Dawn of Steam: First Light, by Jeffrey Cook and Sarah Symonds. 2014

“Dawn of Steam: First Light” is the first of a series of books set in an alternate past. The Napoleonic Wars have been won by England (with help from the USA and others). Dirigibles already exist; some were used in the war. The USA is still largely unexplored by Europeans, as are most parts of the world. But a book exists, written by an explorer, wherein he tells of his journeys across the North American continent (there is a Northwest Passage, he claims), to Australia, China, Japan, South America, and Antarctica- basically, the whole world. Two men make a bet in a club; one believes the book is the truth, one doesn’t. Therefore, two teams will set out to duplicate the author’s travels, to see if they are even possible. We follow the course of one of the teams; the good guys. Told through letters and a diary, it is almost all in first person by an ex-soldier who knows how to work a camera. He writes to his fiancé and to the gentleman who has made the bet and is financing the journey.

The first almost half of the novel is spent gathering the team. They assemble a group that has the skills needed to make the expedition a success. While this part of the book may be necessary to introducing the cast to us, it’s overly long. With so little action, I nearly gave up. When they get to North America (via one member’s family airship), they have a couple of events that, while full of action, do not move the story forward. They do finally start across the continent, but the plot never really works out; there is no build up and climax- it’s just sort of “and then we did this and then we did that”.

I didn’t care much about the characters. The basics were there and could have been great (and maybe they are in the later books in the series), but there was nothing built around “sharp shooter”, “lady engineer”, or “daughter of the explorer who passes as a man most of the time and can do damn near anything”.

I was sadly disappointed, especially because I’d enjoyed the first book in the other series these authors have written. Only three out of five stars.

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A Conspiracy of Alchemists, by Liesel Schwarz. Ballantine, 2013

This steampunk novel, the first of a trilogy, introduces us to Elle Chance, owner of her own airship and daughter of a renowned inventor. To pay for her ship, she runs it as light freighter. Most companies won’t hire her, though, so she takes what she can get. So when she is offered an under the table job of transporting a small box from Paris to England, she takes it. No sooner does she do this, however, than trouble starts- and doesn’t stop for 400+ pages.

This is a 1903 where airships and horseless carriages are run on steam powered by mysterious (to me) spark reactors -I never figured out if that was magic, or science, or something in between. The world is divided into Light and Shadow, with fairies, vampires, warlocks, fauns, airship pirates and I’m not sure what else. For a long time, Light, the side of science and logic, has ruled, but members of the Shadow side aim to put an end to that soon- and to end a long time pact with some associates. Not only does Elle get embroiled in this fight by having the box, but it seems she has a talent that both sides want, too. Of course, there is the handsome, troubled hero, whom Elle finds attractive but cannot trust or get along with, Hugh Marsh, Lord Greychester.

While Elle seems to get past her troubles when she makes it safely home, that changes when her father is kidnapped and she goes out for blood. As she and Hugh try to rescue her father, the way this world works is unfolded for us and it’s an interesting world, with some interesting characters in it.

Sadly, Elle is sometimes not the most interesting of them. She starts out fine, brave, smart, and capable of making her own way in the world. But meeting Hugh seems to rob her of a part of herself and turn her into a teenager who reacts emotionally when she shouldn’t and refusing to listen to important things about herself and her family. I’m hoping that in the next volume she comes around and faces things as an adult. Everyone is entitled to scared and petulant moments, but when it becomes one’s personality, that gets irritating.

I’m also hoping to see more of some of the characters introduced in this book: Adele the absinth fairy, Baroness Belododia the (good) vampire, and Inut the half-faun boy. They made more of an impact that one would expect for the limited number of pages given to them, which is why I’m hoping they are given more space in Book Two. Which I will be reading. 

 

The above is an affiliate link. If you click on it and buy the book, Amazon will give me a few pennies. This in no way affects my review.