Wonderfully quirky characters. A bizarre mystery in a very whimsical setting yet with dark undertones. I was quite surprised at the revelations and what the affinity bridge actually was. I really look forward to seeing where this series goes.

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George Mann is leading the way in the steampunk genre, and Affinity Bridge establishes his universe. The book is a fast, fun read, but has a major flaw. First, the buzz over the book is that Newbury is a character in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although there is a mystery to be solved, and England is troubled by murders. Hobbes and Newbury don't deduce much; they stumble onto the answers. Without giving anything away, the major crime involves mixing flesh and machinery in a creepy combination. The heroes don't ferret this out, but uncover it during an assault by the villain. If they were not attacked, the crime would never been solved. Having said that, the characters are enjoyable and the alternate universe is interesting. The chemistry between the two is good, and the twist at the end that Queen Victoria secretly manipulates their relationship is interesting. I will definitely read the rest of the series. Enjoy The Affinity Bridge but don't expect much mystery solving.

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I really enjoyed this one more than I thought I would! This steampunk novel comes at you from a lot of different directions and ties them all up neatly at the end. First, there is a plague that came from India that is decimating the lower class population of the Whitechapel area of London. This plague turns people into "revenants" or zombie-like creatures that attack the living similar to "The Walking Dead." Then there is a series of murders in the same area that are supposedly done by a bobby that has a blue glow. These murders are similar to another case some 12 years earlier where a dead bobby supposedly got revenge on his murderers. Then there is the wreck of the airship The Lady Armitage, a Zeppelin-like ship that crashed in London killing 50 people. All of this is being investigated by Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes at the direction of Queen Victoria herself. The captain of the downed airship turns up missing and it is revealed that the captain was in fact an automaton, developed by the airship company to pilot the ships. The automatons are made of brass and are supposedly driven by mechanical clockworks and punch-cards...but is this really the case? And how did the automaton piloting the ship disappear? (I kept picturing CP30 from Star Wars as the automata in the novel.) All of this takes place around 1900 in and around London. Overall, very enjoyable in a kind of Sherlock Holmes way with elements of steampunk thrown in. I know Mann has written some sequels to this book which I will be on the lookout for. He has also written a couple of Sherlock Holmes novels that I would also like to read.

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The idea of this novel is engaging - a Victorian London developing slightly differently, with airships and steam cabs - but the execution isn't. The prose is bare bones flat, and the characters two dimensional such that I found it impossible to get interested in them or their problems. This might work better as a graphic novel, where the art could fill in for the tired prose, or a movie, where the actors could lend the characters some personality. I can't recommend this book, except to people who like zombie automaton sorts of stories. Steampunk is cool, but this book isn't a good example of it.

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This is another book in a line of steampunk reads lately that was somewhat disappointing to me. This was an okay read and technically steampunk; although mainly this is a pretty standard mystery type of story. The characters were fairly bland and I felt the writing style itself was a bit devoid of personality. Nothing about this book really grabbed me and sucked me in.

At times I felt like the author had a checklist of steampunk elements he had to include to make this more steampunky: airships...check, zombies...check, cool weaponized cane...check, laudanum...check, etc. etc. While it contained a lot of steampunk elements that story actually wasn't very steampunk in feel or philosophy. There are a lot of very standard ideas in here and it made for a book that just wasn't very unique or exciting...and at times was just plain boring.

I was disappointed in the characters as well. I had high hopes when Hobbes entered the picture; she was smart, tough...and ended up being absolutely thin as a character throughout. The best scenes in here are between her and her sister. She just didn't have enough dimension and wasn't engaging enough. Newbury, our supposed hero, was supposed to be very Sherlock-like but he missed glaringly obvious clues throughout which was frustrating. Then somehow, despite his injuries, towards the end of the book he gained almost superhuman abilities...I mean really he didn't...but the way he functioned while injured was completely unrealistic and worthy of a solid eye-roll.

Overall this was another disappointing steampunk read for me. I absolutely love this genre but I have been struggling lately to find anything decent written in it. I have a few more steampunk series on my shelves to try out so hopefully I will find something good soon. Not recommended and I won't be reading more of the series.

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