Robert Appleton

Sooner or later, clockwork requires each piece to accept its nature or break. Hearts are no different.

I have limited experience with steampunk. Most of what I've stumbled across has been romance of some sort or other, which is fine in its way. But that's why I kept expecting someone to leap into bed with someone in this book. There is a romance element - but a PNR this ain't. (*muted rejoicing*)

What this is is the story of Professor Cecil Reardon, whose wife and young son were killed in a show more terrible accident - and he wants them back. He has been working to conquer all obstacles to the time travel necessary to go back and save them. The work is kept undercover; to keep them from interfering, he is happy to allow the Leviacrum Council to see him as having become a doddering old codger broken by his tragedies. He is getting close, when one night -

The same night that Lord Garrett Embrey goes on the lam from the Leviacrum Council. He took the floor to protest, in the strongest terms, the unjust executions of his father and uncle, and when his vocal dissent accelerates the Council's intentions to put him out of the way, he runs out into the night -

Which is also the same night that sees Airship Officer Verity Champlain into the port of London. She and her crew have seen some harrowing action, leaving her the senior officer aboard, and she and her largely African crew are looking forward to decompressing and untangling exactly what has happened to them and to the Empire, and what will happen next. And ice cream. Their airship sails into London's night -

And the night is split by a massive concussion, a blinding light. When people gradually come to, they discover that they are where they had been, in the heart of London - but they are no longer when they had been. The blocks of London town where they happened to be have been excised and transported back - to the age of dinosaurs..

The result is the best dinosaurs vs. humans story I've ever read.

Not that there have been so very many of those.

Conspiracy, top-secret government plots, dinosaurs stampeding through London streets; factions emerging and lives coming under threat in the heat of emotion; loyalty and betrayal and, yes, a romance - all the folk dropped together in the midst of the prehistoric jungle don't quite get along, and even the prospect of getting back home doesn't pull them together. And if they do get home ... then what? The velociraptor is out of the bag, the experiment in time travel has gone beyond the drawing board, and the government is going to be all over it.

Skillful writing, nice characterizations, a really wonderful airship, and some truly awful dinosaurs and people both: well done.

Received from Netgalley for review - thank you! show less

Thanks again to the lovely folks at Carina Press and netGalley for this. I've very appreciative!

In a time of grand airships and steam-powered cars, the death of a penniless young maid will hardly make the front page. But part-time airship waitress and music hall dancer Julia Bairstow is shattered by her sister's murder. When Lady Law, the most notorious private detective in Britain, offers to investigate the case pro bono, Julia jumps at the chance-even against the advice of Constable Al show more Grant, who takes her protection surprisingly to heart.

Lady Law puts Scotland Yard to shame. She's apprehended Jack the Ripper and solved countless other cold-case crimes. No one knows how she does it, but it's brought her fortune, renown and even a title. But is she really what she claims to be-a genius at deducting? Or is Al right and she is not be trusted?

Julia is determined to find out the truth, even if it means turning sleuth herself-and turning the tables on Lady Law...

I was very excited to read The Mysterious Lady Law. It sounded like a cool mix of steampunk, mystery, and romance, and I was stoked to give Robert Appleton a try. Something you need to know up front: this is a novella, not a novel.

Overall, I feel very ambivalent about The Mysterious Lady Law. I really liked the set up, particularly the first chapter with the titular Lady Law and Holly, but the story built up and up and then let me down. This doesn't mean I have only negative feelings -- just that I found the novella uneven. I really enjoyed parts of the story, like Julia's relationship with Constable Al Grant and all of the scenes with Holly, but I found the resolution a little rushed and somewhat forced. The reason why Lady Law has such a good track record is a fun explanation but there were definitely aspects of the climax that left me underwhelmed. On the other hand, though, Robert Appleton does a great job of describing the novella's setting with a lot of vivid imagery and strong prose so I'm happy that I gave The Mysterious Lady Law a shot.

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This takes place in late 19th century London. Julia works as a waitress and dancer on an airship, while Georgina, her sister, cleans houses. Julia is utterly shocked to come home one evening and find her sister dead. Although Constable Aloysius (Al) Grant gives her as many updates on the case as he's able, there isn't much for him to say. The police keep hitting dead ends.

Just when it looks like Georgy's killer will go free, Lady Harriet Law shows up on Julia's doorstep and offers to take show more the case pro bono. Julia accepts the offer. After all, Lady Law has a phenomenal success rate, having solved 100% of her 650 cases. It's that same success rate that, in part, inspires Grant's distrust. How does Lady Law come to her conclusions? Why did she offer her services to Julia in particular? And how does the disappearance of Josh, the young assistant of the famed explorer Horace Holly, figure into all of this?

Lady Law was presented as a Holmesian sort of character, except that her one on-page instance of making deductions in a manner similar to Holmes was never closely examined. She simply told Julia “This is what I can conclude about that person way over there, based on this, this, and this detail” and then expected Julia to accept what she said as fact. Julia, to her credit, knew that Lady Law hadn't proved anything, but she decided to keep working with the woman anyway because she didn't have any other options if she wanted to find her sister's killer.

Appleton laid out a lot of reasons for readers to be suspicious of Lady Law. In addition to her lack of proven on-page deductions, no one had ever been able to replicate her leaps of logic, even though her final results always turned out to be correct. Then there was her ridiculous success rate. Absolutely no one is that successful that often. Clearly there was something fishy going on. This being a steampunk story, there seemed to be a couple likely explanations. I rejected one of them early on, and the other one turned out to be Lady Law's secret. So that was kind of disappointing. I had hoped that Appleton would manage to throw something at me that I hadn't even considered.

Because I didn't bother to check the how the publisher had tagged it, I had sort of expected there to be more romance. Instead I got Al Grant acting a bit standoffish towards Julia during their first date, until he suddenly wasn't. It was a bit weird, although I was grateful Appleton didn't push them into bed. Still, it was primarily an okay story. The chase scene in the airship was a bit hard to follow, but I loved the chase scene through the giant mechanical solar system.

The problem was the ending. First, what was the point of everybody coming across the villain while they were engaged in an enthusiastic foursome, complete with a bit of bondage? The person's sexual preferences weren't important to the story at all, so it just gave everyone something to blush over and be shocked by. Second, what the hell was with that ending? How was that a good outcome? “Oh, we'll put this person in prison for doing X, but they can get early parole if they teach a bunch of other people to also do X.” Brilliant. And how do Julia and the rest deal with it all? By leaving everything behind and going to Africa. Where in Africa? I'm going to guess Namibia based on prior mentions in the story and some quick googling of “Ovambo.” Still, would it have killed the author to have mentioned Namibia even once in the epilogue? Instead it was just Africa, over and over. Finally, I wish Appleton had had the good grace to leave the name “Holmes” out of the ending. I assumed he meant Sherlock, and I hated the idea of Sherlock Holmesbecoming the protege of a morally bankrupt fake detective like Lady Law.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Angel Six Echo is one of the most original science fiction stand alone books I've read in quite some time. The story is told from two points of view the first being Gabby Rojas. She is a highly trained retired military fighter who obtains a warriors battle suit from a race of aliens she worked with closely in the past. The reason? To get to the planet that her husband went to fight on against her wishes. The other point of view is from her husband, Dalton. Fighting, on a planet far from show more home, for what he believes is a just cause.
Gabby and the suit are slowly becoming one. With guidance from the lives of the previous warriors who had worn the suit, Gabby realizes that the changes that are going to take place cannot be reversed. If she can get her husband off this planet alive...it will be all worth it.
So really, at this books heart, is a love story, and what you will fight to keep your loved ones alive. Definitely worth reading. It is a fast paced read, and like I said previously, very original. Loved it! show less