Shanghai Sparrow

Shanghai Sparrow: A Penny Dreadful Review

A young girl living by her wits and light fingers in London might hold the key to ultimate empire. A half-breed fanatic bent on subjugating the fairy kingdom that spurned him. A handsome trickster. Add a madhouse, a school that trains girls in spycraft, a creation of etheric science, and the clever author Gaie Sebold, and you have a tasty adventure called Shanghai Sparrow.
I fell in love with the scrappy Eveline Duchen, otherwise known as Evvie Sparrow. She’s a quick-thinking, clever girl with a gift for languages. A life on London’s unforgiving streets hasn’t yet robbed her of all kindness, and she is the sort of character a reader instantly roots for. Her opponent, the sinister Mr. Holmforth, is a frightening man. He is supposed to be on the side of law and justice, but he is revealed as a corrupt and hateful person. Disturbing as he is, I would have liked a little more about him a little earlier in the book.
This is a book for those who like a little magic in their Steampunk. Evvie’s friend Liu is not what he appears to be. Or rather, he is much more than he seems. I would love to read more about him and more about the fairy kingdom, here called the Crepuscular. I do hope a sequel comes out soon.
I rather like Gaie Sebold’s distinctive narrative style. She combines the characters’ pasts and presents into a deep, fascinating story. Once you pick up one of her books, you cannot help but keep reading until the last tangle is unwound, the last revelation discovered.
I highly recommend this book. I give Shanghai Sparrow four and a half gears out of five. It is an excellent adventure for all ages, or rather, all ages able to read books that come in chapters.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

The Steampunk Workshop

The Steampunk Workshop: A Penny Dreadful Review

            Jake von Slatt can take a shard of metal and turn it into beauty with the aid of power tools. Here is the blog of a fascinating Steampunk maker who resides near Boston, Massachusetts. On his blog, The Steampunk Workshop, he explains how to create various objects of Steampunkery, such as etched tins and lightswitch plates.

            These projects are not for the dilettante or faint of heart. These instructions involve the use of caustic chemicals and electric current. Fortunately, the instructions are clear and helpful, so one should end up with a piece of art and one’s limbs intact. If you have better luck with sharp objects than I have, this blog (and some tools and bits of metal) should be all you need to create fantastic works.

            For those of you who learn better by watching a maker in motion, Mr. von Slatt also has a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/vonslatt. Here, you can find live action tutorials and get a tour of his workshop.

            I give this blog four gears out of five. It is essential for the technically-minded Steampunk. Find it at http://steampunkworkshop.com/ and get ready to learn and create. Please follow all safety precautions when working with dangerous chemicals and electricity. This is how monstrous automatons and supervillains are created.

Your Correspondent From The Aethernet,

Penny J. Merriweather

Portrait Of A Killer

Portrait Of A Killer: A Penny Dreadful Review

            I would have to say that the most famous cold case is that of the Jack the Ripper murders in the 1880s. The identity of the savage killer has been hotly debated for more than a hundred years. In Portrait of a Killer, internationally famous mystery author Patricia Cornwell weighs in on this debate with her conclusions.

            Ms. Cornwell applies modern detecting techniques, handwriting analysis, modern psychology, and other extremely convincing methods to pin the murders on a particular someone. I shan’t reveal the identity of the gentleman in question, saying only that he is well-known for his art which contains some disturbing subtext as Patricia Cornwell points out.

            Her application of modern methods to this case is fascinating reading, and she certainly knows how to make an argument. After reading the book, it boggles the mind how the man in question never came under suspicion in the original investigation. Patricia Cornwell’s skill as the weaver of fascinating mystery is never in question. The first several chapters are stunning, clever, and frightening. Unfortunately, after she finishes the narrative of the Ripper murders, the book trails on for much longer than is needed.

            In conclusion, the first bit of Portrait of a Killer is a Must Read, but skip the end. It doesn’t add any new information. I give this book three and a half gears out of five. It is a fascinating work of true crime, and ought to be read by anyone fascinated with the late Victorian era.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Incarceron

Incarceron: A Penny Dreadful Review

Remember how odd and twisted Through The Looking Glass was? I just read a book that’s odder. In Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher, nothing is what it seems. The truth slides around like sand dunes. Nothing and no one is straightforward. It was fantastic!
Inside the titular Incarceron, an inscrutable sentient prison, lives Finn, a young man haunted and tormented by a past he cannot remember. He dreams of escaping and finding his missing memories.  And he is not as innocent as he appears.  Incarceron has no room for innocence.  Outside dwells Claudia. Her father is the Warden of Incarceron, keeping secrets within secrets. Claudia is trapped in another sort of prison: a cage of rules. The Protocol instituted by a long-ago king traps her world in a stereotype of history with archaic customs and clothing. Nothing may change. Claudia wants change.  She wants to escape her impending wedding to the boorish heir to the throne.
Then Finn and Claudia find the keys. The mysterious crystalline artifacts allow them to discover each other and untangle the secrets and truths of their world. I shan’t spoil the twists and intrigues. They are far too much fun to read.
Incarceron is a book of labyrinths inside labyrinths. None of the characters know the entire truth about their world, and no one knows who might be lying or why. The dystopias of the worlds insides and outside the prison were meant to be utopias. Incarceron was intended as a glorious social experiment. The Protocol was meant to protect everyone in a simpler, friendlier time. I really enjoyed this unique look at stagnation and decay.
         This book takes a brain to read. I am fairly skilled at guessing the outcomes of plot points and predicting twists. I was blindsided and wrong too many times to count. Incarceron is fascinating. I could hardly put it down.
I believe this work deserves four and a half gears out of five. It was a dark and twisted journey through a dark and twisted world, and I must see whether the lies are all untangled in the sequel, Sapphique. So many questions left unanswered!

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

Sausages, Steam, And The Bad Thing

Sausages, Steam, And The Bad Thing: A Penny Dreadful Review

            The queen of intriguing titles has done it again. Rachael Acks, author of the delightful Marta Ramos mysteries, released a collected compendium of her novellas with Musa Publishing. But Miss Merriweather, you say, I already have all her books. Why should I buy them again? For the extras, my readers, the extras. This is so much more than a simple collection.

            Sausages, Steam, and the Bad Thing features bonus material to accompany each of the novellas, in addition to brand new stories. Fans will get an exclusive look into the world of Captain Ramos and Colonel Douglas through newspaper clippings, recipes, and more. Much of the bonus material focuses on secondary characters and What Happened Next after Captain Ramos waltzed out of their lives, mysteries solved. I especially adore the brief interlude from the point of view of Chippy the Exceedingly Tiny Dog entitled “Sniff, Sniff. Adventure!”

            A new story, “The Jade Tiger,” involves a daring train robbery and the liberation of a young girl. It offers a quick glimpse into Captain Ramos’s past, a subject on which she is all but mute. It also introduces us to a new character, the fierce, clever mother Madam Xing, who I hope we will see again.

            I give this compilation five gears out of five, and highly recommend it to any fan of intrigue and swashbuckling. I am madly in love with Captain Ramos and her strange world, and I delight in her quirky adventures.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather

Dead Iron

Dead Iron: A Penny Dreadful Review

A man with a curse. A frontier town full of suspicious people that reluctantly tolerates him. A railroad baron that is much stranger than he seems. A beautiful witch. Her dead husband out for revenge. Three silver miners with odd contraptions and even odder secrets. Magic twines around the gritty gears that drive Dead Iron by Devon Monk.
The world is certainly different from anything I’ve seen before, and at first the supernatural elements seemed a little jarring. There’s a portion of chapter three where things become entirely unfamiliar and seem almost unsupported by the story up to that point. Yet, with a little more explanation, things do fall into place, and after chapter four, the story gets a lot better. I won’t spoil it, because it is definitely worth discovering on your own, especially when there’s an underground zipline involved.
I was saddened to find a handful of typos and nonsensical sentences sprinkled through the prose. It seems Ms. Monk’s editor was asleep on the job, and it really hurts the story.
I must say a few words about the awesomeness of the character Rose Small. She’s an unconventional foundling who, in my opinion, totally steals the show. She really shines by the climax, taking up arms in the defense of [spoiler redacted]. I wish her mysterious past had been explained rather than just hinted at.
I give Dead Iron three and one half gears out of five. It was quite good, but could have used another tweaking to make it truly brilliant. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book if you enjoy the dark and supernatural in your Steampunk.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,
Penny J. Merriweather

The Zeppelin Story

The Zeppelin Story: A Penny Dreadful Review

            We see zeppelins and airships all the time in Steampunk literature, but where did they come from? How were they put together? What did they look like? Do they still exist? By chance, I found a compact little picture book that answers these questions. It is called The Zeppelin Story.

            Written by John Christopher, The Zeppelin Story is a pint-sized coffee table book suitable for all ages. The story is sensibly laid out, covering the major zeppelin developments, the World Wars, the Hindenburg, then finishing with a few words on modern airships and what new heights technology might rise to in the future. The illustrating photographs are attractively laid out and clearly captioned. This book contains everything from schematics to propaganda posters, from brief biographies of famous pilots to travel brochures. The Zeppelin Story is comprehensive and informative. If you can read, you can enjoy it.

I give this handy little book four gears out of five. It’s pretty to have out on display, full of fascinating information, and a perfect introduction to the art and science of airships.

Your Correspondent From The Bookstore,

Penny J. Merriweather