Book Reviews

Book Blurb

1914. Konstantin would love to hide in his laboratory and dissect the clockwork dragon captured from Russia, but the Archmages of Vienna have other plans. He finds himself shipped off to St. Petersburg as the scientific attaché to an ambassador. His orders? Look, but don’t touch. Of course, he considers this an impossible request with so much enemy technomancy to explore. 

To make matters worse, Konstantin has to work with the dashing zeppelin commander Himmel, a man who should also be untouchable. They can’t act on the smoldering attraction between them without risking it all. Faced with an illegal relationship and a devious rival technomancer, Konstantin might not return from this mission in Russia without conquering the forbidden. 

(Includes Serpent's Tower, a bonus short story in the same world.)

Book Review

In a world that is much like one to be found in a Steampunk universe, it may be 1914 and some of the politics and the fact that there is a world war are familiar, but it is a very different version of reality than the one we know from our past. Clockwork machinery rules the day, but steam does not drive it, rather it is powered by magic (technomancy), diesel (hence the author has dubbed this Dieselpunk), or the highly illegal energy of souls (necromancy). The Austro-Hungarian and the German empire under the leadership of the Prussians are fighting the Tsar and the Russian Empire, while France and other nations have not yet joined the war. Zeppelins and giant soldiers in the form of human-powered exoskeletons are supporting the fight, and numerous other fascinating little details make this alternate reality come to life. The result is an imaginative action/adventure that is suspenseful and very entertaining.

Konstantin is an archmage from Vienna on loan to Prussia so he can help figure out the superior Russian clockwork war machines. He is dedicated to the work in his lab and not very sociable, and his preference for men will get him killed if he is discovered since sodomy is illegal. But there is a certain zeppelin captain who is hard to resist, and when they are sent on a “diplomatic” mission – read: they are supposed to spy for the Austro-Hungarian/German alliance – to St. Petersburg, Konstantin and Theodore give in to temptation. Of course this has disastrous consequences, and added to Konstantin’s attempts to stop the Russians from using illegal means to win the war, things get a lot worse for both of them before they have a chance to improve the situation.

If you like imaginative worlds that are only vaguely related to our own, if two men who fight almost insurmountable odds to be together are your thing, and if you’re looking for a suspenseful adventure with lots of mishaps, funny moments, and some fantastical technology, then you will probably like this novella.   

 

 

 

 

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Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novella, 118 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	11-July-2016
Price	$2.99 ebook, $6.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Clockwork-Menagerie-Shadows-Asphodel-Novella-ebook/dp/B01IC4PQCC