I love this series!!!!!!! Even if the sex was somewhat anti-climactic (no pun intended). ( )

a) this cover is possibly the least relevant cover I have seen this year. I mean, okay, yes there is a guy in it, and he does take his shirt off at times, and he does have sharp metal implements. but the way the cover puts them together is just wrong, not to mention that the main character is a woman. and would it have killed them to have included her on the cover as well?

b) while reading this book I realized I mix up the iron duke and westerfeld's steampunk stories at times. luckily the mixing favors both of them.

I did enjoy the story overall. it was sort of an Indiana Jones and the temple of steampunk, but it worked and was fun.

This is one of those books that desperately needs a map. ( )

I love this series!!!!!!! Even if the sex was somewhat anti-climactic (no pun intended). ( )

3.5 stars

This was much better than I expected. I thought The Iron Duke was just OK and I expected something along the same lines. I'm glad I was wrong. I really enjoyed the interactions between Archimedes and Yasmeen. They were very cautious of each other, but willing to work together toward a common goal. I really liked Archimedes's slow seduction of Yasmeen. Even though he thought it was a long shot for her to love him, he did everything in his power to make it happen. Everything that occurred between them felt right and natural. So, why 3.5 stars? The pacing of the storyline was a bit slow, though I did find most of it interesting. This book would have been 4 stars, but the ending fell flat. Without giving too much away, Yasmeen was looking for something. Once it was found, I felt the story kind of fizzled. It was just going through the motions, and I missed the suspense that led up to it. Overall, it was a good story. ( )