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missroseroseThis is exactly what it says on the label - Adventure! Romance! Mad Science! Yep, it's gaslamp fantasy, the sort of pulp that a Victorian penny dreadful author might have written after ingesting an unwise amount of questionable laudanum. In all fairness, however, they'd have to be a rather good author (or some rather strong laudanum) - this is absolutely a cut above your average adventure novel.
Most of the story's strengths lie in its characters and its cultivation of a gentle sense of humor. I wouldn't say any of the characters quite get past two dimensions (although a couple of them start to lean towards that boundary by the end), but most of them are fleshed out enough to be halfway interesting and memorable, which is especially surprising given the large cast. And while the story's comic-book origins come through in the presence of a certain level of slapstick humor, there's also more than a few entertaining moments watching the aforementioned characters' personalities bounce off each other.
It's not quite a perfect story, or even a perfect adventure story. There are more than a few backstory-filling-in moments that, while not exactly boring, feel a little bit like casual infodumping; one imagines that it's the sort of thing that's easier to show in the background of a comic strip but tougher to work into a novel's dialogue. A couple of my least favorite gender-related tropes show up (Agatha's literal first conflict comes in the form of a drunk ex-soldier mugging and threatening to rape her, and the scene is played for laughs; Agatha's main conflict throughout the story consists of her overcoming her insecurity relating to her gender and her abilities; the love interest is Struggling With His Darker Nature but it's heavily implied that A Good Woman Can Redeem Him Before He Turns To The Dark Side). This is balanced somewhat, however, by the subverting of more than a few other tropes; I especially liked the half-The Doctor/half-James Bond character who's regarded (and regards himself) as The Hero but turns out to be more a pain in the ass than anything else.
I also have to tip my hat to the worldbuilding; while the protagonist/antagonist questions are slightly more clear-cut than in a Miyazaki film, the authors seem to have taken a page from his book in that few of them come across as all-good or all-evil (which is especially refreshing in a pulp adventure). This is a complicated world, with politics and power struggles and mythology and heroes that are half-historical, half-fictional (and may not turn out to be as heroic in person). And while the handling of the "what's fact and what's myth" aspects aren't quite on the level of, say, one of Gaiman's works, it's still one of my favorite themes to see explored.
Absolutely recommended to any fans of the genre, or who just want a good old-fashioned rip-roaring adventure story that doesn't make them wince over the quality of the writing. A-
Most of the story's strengths lie in its characters and its cultivation of a gentle sense of humor. I wouldn't say any of the characters quite get past two dimensions (although a couple of them start to lean towards that boundary by the end), but most of them are fleshed out enough to be halfway interesting and memorable, which is especially surprising given the large cast. And while the story's comic-book origins come through in the presence of a certain level of slapstick humor, there's also more than a few entertaining moments watching the aforementioned characters' personalities bounce off each other.
It's not quite a perfect story, or even a perfect adventure story. There are more than a few backstory-filling-in moments that, while not exactly boring, feel a little bit like casual infodumping; one imagines that it's the sort of thing that's easier to show in the background of a comic strip but tougher to work into a novel's dialogue. A couple of my least favorite gender-related tropes show up (Agatha's literal first conflict comes in the form of a drunk ex-soldier mugging and threatening to rape her, and the scene is played for laughs; Agatha's main conflict throughout the story consists of her overcoming her insecurity relating to her gender and her abilities; the love interest is Struggling With His Darker Nature but it's heavily implied that A Good Woman Can Redeem Him Before He Turns To The Dark Side). This is balanced somewhat, however, by the subverting of more than a few other tropes; I especially liked the half-The Doctor/half-James Bond character who's regarded (and regards himself) as The Hero but turns out to be more a pain in the ass than anything else.
I also have to tip my hat to the worldbuilding; while the protagonist/antagonist questions are slightly more clear-cut than in a Miyazaki film, the authors seem to have taken a page from his book in that few of them come across as all-good or all-evil (which is especially refreshing in a pulp adventure). This is a complicated world, with politics and power struggles and mythology and heroes that are half-historical, half-fictional (and may not turn out to be as heroic in person). And while the handling of the "what's fact and what's myth" aspects aren't quite on the level of, say, one of Gaiman's works, it's still one of my favorite themes to see explored.
Absolutely recommended to any fans of the genre, or who just want a good old-fashioned rip-roaring adventure story that doesn't make them wince over the quality of the writing. A-
