susanvoss18

Set in a lush alternative England at the beginning of the 20th century, Queen Victoria reigns over airships pirates and galvanic monsters alike. This tale is told through James Wainwright, who is something of a mad scientist, or inventor at least. His commentary on his gentleman friend Bartleby often had me chuckling and his dogged pursuit of The Spider once he became interested was entertaining. While not my favorite so far in the series, it is an excellent first book to introduce readers to two of the main characters and the setting. In short, it was an excellent way to spend a lunch hour.

I need to talk about the cover. I had seen this book here and there on the blogosphere, Kindle, etc. but had passed it by because of the cover. The covers for Maiden Voyage of the Rio Grande and Sky Pirates Over London have airships and look steampunkish. I found these covers very attractive and that is why, in part, that I read them. Now I understand you can’t slap an airship on every book, especially if there is no airship in the story, but this cover looks cartoony to me and makes me think of the circus and clowns, two things I generally avoid in real life and in reading. So, there you have my little confession. I was passing up a fine book because I was judging it by it’s cover.

Narration: Wayne Farrell is an excellent voice for James Wainwright, capturing both his fascination of mechanized gadgets and his condescension of evening attire and the finer points of gentlemanly behavior.