Authors have a different strengths that they bring to their craft: plotting, characterization, world building, action, etc. Bujold is such a fantastic writer because she's a master of all of these, as she's shown repeatedly in her novels; but in The Sharing Knife series (ending with Horizon), she focuses her attention almost entirely on something a bit more unusual-- relationships. Sure, her other skills are in fine form with plenty of heart-stopping, gut-wrenching action scenes and memorable, believable characters, but, really, these books are primarily about a small cast of characters (and through them, their communities) growing together. It's a gentle and wonderful ride.

_The Somnambulist_, by Jonathan Barnes, falls in the relatively recent Steam Punk genre and is very reminiscent of _Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell_ in atmosphere. Both mix paranormal events with a dark, gas-lit view of Victorian London. The plot of _The Somnambulist_ is engaging, and the characters are interesting and bizarre while still staying, for the most part, in the realm of the believable. It's a fun book with an unusual narrator, the pacing was good, and I was easily carried through the novel to an unpredictable but satisfying ending.

My only major criticism is that the book felt a bit sketchy, drawn with large brush strokes. I never really got into the details of the environment such that I could picture it clearly, and the characters never become so real that I quite cared about what happened to them. This aside, though, I would recommend this book as an enjoyable, reasonably light read.