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Overdone on the closing
“I'm of a very divided mind about this book.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-24.
On the one hand, I really liked the way it started. The narration was fun and pleasantly quirky. Somehow descriptions of horrible splatter deaths were made darkly amusing and terrible deeds lightly humorous. The prose style itself bore a very strong resemblance to Sarah Caudwell's, but possessed of much darker and stranger themes. I loved the writing style right off the bat.
The characters of Edward Moon and the Somnambulist were intriguing. The exposition and build up of mystery around the Somnambulist was nicely paced, just enough to keep me interested and reading. Edward swings from intense to bored to concerned and back to focused, sometimes in the space of one chapter. I found it to be marvelously fun to read.
Then there came a rather obvious point where it seemed as if the author chose to abandon the style I liked for one that became somewhat irritating as it progressed, mostly because Reverend Doctor Tam was a really, really bland character and focusing on him seemed to slow the narrative progression to a crawl. Through an unfortunate case of timing, this occurred around the climax of the story. Granted, Tam was set up as a "villain," but the execution and exposition of this antagonist was painfully lacking in motive and pacing. There weren't any hints dropped about him that said anything more than shady... which resulted in the traditional "Evil Overlord tells The Hero his plans" pitfall. I was most disappointed. That Tam's explanation required more explanation in the form an appendix after the story was finished also doesn't speak well of how legible his explanations are. One of the main recurring clues, "Pantisocracy," isn't ever really defined until that appendix and it continually bothered me, because I (poor ignorant soul that I am) had no idea what it was at all or why it required a bloodbath to put it in place.
So, would I recommend this book? Honestly, I don't know. I really did like the beginning of the book, but as it progressed the things I liked were never expanded upon and glossed over in favor of a boring character's obsession.” -
Ugh
“Ok...I wanted to like this book. I really did. I wanted to like it so much that I tried to read it twice. The first time was mostly due to a lack of time. However, I picked this book up again almost 2 years later, and still I just can't get into it. On my second attempt I made it roughly 200 pages into the book, but there is just something about it that doesn't stick with me. Mostly it seems that the characters are jumbled together. Well maybe some time down the road the 3rd time may well be the charm.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-28. -
Wake Me When It's Over
“Let me make it perfectly clear, this is not a book you should approach lightly. It is a puzzling mixture of mystery, suspense, and a touch of Victorian horror story mixed in a jumble of parts. At first it seems that all these qualities might make an exceedingly good tale, but alas it does not. The author tells the story of Edward Moon, magician and part time detective and his companion, the Somnambulist, who together are called upon to solve a series of murders and in so doing save London from destruction. The author tries to pay homage to past writers and their creations ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Frankenstein. I felt the author was being a bit too cute with the reader, going so far as to tell us that he would at times lie and mislead the reader, which he does.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-07-05. -
Pulp with literary execution
“I normally don't write reviews, but after reading some of the others I felt compelled to offer counterpoint to some of the bad ones. I read several of the bad reviews here before deciding to read the book myself, and I confess I was surprised *not* to find the superabundance of flaws others seemed to find. But since I don't want to make reviewing a habit, I'm going to be brief. All I'm going to say is that if you like stories of dark satire; containing elements of the twisted and absurd; set in the Victorian era; replete with detectives, criminal masterminds, conspiracies, secret government agents, assassins, and a healthy dose of what I can only describe as gothic-comic-book weirdness; then this is the book for you.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-06-23. -
0 of 4 members found this review helpful.
Silly
“This silly "novel" goes nowhere. The characters are unbelievable and shallow. The author's attitude toward the reader is disdainful. I skimmed the first 50 pages and gave it up in disgust.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-06-04.
