Felicity Banks

This is another steampunk series that I had heard good things about and was interested in reading. This was a decent read. I liked the world and the characters were okay. I felt like the writing was a bit stiff and didn’t flow all that well, this kept me from fully enjoying the story.

Emmeline is trying to marry well to provide for her family but her enormous secret causes issues (she has a mechanical heart and torso). Because of issues surrounding her mechanicalness, she is accused of theft and sent to Australia. There she must escape slavery and try to make a living on her own.

I liked the characters pretty well and enjoyed the Victorian Australian setting. The dialogue and writing style felt stiff to me and didn’t flow well. I had a lot of issues with the storyline.

For example, why did Emmeline need a mechanical heart? It comes off like she chose to be an experiment but I wasn’t ever completely clear on this. Also it seems a bit harsh to send a young well-off woman to Australia as a slave for grabbing a necklace. Then when Emmeline gets to Australia she hardly spends any time there at all before she finds someone to help her escape her slavery. The whole story seemed very contrived and I had trouble engaging in it and finding it believable.

I also would have liked better explanation of Emmeline’s affinity for metals. I think it was just Emmeline that had this affinity. However, it seemed like other characters interacted with metal properties as well. This was a bit confusing and never that well explained. It was a cool part of this world and I wish it had been gone into and explained in more detail.

Overall this was a decent steampunk novel. I liked the Australian setting, the characters, and the idea of metal bestowing powers/abilities on people. I thought the story could have used a lot of work, it was so contrived. I also thought the writing could have flowed better. I don’t plan on continuing the series and hesitate to recommend this one. It was kind of good but needed more polish.… (meer)

"Society doesn't allow young men to marry science experiments".

Straight from that first line we steam into enormous fun. Emmeline Muchamore needs to marry and fast to save her family from penury. But ..

"Mrs Dawes was unlikely to appreciate the sight of her perspective daughter in law steaming violently from between the breasts."

Our heroine must take action to prevent this, as any well-bred lady would, understandably, but what she does is disastrous. In just one day she plunges from the eligible ranks of London's high society to a grim prison ship and from there transported to Victoria, Australia.

To keep her brass heart a secret Miss Muchamore adopts one desperate measure after another. She is even forced to associate with, sniff, an Irish currency lad, Patrick. What a come-down for a British lady. But through it all our Emmeline, aided by her probability parasol and her special pet rats and her affinity with the mysterious properties of metals, hangs firmly on to her bonnet.

"This new horizon was mine. It just didn't know it yet."

Felicity Banks has created a heroine whose foibles and prejudices only add to her strengths. I loved the droll lines delivered on every page. Readers might also become intrigued by the events in non-steampunk Australian history referenced in this rollicking story.

With 'Heart of Brass' you also get a second book. Yes, two for the price of one, more in fact, because 'After the Flag Fell' is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style bonus which picks up after the exciting finale of Heart of Brass. YOU can choose what fate befalls the characters! There are all sorts of scenarios to act out. I spent another two hours engrossed in the possibilities - meeting a terrible fate too often and trying again and again for a nicer ending.… (meer)