Steven PiziksBesprekingen

To be perfectly frank it took me a long time to get through this book. The concept had me highly motivated to read it as soon as it arrived in my hands, but the beginning slowly ate away at that excitement till I put it down after about four chapters and moved onto a new book. The writing is okay--I haven't read Harper before, but I have read quite a bit of steampunk over the last few years. Harper definitely combines the two worlds in a believable way, but spends so much time trying to immerse the reader in it that the info-dumping becomes really tedious really quickly.

It wouldn't be quite right to call this steampunk with traditional zombies either. The 'Clockwork Plague' victims that becomes zombies don't feast on the flesh of humans and except for the machinations of the villain don't attack humans either it would seem. They're just kind of there. The steampunk aspects are solid and inventive--plenty of cool and nifty gadgets running around (some of the Clockwork Plague victims become genius inventors until they burn themselves out and go crazy), but as I said earlier Harper spends a lot of time info-dumping to make the gadgets seem cool. More often than not we are told how cool the gadgets are and when presented with the reality in action, it's taken care of quickly and as dryly as possible.

The romance subplot was also dry. Alice is torn between wanting to do right by her family and her obligations as a daughter and wanting to do just about anything else in her life. As a consequence her romance with Gavin is put on the back burner. Not that Gavin is any better, he detests London and is only there because of his nominal interest in Alice (or so it seems). Their lack of clear communication on their wants is a real sticking point throughout the novel.

More than anything else however the novel drags on. The moments of excitement are ruined by over simplification or too much information or over much too quickly to gain much momentum. In the end this was just unsatisfying and not very enjoyable to top it off.

Review originally posted at Night Owl Reviews

I don’t usually do this, but I’m abandoning this at about the halfway point. Because of that, I’m not rating it, but I will state my reasons for not finishing.

This one had potential, but it all seemed wildly unexplored. The alien race in question, the Chiar, with their ever-changing colored coats, reminded me of My Little Pony creatures, for those who can remember their kids playing with these. It was well written and breezy initially, for about the first 100 pages or so, but it seemed like an entrée, and while I kept waiting on the main meal to be served, it didn’t seem to be on the menu.

There are some somewhat interesting aspects to the beginning of feelings between Chakotay and Seven of Nine, and a few other things, but that’s all it seemed like to me — a book filled with somewhat interesting or enjoyable asides without a main story big enough or worthy enough to turn them into actual asides, tangental to the big goings on. Once Tom and Seven are kidnapped by these creatures, and we get into the slave stuff, Tom’s interaction with the Chiar, and some superficial stuff with the nano technology, I just felt like I was at a table filled with entrées and desserts, but no meat.

I simply lost interest because the story that might have been here, was never fully explored. It’s the only Voyager book I picked up recently that I felt was a bust, all the others being fun reads. At 330 pages this was way too long for a Star Trek story in paperback. I began thinking this was more suited to a comic book or graphic novel the longer I read, which was up to about page 170. I skimmed through sections from that point forward and it seemed just more of the same to me. It may seem strange to use the term superficial to describe a Star Trek book in paperback, which are mostly for Trek fans, but that was how I felt. It fools you at the outset however because it’s smooth and well written superficial. But that’s all it is.

I probably would have been generous to give this one three stars, but a lot of other people seem to love this one. It wasn’t my cup of tea at all, however, and I have some better stuff to read, so I’m abandoning this one, and calling it a day.

Definitely enjoyed every minute of this book.

Pretty well written. Had a hard time putting it down. However, after finishing this book, I kind of wish this would have been a real episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Mediocre at best. Which is sad, because there are some zinging ideas in there. The Clockwork Plague that may kill you or may turn you into a zombie or might (just might) make you a genius (briefly)? Superb. I mean, sure, it's a little "how does the science go on that one again?" but it's multi-layered plot-enabled worldbuilding in one fell swoop, and I can handwave like a champion if you pay me well. But the writing's quite workaday and the characters are pretty ordinary and there's a plothole I could drive a tank through, all of which combined to have me rolling my eyes way too often in the final third, and not while grinning ruefully.

I'll start with the cover mix-up. I mustn't have read the blurb properly or clearly (sometimes I don't; I get keywords, like the cover, and bung it on the to-read) because I thought this was taking place in the Wild West. I mean, she's wearing a gaudy choker and her corset on the outside of her dress, not to mention the state of her hair. I assumed she was a saloon girl. But she's not. She's the heir to a baron and a strait-laced society girl. Oh. OK. I was quite looking forward to the saloon girl, is all.

She's such a boring character, though, and the turmoils she undergoes aren't really explored with any intricacy or depth. It's the stifling and completely inhuman arranged marriage to return to proper society, or running away with the dashing American airman who makes her bosom heave. There's not really much believable tension in it, because there's no depth given to society or strength to her personal desire to be back amongst it, but still she wrestles with it for the entire bloody book - or as much of it as the author could arrange; when she finally gives in to Gavin's teenage charms, it's a puzzling distance short of the end of the book, which is part of what gives a strange lurching sensation to the final push of the plot into the finale.

And about that finale. WHAT? Oh no, if we release the plague cure, Britain will lose intellectual superiority. We can't allow there to be a plague gap! What the hell? If that's the case, you WEAPONISE THE FUCKING CURE and spray it all over China. Are you new to arms races? Ye gods.

I did really like Louisa. And look how THAT ended up. Pah.

(Also, if you keep telling me two days pass between this event and that event, and then you have our hero and heroine forever stopping on the verge of clothes-ripping passion because "oh, we don't have time" I reserve the right to call you an irritating tease.)

Nightmare is more of a prequel and I must say that I really enjoyed this book. It was excellent in all ways.

The story takes us back to Kendi’s childhood. We see how he is split up from his family when he’s sold into slavery. We share the life that follows. It’s a hard life, a subservient life but Kendi is unwilling to forget his past. When the Children of Irfan rescue him some years later, he can hardly believe he’s free, let alone safe. But it turns out he’s not safe; no Silent is safe because there’s a serial killer on the loose.

The hesitation I felt from the author in book one was non-existent in this book. It was so much more believable. The characters came alive on the page. The setting was three dimensional. The plot was sort of like a fantasy/science fiction mystery thriller, which I considered to be well thought out and written. There were some gory descriptions but nothing that wasn’t absolutely necessary for the storyline.

The thing that stood out the most was the fact that I started reading and with no time at all, I was finished! For me, this is a sign that I’ve been totally absorbed by what I’m reading. The words flowed effortlessly, the storyline unfolded without any jarring occurrences and the resolution was more than just acceptable.

Again, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I certainly will be purchasing the next book in the series.

DNF: I don't think I've ever had two DNF books in one week before. In fact I probably only have 3-4 DNF a year. However I was really struggling with this book. I got about 150 pages in before I gave up. The story jumps between our beloved Gavin/Alice and a new character, the Imperial Concubine of China.

I really did not enjoy the parts with the Imperial Concubine and this was the vast majority of the story. The parts with Gavin/Alice felt contrived and were just plain boring. I just could not get back into the story; I was completely ambivalent and did not care what happened to these characters.

It's not that the writing itself was technically bad; I just found the story to be completely unengaging and uninteresting which is a pity because I love a good steampunk world.

Overall this was a DNF for me. I struggled with getting back into the story and did not find it at all engaging. I didn’t enjoy the new main character introduced and was disappointed in where Gavin and Alice’s story was going. I won’t be continuing with the series.

I feel like this author is the Oprah of lost relatives and amnesia.

"You get a gramma! You get a gramma! You get a sister! You get amnesia! You can't remember your wife!"

So, while the toolbox of literary devices is very very small, something works about this story. Perhaps that it's such a lighthearted simple fantasy, and who can't use that every now and then in their lives?

Great book from the TV series The Blacklist. Enjoyed reading the about the characters and visualizing them in my mind.

This is the second book in the Clockwork Empire series and it was a fun follow-up to The Doomsday Vault. There are four books in the Clockwork Empire series and all of them have been released. I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as the first one, but it was still a very well done steampunk adventure and I enjoy the characters and the world.

I think the main reason I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first one was just because the story seemed to stall a bit; it just doesn’t make as much progress as the first book did (although it does physically cover more of this alternate world).

I did enjoy getting to see more of this amazing alternate world and I continued to enjoy our lead characters. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Dr. Clef’s character and, although I understood why he thought the actions he took made sense, I think that having these actions drive the story was just a bit...off.

While this story doesn’t progress as quickly or as intensely as the first one; there are quite a few well done fight scenes and the world is broadened. I would really like to see Gavin and Alice finally get to China in the next book and see what happens. I guess in some ways I felt a bit cheated; I was promised this amazing adventure to China at the end of the first book and then the whole thing got a bit derailed in this book.

Overall this was a fun and quick read that I enjoyed. I love this alternate historical world and continue to enjoy both Alice and Gavin as characters. I enjoyed seeing more of this world and some of the adventures Gavin and Alice go through. I thought the progress of the story slowed a bit too much and was disappointed that the characters never actually made it to China, but I hope we will see some better progress in the next book. I would recommend to those who enjoy steampunk adventure books and I plan on continuing the series.

I really enjoyed this steampunk novel. This is the first book in the Clockwork Empire series; there are four books in this series.

I liked the main characters a lot and enjoyed all the crazy clockwork inventions. The book is engaging and fast-paced and I was surprised at how quickly I read through it.

The book switches between Alice’s viewpoint and Gavin’s. Alice is the daughter of a Baron with poor prospects after the Clockwork plague took some of her family and resulted in her family being shunned. Gavin is a soon to be airship pilot whose unfortunate encounter with pirates changes the course of his life forever.

I loved Alice’s obsession with mechanical things. Her struggle to remain supportive of her father and blend with society’s conventions coupled with her love of adventure and excitment makes her a complex character that’s interesting to read about. Gavin’s incredibly skill with music and his love of air travel makes him an interesting character as well.

I enjoyed the alternate world created here. This is a world that has been ravaged by the Clockwork plague, yet enhanced by the genius Clockworkers the plague occasionally creates.

The story was filled with mystery and excitement. It flowed well and was very easy to read and stay engaged in; I had trouble putting it down!

Overall I would recommend to those who are interesting in steampunk mysteries with some action and adventure in them. I look forward to reading the rest of the series!

This book was received as an Early Reviewer selection.

This book was a colorful collection of action, adventure, and mystery, and it should have special appeal to those who love reading about the fairy (oops, bad word! nary, hairy, scary, fairy) realm intruding into ours. I love the way the author speculates about the nature of autism as well, tying it less to biology or psychology and more to a perception of and devotion to patterns, both seen and unseen. For those of us who encounter people with this special condition, Harper's explanation makes a lot more sense than many I have heard of. Overall, a very fun read, and highly recommended to all!

I received Un/Fair from LibraryThing in return for an honest review.

Today is Ryan November's and his only friend Allison's birthday. It turns out full of surprises and danger.
Sylphs, Red Cap Trolls, and fiery Salamanders are out to get him.
I liked this book. It was cute and full of twists. Some expected and some not so much. Great read for the 5th or 6th grader.

I think this is a great book. While it is perfect for my 4th and 6th grader, I thoroughly enjoyed this book myself. The boy has autism, while that is not what the book is about, I think it was a great way to understand some Autistic behaviors better. In addition to showing that people with autism can be amazing, special people. As far as the book goes it is beyond exciting dealing with mythical beings and very well written. Highly recommended for the young and old.

An excellent idea that I felt fell a bit flat in the end. The introduction of the Chinese characters and some of the culture was absolutely amazing to read, but the characters from the beginning began to feel more "wooden" to me. Definitely worth the read for completion, however seems a bit lack luster to me.

The Impossible Cube blew me away! It was even better than the explosive Doomsday Vault.

There are only few steampunk series so far that really impressed me, and Clockwork Empire is one of them. Non-stop crazy adventures, complex and extremely entertaining world-building, fantastic team of main and secondary characters, and gadgets, gadgets, gadgets...

In book one Gavin and Alice release cure for the clockwork plague in London, but it doesn't help Gavin whose illness progresses with a much faster pace than normal because of Alice's aunt experimentation on him. Young man experiences more and more episodes of clockworker brilliance when his mind races at an inhuman speed inventing dangerous and brilliant constructions. While he is in his fugue as they call it, he is nasty, unreasonable and very aggressive. When he comes back to himself he doesn't remember what he said or done and how much time he lost, how much he might have hurt Alice...

Alice carries her own cross or shall I say, mechanical spider, which attached itself to her hand in London and now transforms her blood which she sprays at clockwork zombies as a cure. She is undernourished, weak, suffers from constant blood loss and heartache, because she can't help everyone.

Alice, Gavin and their motley crew are on the run from lieutenant Phipps after destroying Doomsday Vault and all the chances of British Empire to win against China. Their goal is to get to China and seek one of their dragonmen (clockworkers) to try and cure dying Gavin. But Phipps is so close that the fugitives decide to hide in a travelling circus on the way to extremely unstable Ukraine ruled by clockworkers and their war machines.

So there is this crazy chase, Ukrainian villains, possible time warp and the destruction of the universe... No pressure and all in good fun, of course! Powerful insane imagery and wild adventure, grab and read it, don't miss this little gem!

4.5/5
Oh, I'm so glad I've read it on Christmas day and had myself quite a Clockwork Christmas :) Great book, albeit a bit manic, I had to race along with the plot to catch up plenty of times.

There are two main protagonists.

Alice, a daughter of an impoverished baron in Victorian London, secretly works with assembling and repairing automatons while struggling to keep up the appearances and find a rich husband to pay her ill father's debts.

Gavin is an 18 year-old American cabin boy on a merchant airship from Boston, captured by pirates and hauled to London for a ransom from his shipping company. The company refuses to pay for a lowly cabin boy and pirates plan to sell him into a brothel when Gavin escapes.

Apart from an unusual pairing where she is older than him, both characters are perky, brilliant and utterly charming. It's the world-building however that totally won me over.

The world in this setting has an epidemic called a clockwork plague. The majority of people who contract it die, some percentage becomes zombie and very very small percentage has their minds altered and become incredible mad inventors, whose genius can build amazing automatons, defy gravity, physical laws, space and dimensions. These clockworkers don't live longer than 2-3 years but in that span they create things that truly change the world.

Only 2 nations in the world utilise clockworkers - Brittania and China, and it's a neck to neck race between them in the war of inventions.

How Alice and Gavin fit into that? you would ask. The thing is, Alice's mind is rare enough to understand how clockworkers automatons work and Gavin with his genius for understanding and playing the most perfect musical notes makes him a sort of a clockworker pied piper :)

Oh dear, I hope I didn't give away too much! ;) Maybe just enough for you to pick up the book?

There are moments, especially Alice's indecision which are grating, however as someone who loves HR I accepted them as a part of Victorian heroine package and just let go. If you are willing to do the same, the whole book is a delightful mad adventure, and I'm really looking forward to the next instalment in the series.

Danny at sixteen is happy with his life living by the lake with his mother in northern Michigan, but that is about to change when his mother takes up with and then moves in with a new man. Danny's new 'stepfather' Myron seems OK and gets on well with him, more than can be said for Myron's son Eryx, who goes out of his way to cause trouble for Danny; that is until the day it all turns. Eryx reveals that Danny's new home is rigged with hidden cameras, and Danny is now a porn star, sharing his fate with Eryx, but there is worse, it is one thing to be unknowingly captured on camera, quite another when Myron brings home two men expecting to enjoy the virgin Danny.

Danny sees no option other than to run away, and despite Eryx attitude towards him seeks to rescue him too and take him with him. So they escape to Florida, but to what? It seems to be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire.

We read Danny's story through his diary entries, were he also seeks refuge in his own imaginings as he recreates the story of Ganymede captured away from Earth by Zeus to become his lover, and where he meets Iris and Eros. But how much of this does Danny really imagine, and what is his connection with Ganymede, and what bearing does all this have on events taking place or about to occur. Stephen Harper weaves an intricate tale in which Danny and his new friends confront their fears and finally face up to those taking advantage, and in which a beautiful youth from a few thousand years past may have a bearing.

Danny is an appealing character, who is content to be without friends, although as he gets to know Eryx, and then Irene whom they encounter later, he not only learns the value but also the responsibilities of friendship. He also experiences a sexual awakening that is more than a little ambiguous.

Stephen Harper writes well and has created an engaging and increasingly gripping tale, and while dealing with a theme of sexual exploitation manages to keep the writing chaste leaving it very much to the reader to fill in the blanks after offering just a few hints as to what occurs between consenting boy/boy, boy/girl, boys/girl and non-consenting boy/man.

Interesting book.

Had plenty of common sense advice, though, so I suppose it'd be good for newbies to writing and to the genre.

Liked the checklists, the exercises were interesting.

Just about the only thing I didn't agree with was the using social networks advice and the part that said that using the internet "couldn't hurt" (uh, yes it can: become one of those writers who lash out at negative criticism on your book and it'll hurt you. :P)

Also liked when it went on the part of research and interviewing people, because most books I've read so far didn't touch the interviewing part so much, while this one did.

Lots of action and interesting magic. Liked the characters. It felt a little too fast, though - like it wrapped up too quickly. Not that everything needs to be spun out into a trilogy, but the first part of the book - the set up, world building, etc., seemed disproportionately long compared to the resolution. Since this looks like the first of a series, that's probably intentional...but the problem they had to solve in this one was awfully big - what's going to happen to these folks next?

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION’s Alluring Angel – Kathy:
--Actual rating 4.5 Skulls

The Havoc Machine by Steven Harper is a steampunk gem. It is the 4th book in his The Clockwork Empire series, but is written in such a way that The Havoc Machine could be read as a stand alone.

A plague has swept across the world, turning it’s victims into slowly dying plague zombies, with a few victims becoming mad geniuses referred to as clockworkers. Thaddeus Sharpe’s son is killed by a clockworker, and so he dedicated his life to finding and destroying clockworkers and their horrible creations. The Havoc Machine is a fast paced, action filled adventure with an unexpected amount of heartfelt emotion.

I truly enjoyed The Havoc Machine.

This was a lot of fun. I wish I could give it another half of a star because I liked it enough to start the next in the series. I had a difficult time visualizing a lot of the machinery. Whether that's my fault or the author's, I don't know.