The Horns of Ruin Review

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(More customer reviews)Eva Forge is the last Paladin of the God of War Morgan. The problem is he is long dead from his brother's hands Amon. This leaves only the last brother immortal Alexander as the last living god in charge of the city of Ash and its surrounding areas. As Paladin Eva is entrusted with the security and protection of the Cult of Morgan and its followers. Not an easy thing for just one person, but with sword and magicked gun she soldiers on with loose lips and a hothead attitude. While on a mission to take the leader of her order somewhere and back some craziness with zombies of a sort goes down and she must track down one of her own.
The Horns of Ruin is very different tonally from Heart of Veridon so don't expect more of the same. It has an almost animalistic and visceral feel with loads of fights and colorful language that may be more at home in a Fantasy novel. Eva Forge is one tough lady who doesn't have much of a feminine side, but that is what you get when you train a person from childhood how to kill. I was immediately taken in by Eva's brusque disposition, which is best shown in her dialogue where she verbally combats people just as much as physically. Yet outside of Eva most characters aren't given much depth or detail that would connect you better with them.
The system of magic is based off of chanting and belief of past events, which was a nice way of mixing religion and magic given the nature of their gods. There is sometimes an over abundance of the chanting magic as Eva stretches herself to keep going. The Horns of Ruin often blends magic and science that comes off very blurred at times, which made my mind want to rebel not knowing which aspect was intended. Finally I just decided to go with it and not try to read too much into how something in particular was possible. The followers of Amon's abilities are particularly intriguing being that have a mastery over technology, but can also affect power through chanting including an impressive unmaking type spell. There are some Steampunk elements to be sure such as some jet packs and monorails, but this feels like a post Steampunk world with a healthy dash of magic and gods thrown in.
You'd be hard pressed to name a faster paced book. Akers barely gives you time to contemplate all the happenings as Eva bounces from one fight to the next. The relationships between the brother/gods are left very vague for quite a longtime, but as pieces are unfurled a new mystery takes shape. I particularly enjoyed the way Akers handles his gods and how their powers originate and the deep history that is alluded to.
If anything I'd call The Horns of Ruin Swords & Science. Fans of hack and slash Fantasy just may have found the steampunky read they've been looking for. The Horns of Ruin is an energetic rollercoaster ride in a well accentuated world that needs to be further explored. The ending while satisfying does leave much left open. There has been no word yet on another Eva Forge book, but the second Jacob Burn book Dead of Veridon is schedule for June 2011 from Solaris.

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Eva Forge is the last paladin of the dead God, Morgan.
Eva, forsaken by her parents and forgotten by her family, was the last child dedicated to the Cult of Morgan. Morgan, God of battle and champion of the Fraterdom, was assassinated by his jealous brother, Amon. Over time, the Cult of Morgan has been surpassed by other Gods, his blessings ignored in favor of brighter technologies and more mechanical miracles. Now, Eva watches as her new family, her Cult, crumbles around her.
When a series of kidnappings and murders makes it clear that someone is trying to hasten the death of the Cult of Morgan, Eva must seek out unexpected allies and unwelcome answers in the city of Ash. But will she be able to save the city from a growing conspiracy, one that reaches back to her childhood, even back to the murder of her God?
As Eva wields her sword and wits in a city full of wonders, her story becomes the first perfect merger of steampunk and sword and sorcery.

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The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man: (Burton & Swinburne In) Review

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(More customer reviews)Following on The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Richard Burton and his trusted sidekick Algernon Swinburne are tasked with once again discovering the truth in The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder. As with the first book, the author steeps this volume in as much alternate history as speculative fiction that leads to a rousing tale of intrigue, adventure, and tremendous peril.
Joined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer, Burton and Swinburne, along with several trusted allies, must get to the bottom of the Tichborne Affair. Someone claims to be Roger Tichborne, once lost at sea, heir to the Tichborne estate, but Burton believes otherwise. Tasked by the Prime Minister to get to the bottom of the affair, Burton discovers there is much more at stake than just a cursed estate. The people are rioting, the lower class calling for the undoing of the upper class, and it seems the grotesquely large Tichborne claimant has more than just persuasive powers on his side. To further complicate matters, Burton and Swinburne find themselves up against more than just physical foes as they have to fight their own minds in order to survive.
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man follows nicely on Spring Heeled Jack. Burton and Swinburne are as opposed in disposition as in the previous book, but just as brave as well. The addition of Herbert Spencer as a character is a pleasent surprise as he proves to be both wise and helpful, in particular when least expected. Burton for his part is tormented from time to time by past events and visions of the future.
While delightful in itself, this volume works best as a follow up from the previous and is, in some ways, an excellent middle volume, for there is surely more to come as is more than hinted at by the end of the book. While slightly predictable in its way, The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man is well executed, easily readable, and full of more than a few surprises. All around, nearly as enjoyable as the first and nearly as educational. Here's to hoping the next book arrives sooner rather than later.

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It is 1862, though not the 1862 it should be...
Time has been altered, and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the king's agent, is one of the few people who know that the world is now careening along a very different course from that which Destiny intended.
When a clockwork-powered man of brass is found abandoned in Trafalgar Square, Burton and his assistant, the wayward poet Algernon Swinburne, find themselves on the trail of the stolen Garnier Collection—black diamonds rumored to be fragments of the Lemurian Eye of Naga, a meteorite that fell to Earth in prehistoric times.
His investigation leads to involvement with the media sensation of the age: the Tichborne Claimant, a man who insists that he's the long lost heir to the cursed Tichborne estate. Monstrous, bloated, and monosyllabic, he's not the aristocratic Sir Roger Tichborne known to everyone, yet the working classes come out in force to support him. They are soon rioting through the streets of London, as mysterious steam wraiths incite all-out class warfare.
From a haunted mansion to the Bedlam madhouse, from South America to Australia, from seances to a secret labyrinth, Burton struggles with shadowy opponents and his own inner demons, meeting along the way the philosopher Herbert Spencer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Florence Nightingale, and Charles Doyle (father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
Can the king's agent expose a plot that threatens to rip the British Empire apart, leading to an international conflict the like of which the world has never seen? And what part does the clockwork man have to play?
Burton and Swinburne's second adventure—The Clockwork Man Of Trafalgar Square—is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and a deepening mystery that pushes forward the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack.

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Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan Review

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(More customer reviews)"...playing with history is a small bit of payback for the way history has played with us."
Historical speculation may not be fruitful, but it's fun -- and former Kennedy speechwriter and longtime political journalist Jeff Greenfield definitely has his fill of it, presenting three alternate history scenarios spanning two decades. He begins with the assassination of John F. Kennedy nearly two months before his inauguration as President, resets the clock and jumps to a kitchen in Los Angeles, where JFK's brother Robert narrowly escaped an attempt on his own life. After following RFK's bitter election campaign, Greenfield restores reality again and moves us into the seventies, shortly before Gerald Ford informed Jimmy Carter that there was no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe and never would be under his administration. Here, though, Ford rallies and just barely beats Carter in the election.
Greenfield's fun at history's expense provides for some great stories: for instance, after his aggressive stance offends Kruschev, the latter decides to "put a hedgehog in Uncle Sam's pants" and forces Johnson to respond to Soviet missiles in Cuba. Later, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy confronts violent students protests in Chicago in 1968, and still later Ted Kennedy is forced to debate a man who adopts Kennedy's own brother's legacy and uses RFK's words against him. Greenfield throws in little allusions to how historical events truly played out -- both during this period and beyond. Newly-minted congressman Al Gore Jr. vows to seek a constitutional amendment that will ensure the winner of the popular vote is declared president, after a member of his own party manages to win the popular vote but lose in the electoral college: Richard Nixon grumbles that he needs a 'fair and balanced' news network that will cut him some slack; and a young Dick Cheney grumbles that "next, those bastards will be trying to privatize social security!". The book ends with a particularly humorous allusion, one that shows how ludicrously history can sometimes repeat itself.
While the author is more unkind than not to Nixon and Reagan, his bias is toward the centrist politics of Robert Kennedy rather than traditional progressivism as espoused by McGovern or Humprey. The Kennedy clan has a central role in the book: RFK's presidential campaign is its core, and the other two scenarios draw heavily on the Kennedy influence. The scenarios featured are stirringly plausible, though generally the range of the scenarios is limited. I wanted to see him explore how the space race might have unfolded with LBJ at the head, but there's no mention of it. This is part understandable, because history becomes increasingly more predictable as its scale broadens: while someone could write a book on how the early assassination of JFK altered the entire latter half of the 20th century, Greenfield doesn't -- ostensibly because there would be too many variables to deal with. He keeps the range of his scenarios small to limit the effects of chaos.
Greenfield also works in historical ripple effects into his narrative: in a world where Watergate never happens, Bob Woodward leaves the Washington Post to become a lawyer, and MASH fails after Vietnam ends on a less-than-agreeable note. Greenfield is a fine storyteller, but his flawless integration of real-life speeches into a completely different historical retelling impressed me the most. Dialogue abounds, but most of it -- Greenfield says -- is taken from the official Oval Office recordings that the various presidents kept. He devotes several dozen pages at the end of the book to explain how he drew from history to make the changes he did, which is always commendable when writing alternate history or historical fiction.
In the end, a fun romp through two decades of American politics that will especially appeal to those who feel the promise of America was shortchanged by acts of violence and like seeing Richard Nixon lose elections (repeatedly).


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The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne in) Review

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(More customer reviews)Mark Hodder, please write more, ASAP!
Okay, moving on. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is currently my absolute favorite book of the year and is going to be a tough one to unseat. This mystery steampunk action/adventure alternate history story is tight. Hodder's writing style is crisp and even and easily navigated. Other than a few sections where I bogged down in the science-y alt. history stuff, I blew threw this like it was air. Burton and Swinburne feel authentic as characters and every surrounding aspect is put together in such a way that nothing seems totally out of place even if it obviously is.
What's even more impressive is how Hodder takes a cadre of authentic Victorian personas and blends them so well together, even if they never/rarely met in real life. I learned a lot about the characters both their real selves and alternate fictional selves, as well as the era since we see the diverging paths as one thing after another is affected by the decisions of others. Because decisions matter in this book so it's not just pulp fiction. There is a point to it, but I'll leave that for you to find out as you read. But other than there being a point, the book is all grand fun. Burton is swarthy enough to appeal to action/adventure types while also being a human being. And Swinburne, whom I now poetically seem to have developed a crush on, is a nice balancing character. He needs to live unlike Burton who seems to not need to live as much as he is throughout the book.
As far as plot goes, I could barely believe how well the loose ends were tied up in the end. Even some of the smaller details in the plotting and characterisation come to be important for the climax which is at times utterly surprising. As a standalone title, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is outstanding. I can only hope it serves as a platform for more Burton and Swinburne in the future. A Must Read book for any steampunk or alternate history reader.

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