Paul Crilley

Set in an alternate 1895, Paul Crilley's steampunk actioner, The Lazarus Machine: a Tweed & Nightingale Adventure has a Victorian London filled with steam-powered omnibuses, automatons with human souls, and a paranoid government agency calling itself the Ministry. Sebastian Tweed earns a living through faking encounters from the afterlife, aiding his conman father Barnaby Tweed. When Moriarty's gang abducts his father, he needs to find help. He eventually meets up with Octavia Nightingale, show more aka Songbird, a savvy information broker whose mother, a London Times reporter was abducted a year ago. Crilley creates an inventive steampunk setting, rife with conspiracies, medical experiments gone awry, and a potentially explosive international incident involving the possible assassination of Queen Victoria. The repartee between Sebastian and Octavia is smart and funny, reminiscent of dialogue in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the back-and-forth Pete and Myka have in Warehouse 13. A humorist once said how steampunk was like "cyberpunk minus the social relevance." The Lazarus Machine deals with issues like soul harvesting, human cloning, abuse of political power, and class divisions. Luckily Crilley, while writing for a younger audience, makes the whole affair rather fun and without needing to resort to using the mallet of moralizing preferred by afterschool specials.

Out of 10/8.0 or 9.0 for Steampunk fans.

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This book is kind of an in-between story that will have a hard time finding its niche audience. It adapts the 90s comic series, but diverges from it a decent bit towards the end. It presents Matt Murdock's origin story, as well as the rise of the Kingpin.

It adds some fun details to the original comic, but isn't a 100% loyal adaptation to a T (which some fans would likely want). It isn't a brand new, original Daredevil story (which some other fans were likely hoping for with a Daredevil show more prose novel). It has a decent bit of violence that goes beyond the original series, so it isn't for young, young fans. Moreso, teens and up I'd wager would be most appropriate.

It's still a good read though. I enjoyed it, though I recognize that this novel (and the original comic series) didn't touch much upon Matt's faith - which based on conversations with bigger Daredevil fans I've had, is a key component to his character these days (not sure when that element was introduced).

I haven't watched all of the Netflix series, Daredevil (though I want to). I haven't read a TON of Daredevil comics. This extended intro to the character worked well for me, given my bare minimum knowledge of Matt and his life. I enjoyed this book and thought it was a good time. I definitely want to read more Daredevil stories and would love to read more Marvel prose novels. However, the pace gets slightly off at times and I believe the audience for it will be rather narrow as a whole. show less

I don't read a lot of steampunk. Not because I don't like it but because it's generally not as appealing to me as other types of fantasy novels. However, I am VERY happy that I picked this book up. It was fun without being silly, the action was nicely paced and kept pulling you along toward the end (without being overdone -- nothing is worse than overdone action!), the characters were engaging and kept my interest and I quite enjoyed the twist! I liked this book enough that I went straight show more out and bought the sequel as soon as I was finished (and I already have a too-read pile that has about 4 dozen books (or more!) in it!). Mystery, action, adventure, fantasy and steampunk all in one -- definitely worth checking out if you like any of those genres! show less

I absolutely loved the first book in this series, Rise of the Darklings, and was very excited to read this book. I got an advanced reading copy of this book through NetGalley.com. The Fire King is the second book in a planned trilogy. This was a wonderful read and you learn more about the Invisible Order's past and what will have to be done to save London. It can be read as a stand alone, but the first book does provide good background for this book and if you skipped you might be a little show more confused at first.

Emily and crew are thrown back to the year 1666 and are determined to find Christopher Wren in hopes that he can save London. Unfortunately other dangerous plans are afoot; one of the faeries is determined to overthrow Queen Titania and burn London to the ground. This evil fae will summon The Fire King to help overthrow the city; only problem is once the Fire King is summoned he can't be stopped. Emily must figure out a way to save London and she will need all of the human and fae help she can get.

I loved this book. It is set in the past and has a dark Victorian feel to it. I love how historical events, like the Great Fire of London are tied in with the story of the Fire King being set loose on the city. It is clever and unique to have the fantasy based storyline tied into real historical events.

All the characters are interesting, realistic, and likable. Emily can be a bit bossy at times, but she tries hard to do her best and tries to remain as confident as she can. This book was told both from Emily's point of view and from Will's (her younger brother) point of view. It was fun to see Will play a bigger role in this book. I liked how Emily and Will each took their own path to solving the problems facing London, yet in the end the two points converged and both paths were necessary to resolve the plot.

There are some wonderful new characters introduced into the story. Puck runs a group of underground rebel humans, of which Katerina is a part of. Katerina was a wonderful addition to the character line up. Also we finally get to meet the elusive Merlin in person.

The description in this book is wonderful, it is very easy to picture the surroundings in your mind. The writing in general is just very well done and this was a wondeful book to read. The main plotline is resolved nicely. I found it very hard to put down this book and wanted to read the whole thing straight through.

Overall just an absolutely wonderful read. There are politics, adventure, magic, action, and rebellion. The characters are wonderful, the description makes the story really come alive, and I love how the fantasy is entwined with real historical events. A absolutely wonderful read. I recommend for all readers middle grade and older who love fantasy, especially historical fantasy. I can't wait to see what happens in the third book! show less