The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, Book 1)

Author: Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith
Reader: James Marsters

Short Review: A well read interesting blend of airships, vampires, alternate history and a strong princess coming of age and discovering her strength.

Long Review: This is one of those books where you know early on that you are meant to root for the unlikely ‘bad guy’ hero and boo the shiny ‘good guy’ megalomaniac. While part of me felt a bit manipulated, the story was quite fun once I let go that I wanted it to be more inventive or surprising. James Marsters finds a way to pull you in with the voices and the pacing.

Part of me was holding a grudge for the cover art. I hate when the art doesn’t match my interpretation of the text or gives something away. But honestly, when I admitted that this was halfway to a romance novel I didn’t begrudge them their dashing couple on the cover. The fact that the female lead is strong, with hints of greater strength in her future, helped keep me interested as well.

The authors did a nice job creating an alternate history with their own version of vampires. I liked the steampunk touches in the form of airships, clothing and overall tone. There was also a dash of swashbuckling pirate flavor tossed in. As is often the case with the first book in what is known will be a series, a lot of this story lays the foundation for what I imagine must be on the way. I will say that this gave more time for character development and very vivid descriptions that give you a real sense of this alternate version of the year 2020.

James Marsters  did a great job. I am not sure I would have stuck with this book long enough to really get hooked if there hadn’t been a strong reader. Now I just have to wait for them to release the audio version of the sequel, The Rift Walker.

Clementine

Author: Cherie Priest

Readers: Dina Pearlman and Victor Bevine

Short Review: This sequel to Boneshaker follows Captain Croggon Hainey as he tracks and attempts to recover his airship, The Free Crow, from its captors. It also introduces Maria Isabella Boyd, a former Confederate spy turned Pinkerton, on her first assignment. It’s good, but not quite as good as Boneshaker.

Long Review: I’m a huge fan of this series, and found Boneshaker absolutely enthralling. This sequel follows Hainey, one of the more interesting minor characters from the first novel, and introduces Boyd, an intriguing character based on a historical figure. It follows an interesting dangling thread from that first novel, but to do so, it has to leave leave Seattle. The Seattle of Boneshaker was so inventive and layered that I had a hard time following the author away from it.

All whining aside, this is a very good audiobook. Priest is an excellent writer, and her attention to detail and excellent knowledge of American history make these books ring true, even with rather fantastic “alternate” content to deal with. The book is expertly read by Pearlman and Bevine, taking turns in Boyd’s and Hainey’s sections, respectfully, much as Reading and Wheaton did for the two main characters in Boneshaker. The switching perspective keeps the action moving along at a good clip while also elucidating two very different people.

Moreover, Priest tackles complex, layered questions of social justice in her books without clobbering the reader over the head. I’m always thrown when people address the Civil War or other momentous transitions in history without considering vital threads such as human rights, equality, changes in social mores, and the like. In this series, Priest is delving into questions of women’s rights, race relations, immigration, states vs. federal rights, property rights, international meddling in civil wars, medical ethics . . . the social and ethical questions she raises are manifold, and it’s the weaving of those questions into the fast-paced drama that really makes these books sing. This isn’t just fantasy. It’s a history lesson blending with an ethics class as well, and all of it makes these books worth returning to.

Boneshaker

Author: Cherie Priest

Readers: Kate Reading and Wil Wheaton

Short Review: A steampunk adventure set in an alternate-history Seattle where the Civil War just won’t end, airships abound, mad scientists run amok, volcanoes make zombies, and intricate questions about liberty and rights continually rear their heads.

Long Review: For no good reason whatsoever, a paper copy of this book languished on my shelf for a few months before I finally broke down and bought the audio version. Initially, I’d been hesitant to listen to it because I was never a of Star Trek (I know, I know) so I didn’t have any particular connection to Will Wheaton. I also hesitate to get hooked on series that are still being written. I finally got over it and dove right in, listened to the whole series, and then listened to them again. I’m itching to start a third time, but figure I can wait for the next installment.

Will Wheaton does a great job narrating the sections of the book following Zeke, a runaway teen trying to prove that his father was a good man. Kate Reading reads the sections following Zeke’s mother Briar Wilkes, the daughter of Seattle’s late Sheriff and widow of a disgraced scientist and inventor. I adored both readers, but I particularly fell for Kate Reading’s voice. She strikes the perfect balance between Briar’s strength and the desperation that she struggles with as she searches for her son and tries to survive the nightmare that Seattle has become in the wake of her husband’s actions.

Priest is an excellent researcher, and this series really showcases her knowledge of 19th century American history. I’m often hesitant to read historical fiction or alternate histories because I find weak research so annoying, but there’s nothing to worry about with Priest’s books. She picks the perfect things to extend the Civil War in her story, and develops a creepy, fascinating plot to explain her changed Seattle.

Moreover, Priest develops excellent characters. Many series fizzle out after the first few books because the author only manages to build a few solid, interesting characters. With this book, Priest introduces a cast of fascinating people, all of whom I want to follow for book after book. The women she writes are particularly interesting, and Zeke reads true as a good but confused teen. Priest set the hook deep with Boneshaker, and I can’t wait to see where she’ll go with the rest of the series.

Short Review: Imaginative and original steampunk story set in a distant future London and beautifully read by the author.

Long Review: Fever Crumb is an odd girl. She has no hair (hair is apparently not logical). Raised by London’s Order of Engineers in the far distant future, Fever has been taught to trust only logic and has spent most of her time assisting her adoptive engineer father Dr. Crumb.

Outside the enormous statue head in which the Order lives, London is a chaotic place more concerned with fear of the fairly recently overthrown tyrannical Scriven than with logic and reason. Anyone who looks different is suspect. The most revered are those known as Skinners who did the dirty work of killing the Scriven and reclaiming London for the regular humans.

The steampunk flavor is steeped into the story, with plenty of odd machines and quirky science against a backdrop that feels Victorian. Strange automaton creatures made of paper, known as paper boys, are capable of both surveillance and attack in a style reminiscent of terminators – if not as durable.  The interesting thing about the technology is that no one knows how to recreate the parts for the machines. It is all about scavenging parts and reusing them to build what they need now – and here is why the Order of Engineers is so important and revered. They are best at figuring out how to fix and build with all these old technology bits. Archaeologists are important for their finds of new caches of old tech. Out beyond the well guarded edges of London we know there are enemies – and who knows what they would do if they broke through the defenses and took over the city!

This is Fever’s world, in which babies are often named after the symptoms they experienced while pregnant. There are mysteries and mis-communications all around, and by the middle of the book I felt truly sucked in and anxious to see where we would end up. This is a prequel to Reeve’s Mortal Engines Quartet, but I have never read the main series so I cannot speak to how it relates. I do understand that it precedes the Mortal Engines books by many many years. I like the world that Reeve has built for us. It is imaginative and often amusing in the tidbits that are dropped from our pop culture into the time of Fever Crumb – often with little or no understanding of their origin.

As I have said before, some authors should not read their own work – but that is NOT the case for Philip Reeve. I was disappointed to go hunting for the Mortal Engine audio books only to discover that they doesn’t seem to have ever been recorded – by Reeve or anyone else.

The only thing that kept this from being a five star book for me is that it did feel like a prequel at times. I want the next book more than I want to listen to this one again, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a steampunk fan or who is looking for a new world of intricate surprises and mysteries to solve.

Author: Scott Westerfeld
Reader: Alan Cumming
Bonus: Endnote read by the author detailing what is fact and what is fiction

Short Review: In this stunning follow up to Leviathan, Alek and Deryn continue on their intricate path through the steampunk inspired alternate World War I created by Westerfeld. In this rollicking adventure we weave through the back streets of Istanbul, eggs are hatched, some secrets are revealed while others stay safely hidden.

Long Review: The fear of the sequel is quite reasonable. Many of us have been let down after long waits for the next installment of some amazing volume. Fear not – this sequel is the real deal. This is the type of sequel that makes you wish the next one was sitting right behind it on the shelf – but sadly we must wait until September 2011 for the third in the trilogy, titled Goliath.

Behemoth retains our favorite characters and introduces a few new ones. I especially love the strong women and girls in this book. Westerfeld manages to have such a great mix of male and female characters, not to mention just a great story, that this should appeal to young adults of both genders, as well as adults who enjoy alternate history or steampunk.

I don’t want to give away any of the fabulous twists and turns, but I can’t resist repeating that the bulk of the story takes place in and around Istanbul. It is a fabulous rich backdrop to this chapter of the story with lots of ornate detail (the author traveled there to get a first-hand feel for the place) as well as a great mix of cultures and languages.

The reader is still fabulous and takes on all the assorted new accents necessary. I love when the voices are so distinct that I know who is speaking without needing to be told. While I know that I am missing out on the beautiful drawings in the paper version of the book – I still feel like I have the chance to paint the tale with my own imagination while listening to Cumming’s adept reading.

The story gives us a chance to get better acquainted with both Alek and Deryn/Dylan. While the first book spent more time setting up the story and all the supporting characters necessary, this book gives us a chance to just watch Alek and Deryn/Dylan grow and evolve as they work their way around all the obstacles in their paths. We also get new beasties large and small (or should I say gargantuan and petite?) – and of course there are more clanker machines, bigger and more fabulous than ever.

As a special treat at the end we get to hear Westerfeld himself explain which parts of the story are history and which parts he made up.

If you haven’t read Leviathan, I would begin with that book first — but I wholeheartedly recommend this book without reservation.

Audible sample available.

Author: Scott Westerfeld
Reader: Alan Cumming

Short Review: Fun and captivating steampunk adventure set in an alternate World War I Europe. Strong male and female leads should keep both genders interested and a very talented reader makes the story zoom along.

Long Review: This book was fabulous. I will admit that it took me a little time to get pulled in, but once I was firmly entrenched in the steampunk world Westerfeld has created I wanted to stay. I was slightly heartbroken when it ended, consoled only by the thought of a sequel surely already in progress. (Note: I originally listened to this before the sequel came out – but it has been available since October, 2010: Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy))

This is the story of the Clankers, who build fast, loud and greasy machines, and the Darwinists, whose merge and create new species to spec. This is also the story of a boy and a girl, each swept along by history and entangled by the war. The boy is a prince with no place to go. The girl is dressing as a boy to serve her country. I loved the number of details from the early 1900s that Westerfeld worked into the story. At the same time he is clear about his alternate time-line, a world war in which Clankers and Darwinists are struggling for power.

This is an adventure story full of chases, narrow escapes, battles, malfunctioning gear, explosions and long cold nights. I don’t want to give any more specific details because I think you will enjoy the story more with less knowledge going in.

The reader does an excellent job, both with voices and narration. This is the sort of reader who just fades into the background while you get enveloped by the story.

Audio sample available.