect foil for the main characters party, and I was excited to see how the main characters overcame them later in the book. But they never show up again, at all.

However, my main complaint is that there isn’t really any ending per se. Freddy is left on the cusp of making a huge decision that another character has manipulated him into but that goes against all his moral principles. Thaddeus is on the verge of a big breakthrough in his studies. And then the novel just ends.

Points in its favor, is that it is very well written. The steampunk element is woven into the fabric of the world, and is very unique.… (mehr)