Kilts & Kraken

This time, the Gaslight Chronicles moves to the highlands. A young Lord, Magnus, Baron Findlay, washes up from the sea nearly dead after fighting a kraken. Dr. Geneva MacKay is dispatched by the order to see to his care. Though she is not pleased to once again leave her practice behind even briefly after struggling to establish herself as one of the few female physicians in Edinburgh, she assents to her father's wish. Geneva does what she can for Magnus but fears that it won't be enough and decides to help fulfill his dying wish to return home. Once in Torkholm, much to her surprise, the magic of the island quickly heals Magnus. Though his health has returned, they must still deal with the fact that krakens continue to leave the deep to show more attack the tiny island. Can Magnus and Geneva discover the source of the attacks? How will the two deal with their deepening attraction, when Magnus cannot leave the island?

Kilts & Kraken is an exceedingly quick read coming in at one hundred and eleven pages. I actually found the mystery itself quite interesting and which that it had been expanded. In many ways, the mystery of the kraken attacks was too often displaced to center the romance between Magnus and Geneva. We did get some of the legend that has been customary from this series with Magnus clearly being a descendant of the vikings and the name Torkholm being derived from Thor. The people of Torkholm are still very suspicious and there is a strong belief that the Gods are angry about the modernization of the island as the cause of attacks, making Kilts & Kraken and age old story of superstition and old religion versus progress.

In some ways the character of Geneva is progressive. She becomes one of the first female doctors and is not shy about being sarcastic when there is a suggestion that her gender disqualifies her from being a good doctor. While Magnus is brandishing weapons to fight the kraken, it is Geneva who uses her intelligence to get to the root of the mystery. Many of the weapon in Kilts and Kraken are employed in some way and are not waiting on a man to make their life complete. Geneva in fact makes it clear that her practice is her life.

Sexually, though Geneva has not had intercourse, she does have some experience. Magnus however views himself as having taken her innocence, because Geneva's hymen was intact. This of course privileges intercourse as the only kind of sex that matters and is problematic given that once again, there are not GLBT characters in this series. Geneva even admits to masturbating but is too embarrassed to admit it to Magnus though he has no problem acknowledging that he self pleasures during his time of abstinence. This casts a veneer of shame and over Geneva' desires. The following passage was further troubling:

"This was what her body had been made for. Much of her life, she'd felt mannish and ungainly because she was tall, sturdy and interested in science. With Magnus, she was pure woman, and that sensation was almost as blissful as the feel of his body lodged so deeply inside her it seemed he'd filled her very soul." (pages 70-71)

Right, so the sudden presence of a penis inside her vagina makes Geneva fulfilled. Why then did she spend all of this years becoming educated, going to medical school and building up a practice if all it took was a little dick to make her whole? In this one phrase, Pape destroyed much of the independence she had imparted to Geneva. If further does not help that of course Geneva and Magnus fall passionately in love after only knowing each other for a short time. Though this is a staple of the romance genre, I wish that romance writers would begin to make a separation between love and lust. The latter is most certainly not like the former, even when magic is used to authenticate it, as it was in this case.

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I loved this story. Can that be my entire review? No? Fine!

The world-building was tight and interesting. My experience with Steampunk is limited, but I fell right into this world and couldn't wait for more. I love that it was set in Scotland, rather than London as so many others are. The characters were well-developed. The storyline and conflict were interesting and compelling. I really wanted to know what was going to happen. Would they be able to work things out?

I especially loved that hte heroine was a doctor in a time when women weren't. She was strong and confident in herself, which I enjoyed.

Toward the end I think it..not necessarily fell apart, but became kind of rushed. I would have liked to see a couple extra pages so things show more weren't pushed.

All in all, an excellent story. show less

A nice and interesting novella. Loved the setting and the plot despite the fact that, come on, it was way obvious. I can't wait to read the next novel in this series.

Would have gotten more stars if only I could have gotten past some odd plotholes. Seriously, if I was on an island under attack by giant kraken and on a daily basis saw neighbors getting killed by tentacles from the harbor -- I would have grabbed the kids and moved, oh, a hundred meters further inland or something, y'know? Instead of tip-toeing back to my seaside cottage to start mopping the seawater from the floors as soon as the heroes had finished off the latest wave of suicide squid? And the romance scenes were just brimming with sensible and rational discourse and thoughtful decisions. Which is highly admirable and an splendid example for new couples everywhere, I'm sure, but made me long for the bad old days of bodice-rippers. show more Ahwell. It has kilts and kraken, three stars for that. show less

This is the third “book” in the Gaslight Chronicles series. This was okay, it was a very short story about a magic island and Kraken. The romance felt a bit abrupt to me, but I enjoyed some of the action and magic. This was another novella length addition to this series.

Magnus is bound to a magical island but when he is injured by attacking Kraken and swept out to sea, his life is in mortal danger. Dr. Geneva MacKay is finally prospering in her own medical practice when The Order of the Round Table requests that she go to help doctor an injured Magnus. Geneva is annoyed but ends up drawn into the mysteries of both the island and Magnus.

I liked the mysteries around the magical island and the inclusion of Kraken in this story. The show more main storyline was fairly predictable and I thought the romance between Geneva and Magnus was a bit too abrupt.

Overall I haven’t been a huge fan of these shorter novellas in the Gaslight Chronicle series. They are just not enough story for this world. They are okay but not great. I am going to read book 4 since that is another full length novel and then decide whether or not to continue this series from there. I love the steampunk world created here and enjoy the characters, but the story in these novellas has been lacking. show less

Dr. Geneva MacKay is asked by her father to go to Mull (island off coast of Scotland) to aid a man who was washed ashore near a friend's home. When she arrives she finds he was attacked and pulled into the sea by a giant squid. Despite her repairing his broken bones he seems to continue to decline. According to clansmen who show up he will die if away from his home island for very long. Geneva returns with him to his home to attend him and try to find out why these mythical giant squid are targeting his island. Fun adventure with characters from earlier volumes of this steampunk series showing up.

I love those books. They are steampunk, light and fluffy, romance and easy as summer breeze. I don't expect a high literary art form from them and that what makes them fun and enjoyable to read. Are the predictable? Yes but again the Gaslight Chronicles turned me on to Steampunk and i love it