The Affinity Bridge

The Affinity Bridge: A Penny Dreadful Review

            An airship crashes into a London park and the pilot, a valuable automaton, is missing. A strangler stalks the streets, supposedly the glowing ghost of a policeman out for revenge. To top off this situation, there are zombies lurking in the shadows. What’s an ailing queen to do? Put her best agent on the case. Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes, working out of their office at the British Museum, puzzle out the strange occurrences in The Affinity Bridge by George Mann.

            This is an exciting mystery with a bit of a Sherlock Holmes flavor. Sir Maurice has quite a bit of depth, and this book hints at lots of secrets I’m just itching to uncover. Miss Hobbes is clever, indomitable, and very feminine. I do love an epilogue which changes my entire view of a character and thusly the story, and The Affinity Bridge has one of these. No, I will not tell you what it reveals. That would spoil the whole thing!

            There are a lot of different threads to this story. Some don’t seem relevant at first, but I assure you that they all have their purpose. This is an excellent mystery that keeps you guessing until the big reveal at the end. Bravo, George Mann!

            I give The Affinity Bridge four and a half gears out of five. I quite enjoyed this book, and I look forward to discovering the rest of the Newbury and Hobbes mysteries. They make a good team.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Clockwork Watch

Clockwork Watch: A Penny Dreadful Review

            It is difficult to review an immersive multimedia experience. That is the challenge I face in this review. I have purchased two graphic novels and a comic that are but a piece of the world of the Clockwork Watch. I can only convey fragments of the fascinating world at which these works hint.

            I shall begin with The Arrival. Queen Victoria has invited an engineer by the name of Chan Ranbir to come live in England to work on a project. This project is clockwork automatons. The Arrival is told through the eyes of Mr. Ranbir’s young son. It is the beginning of a strange new world.

            The automatons, or Clockworks, multiply. They are servants in every home, workers in every factory. Advanced models think and feel. Some love them. Some hate them. Janav Ranbir, the estranged son of the man who invented this new race of clockwork people, hates them. He joins an agency called the Clockwork Watch, devoted to policing the activities of these Clockworks.

            Each graphic novel contains articles, and flyers, editorials and mini-stories about various denizens of this strange world. These are derived from the blog posts and live role-playing events on the website. YOU, the reader, the consumer, become the creator. This shared experience is kind of incredible. Five gears out of five, all around.

            The graphic novels are brilliant. I love the art of Jennie Gyllblad wherever I see it, and here she’s just brilliant. The story was dreamt up and begun by Yomi Ayeni, and now it is so much more. Visit www.clockworkwatch.com to see where it is now.

Your Correspondent From the Aethernet,

Penny J. Merriweather.

Boilerplate

Boilerplate: A Penny Dreadful Review

            Let me tell you about the most novel of novels.  Boilerplate, by Paul Guinean and Anina Bennett is an alternative history framed as a coffee table book, complete with historical documents and photographic evidence.

            This unique work chronicles the adventures of a mechanical soldier created in 1893 and his inventor Archibald Campion, from his unveiling in Chicago to his ultimate disappearance in World War One.

            I find it delightful that one must do careful research to determine which parts of this book are fabrication and which are reality.  The automaton has been seamlessly grafted into history, and the authors entirely nailed the tone and look of a history book.

            I give it four out of five gears for sheer ingenuity.  In a couple of places, the supposed chronology is unclear, and at one point I was confused by an apparent gap, but it all made sense in the end.  I recommend seeking out Boilerplate.

            See more at www.boilerplaterobot.com.

Your Correspondent from the Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather