All Men of Genius by Lev Ac Rosen

All Men of Genius
by Lev Ac Rosen
September 2011
Tor Books

"I quite agree with Dr. Nordau's assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr. Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots." ~Oscar Wilde

Let's begin with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, throw in some Jane Austen, salt it with Robert Louis Stevenson and mix in a cup of steampunk.  The end result?  A brilliant young female inventor who dresses as a boy in order to gain admittance to a prestigious male only academy and is subsequently chased by killer automata, kissed by a Duke, and faced with an evil plot that may put all her future dreams in jeopardy.  Or in other words, you get All Men of Genius.  While this was an extraordinarily slow read, the book is well written and interesting enough that you continue to slog through the large cast of characters and Violet's daily comings and goings until you reach the dramatic, action packed conclusion.  Fans of the steampunk genre who are looking for a more adult read should definitely give this one a try!

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

The Girl in the Steel Corset
by Kady Cross
June 2011
Harlequin Teen

There is a darkness within me, something I can't always control.  If you like a girl with a secret side, you're gonna love me . . . 

Yeah, except I didn't . . . and neither did your so-called boyfriend.  This book was so frustrating!!!  There are so few steampunk young adult novels that I was just that much more excited to read this one and even begged my boss to pre-order it for the library.  Kady Cross's own description for this book is "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets teen X-Men."  How can you not be super excited to read a book like that?!  This book has excellent reviews on Amazon.com so you probably shouldn't exclusively take my word for it, but here are my issues:

1. It was too easy.  Rather than creating a true steampunk world composed of Victorian ideals and styles meshed with occasional non-era technologies, the author has instead thrown us into the future with teen superpowers such as the ability to speak to robots and silly inventions like a steel corset that is fashionably thin and comfy but also completely bullet proof.  I propose, however, that we simply must have limitations or we lose room for growth.  When the characters run into huge obstacles that are suddenly solved by the evolution of someone's superpower e.g. "Hey, we need to be able to see in the dark . . . guess what?!  I just leveled up and can now see in the dark!"  I call it bad writing - not character development.

2. UGH I hated the love interest!  So the girl has some serious Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type issues which is totally fine.  HOWEVER, if you're going to be the girl's boyfriend then don't say you only love her sweet, kind side and desperately try to get rid of her kick-a awesome side!  Especially since I personally thought that her Mr. Hyde side made much better girlfriend material.

3. And another thing!  Please don't introduce totally awesome, super roguish, drool-worthy characters if you don't intend to use them.  I mean come on, quit dangling this potential love interest in our faces if we never get to learn more about him.  Hopefully he'll show up more in book two . . . ?

So there you have it.  Depsite my grumblings, I was not completely bored while reading this book so if you're huge into steampunk and looking for a new cosplay costume idea then go ahead and read this.  But I suggest getting it from the library.

The Steampunk Chronicles

The Girl in the Steel Corset

Book 2 (TBR)

The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade

The Hunchback Assignments (Book 1)
by Arthur Slade
September 2009
Wendy Lamb Books

A true wretch of a creature crouched in the cage . . . On the bottom of the cage a plaque read L'ENFANT DU MONSTRE.

I haven't read much literature for younger audiences lately, but the Victorian-steampunk, James Bond cover and description for this book drew me in.  As an infant, Modo, a hunchback, is "rescued" from his life in a traveling freak show by the mysterious Mr. Socrates.  From the age of one, Socrates trains Modo in history, weaponry, languages, society, acting and more to prepare him for life as the ultimate spy.  But these are not Modo's only skills - as a "shifter" he can change his appearance and become anyone he's ever seen or imagined.  From the handsomest prince to the humblest peasant and then back to his misshapen form- it's no surprise that Modo has learned to hide his true self from all.

Modo's face isn't the only versatile aspect of this series.  In addition to covering the Victorian era, and the steampunk and spy genres; it also covers Hunchback of Notre Dame, Oliver Twist, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and a few other classics that I can't quite put my finger on.  Overall, this is an excellent read for younger teens, perhaps in middle school, but it may not quite hold the interest of adult readers.

The Hunchback Assignments
The Hunchback Assignments
The Dark Deeps
Empire of Ruins (TBR September 2011)

Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn

Troubled Waters
by Sharon Shinn
October 2010
Ace Hardcover

A world in which people believe that five essential elements rule all things and guide their lives.

Don't be fooled by the title of this book.  Rather than scaling a mountain only to push her readers off, Sharon Shinn takes you on a ride down an easy, peaceful river with occasional rapids, but never anything more violent than a touch of whitewater.  No race to the waterfall.  No careening over the edge only to be dashed to bits by the rocks at the bottom.  Sometimes it really bothers me when authors (*cough* Robin McKinley *cough*) do this; however, this time I very much enjoyed the ride.

Zoe Ardelay is living peacefully in a village, mourning the death of her father when a man comes from the capital and declares she is to be the fifth wife of the king.  Zoe has other things in mind, however, and she walks away from the promise of her new life to blend into the crowded streets of the capitol.  But what she learns about herself and her powers, and the darkest secrets of the kingdom forces her to take part in the political facade and intrigue running rampant throughout the palace.  I love the depth and design of the world that Shinn has created for Troubled Waters.  I only hope that someday she will remove this novel from her list of standalone fiction on her website and place it in a series.  There is definitely room (and demand) for more of Zoe's world.

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

As is often the case in life, there's good news and there's bad news.  The good news is, this book was much better than the first one - and the first one was good too!  It may have been that I was just more familiar with Catherine Fisher's unique steampunk world the second time around, but overall things were less confusing and I was able to focus more on the characters and less on struggling to understand the environment.  The bad news is that Fisher truly does not currently plan on making this into a trilogy or longer series.  According to the FAQ on her website, Fisher left many things in the book loosely tied not to leave room for sequels, but to allow the reader to finish the book themselves.  Similarly, Fisher did not describe a few of the characters in the book so that the reader could create the characters themselves.  The most incredible thing about this is that I hadn't even realized until I read the FAQ on Fisher's website that she had done this.  Which means, of course, that the characters that I had seen running around the pages of these books had been entirely of my own creation.  This was a fun and unique approach and with the confidence I've gained from creating my own characters, I think I'll go ahead and finish the book in my head the way I feel it should have ended.

Many thanks to my friend Amber for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this months ago.  This book was published in December 2010 but you all would have been really impressed if I'd blogged about it last year when I first received it, eh?

Incarceron (Book 1)
Sapphique (Book 2)

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Do you have a favorite author?  Is this author your favorite because they write the exact story you want to read . . . over and over and over again?  Characters names may change, the book may be set in a different country, but overall, you're getting exactly what you wanted because nothing ever changes and yet you are still rewarded with the refreshing sense of wondering "what's going to happen next?!" even though you already know.  Cassandra Clare is not my favorite author - but I do have one, and I love her books for just this reason.  If Cassandra Clare was my favorite author, this book would have sent me to book heaven (which I imagine looks something like Beast's library in Disney's Beauty and the Beast).  As it is, however, I like Cassandra Clare well enough that her books always keep me very entertained (and up way past my bedtime).

Clockwork Angel is book one of a new prequel series for The Mortal Instruments.  I very much enjoyed learning about some of the history behind what happens later in the other series as well as the steampunk feel of this world.  The characters, however, felt somewhat recycled (girl who doesn't know what she is meets boy who hates life and wants to push said girl away -until book 3 I'm sure) but as I said before, when you enjoy a story it usually isn't due to the extreme originality, but more to the familiarity.  Oh, and the fact that Magnus Bane (lovely, hilarious man that he was in The Mortal Instruments) just so happens to be in this series due to the longevity that his warlock blood provides him.  So hurrah for that!

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld, author of the New York Times bestselling Uglies series, takes an interesting leap into the world of steampunk in his latest novel.  The book focuses on the events that led to the beginning of World War I with some crazy modifications on the historical allied and central powers.  Machines are pitted against fabricated animals as a young orphaned Austrian prince and a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service do their best to find their place in this war.  Westerfeld's weaponry and world were a little hard to adjust to and the characters got on my nerves frequently, but I have to give the author credit for trying.  After all, steampunk is one of my favorite genres and it's nearly impossible to find good material that isn't produced by Japanese animation studios.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

I should have known something was up when I had to re-read the first chapter of this book over and over again.  And not because it was boring.  When you get used to certain genres (like YA Fantasy) then you come to accept and understand the simplicity of the plot and environment.  Oh, we're in a castle, I've read plenty of books about those.  Skip five paragraphs of descriptions about gray stones and the chilling drafts in winter and you haven't missed a thing.  But not this book!  Half the story takes place in a living prison called Incarceron and the other half takes place in a distant future where everyone "pretends" to live in the dark ages.  As my mind is still reeling I think I'll go and have a lie down . . .