Fields of Gold (Magnificent Devices #12) by Shelley Adina

Gloria is ready to do anything to try and stop the war and convince the Viceroy of Spain and the Californias to stand his army down – and to stop his devastating dam

But is she willing to marry a man she just met – again – and give up her chance at love?

And how does one say no to a prince when surrounded by his army?

It’s a dangerous, difficult political game Gloria has to play – and the entire country may be irrevocably changed by it

It’s hard not to sound like a broken record when talking about a series that continues to do the same thing right every time – but I have to say it again: I love how these women work together. I love how we can have several capable, intelligent, skilled women who are happy to work together without competing, without hating each other, without unnecessary dislike or conflict, without jealousy, without rivalry but with genuine friendship and respect. We have Gloria and Alice of course, but we have the Brujahs and we have Honoria and we have Isabella

I think it’s Isabella that stands out to me, not because she’s specially stand out character – but because there was no narrative push to have another strong female character from the Spanish aristocracy. But she’s there – she’s there to show the strength and intelligence of women from every corner of this world

And I love the rose rebellion, the power of women who aren’t just going to be silent in a land that oppresses them so completely; the power of women in a place that tries to deny them all power – and how being oppressed doesn’t mean they have no capability and intelligence. It’s a wonderful element to add

Oh and there’s a moment that had me fall to my knees in praise. Two of Gloria’s good friends unfortunately, through sharing too much information, put her in a difficult position. It is a betrayal. And Gloria is hurt… and then gets over with it. I mean, she’s angry and upset but there’s no big dramatic tantrum, there’s no refusal to talk to them about it, there’s absolutely no holding a grudge for the entire book. It didn’t downplay what happened but at the same time everyone had much more important things to concern them than this. It’s also very natural and real – yes her friends made a mistake which hurt her, but they’re still her friends, she still values them and she’s not going to dramatically throw away their relationship because of it. I wish I could see this more often when we have so many protagonists who take chapter on chapter to get over an offence like this.

Fields of Iron (Magnificent Devices #11) by Shelley Adina

Gloria’s plans to stop the Californias invading the Texican territories and likely massacring thousands of people – including several innocents in between the two territories, looks to have been scuppered when she narrowly avoided being kidnapped by the California’s ambassador

She can see only one way to stop the war – to appeal to the Viceroy himself. But to even get to the man involves crossing a territory where no woman travels alone – and with her speaking not a word of Spanish. It seems only a marriage of convenience will allow her to make her plea for peace.

I have to say yet again how much I love Gloria Merriwhether-Astor for being one of the most selfless, kind yet non-matyred characters. It has to be stressed that Gloria has no personal stake in the events of this book

Gloria is an extremely wealthy woman. She if the heir to a massive munitions manufactory which is making an absolute fortune selling arms for a brewing war. Gloria has everything to gain from this war going ahead and everything to lose by stopping that war

But she’s a deeply moral person and she absolutely refuses to accept this war going ahead. Considering her father directly responsible for this war and the upcoming massacre of a vast number of people including several innocent tribes – like the Brujas we saw last book and the Navapai who are caught in the middle. Gloria is not only determined to stop this war and cost herself a whole lot of money but she is willing to endure a lot of hardship to make this happen. She has been kidnapped, faced a lot of set packs and physical discomfort and, finally, in this book actually opts to marry a man she doesn’t love or even know very well because it’s the only way she can navigate the incredibly misogynist society of the Californios.

Gloria is a protagonist acting entirely from altruistic motives. And entirely against her own self-interest. And entirely to her own detriment. Yet she isn’t a protagonist who is being dragged into this by fat or destiny or special Chosen One status. Nor does she spend any real time bemoaning her fate or what is happening. She spends some time debating whether she really wants to take a certain step – but it’s only really about which step she takes, not about whether she should keep going forward. No matter how much she sacrifices, she is completely lacking in angst because these are actions she actively chooses; she’s not acting badly done to. She is an active participant here and the choices she makes are her own active decisions

Part of this may stem from her slightly shaky low self worth. Again this is interestingly well done – we have a lot of protagonists in the genre who will sit in a corner and dramatically declare how hideously ugly/awful/terrible they are. Gloria isn’t like that, she merely fails to acknowledge how extraordinary she is: partly because of her extremely terrible father but also because she has been surrounded by the awesome protagonists of this series which she persists in comparing herself too

Fields of Air (Magnificent Devices #10) by Shelley Adina

Gloria Meredith-Astor has inherited an extremely wealth and successful munitions company, one that is set to make a vast profit off a potential future war

And she doesn’t want it – not the munitions and certainly not the war. She is determined to turn her guns into ploughshares and she adamantly will not allow a war to be fought because of the weapons her company created, no matter what erstwhile family members wish.

If she has to hare off across the continent and ambush a train to stop it – then so be it.

This is one of those series that always makes me smile when there’s another book out – and this book is no exception

The series has a semi-shifting protagonist and this time it’s Gloria Merriweather-Astor. Now, I can’t say she’s one of my favourite protagonists, but I’ve always liked the idea of her, as I’ve said before. I like the idea of her because it would have been so easy, so very very very easy, in any other series to make her the villain. I probably wouldn’t have even criticised it if she were because there are so many other excellent and awesome female characters in this series, that having a single vapid/immoral/damn fool cardboard cutout villain would not have ruffled the waters

But that is not this series, that is not what this series does. So, I loved Gloria for that – for turning out to be brave and dedicated and awesome and full of morality and integrity even in the face of extreme pressure when she could just as easily have been a villain. But I am also interested in her because she is very different from the others. To a degree all the other protagonists have been misfits. They’ve not fit in the world they’ve been in – whether it’s Claire’s ambition and sudden poverty or the Mopsies rising from poverty to high society or Alice living among the raiders – they’ve all followed a different path because they haven’t had much choice in the matter. But Gloria has everything going for her – she’s the heiress to a rich, doting father who fully intends her to take over his company (despite him being evil and despite her being female). She has wealth, power, prestige, influence and she is also quite capable of realising any ambition she may have without every doing anything other than what is expected of her. She’s not like any of the other protagonist who must fight for what they want, their career, the life they choose, the family they value – Gloria doesn’t have any hard choices she HAS to make

Devices Shining Brightly (Magnificent Devices #9) by Shelley Adina

It is time for the event of the season – the Dunsmuirs are holding a party to celebrate Claire and Andrew’s marriage and everyone who is everyone will be invited to take part.

Of course that includes Claire’s best friend Alice and her fiancé Ian. And Alice is beginning to realise what it means to be marriage to a British noble – and while she loves him, she’s having second thoughts about everything that comes with him

Gloria Meriwether-Astor’s cousins also arrive and, of course, get an invite – but in the process the tensions in the family and in Gloria’s family business come to light

This is a short story, and pretty much an ideal example of one for me.

The plot is fun and works so well with the rest of the world. I don’t think you will need to read this book to transition from the last book to Gloria’s adventures in the next novel. But by reading this it nicely will fill in a lot of gaps and really set up the next chapter. We’ve been introduced to the new principle characters and the details of the conflict. It’s a truly excellent prologue that really tells us why all the characters are there and what they are doing and their goals.

The next book can launch right into the story because everything has been excellently established without the need to make it essential. For me this is exactly what a short story needs to do – add richness to the world and characters without making them an essential component.

It also does this through a fun little story. It’s not super-dramatic and it’s certainly not action packed. But that’s a good thing – Claire et al seem to spend so much of their life in peril and action that this is an excellent change of pace. Why not just have a party? Let’s see these characters living together, dealing with something relatively mundane together – it’s lighter and fun because of it.

It also has some very nice challenges and examination of sexism of the era. There’s the obvious – all of the women are planning their own lives. Even better, they’re all planning different lives, different paths – because there’s more than one way for a woman to live and be strong and express her agency.

There are some excellent call outs – Alice fighting fiercely and courageously against the idea that she cannot captain her own airship. This is the kind of thing I’d expect on most female led steampunks at this point.

A Gentleman of Means (Magnificent Devices #8) by Shelley Adina

Claire is settling into life as an Engineer for Count Von Zepplin and planning for marriage to Andrew 

(or avoiding planning) though neither is going quite so ideally or quite so well as she would have hoped. But still, is she really willing to abandon her career, this opportunity and even the man she loves for the sake of a friend who, it has to be said, she doesn’t know that well

Gloria Astor-Merriweather has been kidnaped – but is Claire willing to throw everything away to get her back?

I love Gloria. Not so much her character (which is still very good) but the whole concept of her. Gloria Merriweather-Astor was introduced as a very opposite to Claire. While Claire was newly desperately impoverished. Claire was academic and scientific, Gloria was more interested and fashion, society et al. And Gloria is the daughter of her arch-enemy and the major antagonist in the series.

In any other book, Gloria would be evil. She would be the spiteful, vapid mean girl who we were supposed to hate and loathe from the very beginning. She could so easily have been a hollow demonised character.

But she isn’t – she’s clever and moral and capable. She has her own life and her own problems even though her context and experience is very different from Claire’s – and she’s a very loyal and caring friend who regrets deeply any idea that she may have failed Claire in the last book. Even more than her own freedom she worries that Claire may think she abandoned her -  even if they’re not such close friends, it mattered to her that she was thought of hat way (of course, Claire, marvellously free of the girl-hate that is so annoyingly pervasive, doesn’t assume any such thing. Having experienced Gloria’s kindness she assumes far more kinder interpretations of her behaviour).

So, even though I risk sounding like a broken record, I have to repeat how excellent this series is with the female characters. Not just because they’re good and capable and interesting but because they’re also different. They have commonalities in different ways (Claire and Alice share an interest and talent for Engineering, Gloria and Claire attended the same school, Liz and Maggie are sisters) but they’re all still very different people.

The plot itself wasn’t especially unique – we have another rescue mission as our heroes ride to the rescue with cunning, cleverness, a whole lot of courage and daring and ingenuity and a great deal of determination. It’s not especially new, but it is great fun, well written, nicely paced and any outing with these characters will make me smile.

Portraying Prejudice Well - Avoiding the Perils and Pitfalls

When you produce media with marginalised characters at some point the thorny issue of prejudice and bigotry is going to raise its ugly head. Sadly, prejudice is an unyielding fact of existence for most marginalised people, it’s something that cannot be ignored or brushed over and a marginalised character who manages to live a charmed life avoiding all prejudice is not necessarily going to be a great reflection or portrayal of actual marginalised people and their experiences

Are these characters going to move through some kind of fictionalised utopia where prejudice doesn’t exist? It’s certainly tempting and a perfectly valid choice – especially for more fantastic settings. After all, if your quasi-medieval setting is going to have a completely original map, 10 year winters, dragons, super-cold-zombie-makers and a completely fictional polytheistic religion where half of the aspects of deity are female, then why shouldn’t it also have gender parity, for example? This isn’t our society, this isn’t our world – there’s absolutely no reason why our prejudices and bigotries need to be exported. If reality can change enough to allow elves and wizards, it can certainly change enough for people not to hate each other because of their race.

In fact, in some ways it’s offensive to assume these prejudices should be exported to a fantasy setting – especially if you’ve made no real effort in the new setting to explain it. If you’re willing to change so much to make this fantastic, alien world then not only refusing to remove bigotry but then not even trying to add to your world building why this bigotry still exists actually implies that said bigotry is inherent, expected and even natural. If you’re world is misogynist just because our world is (and was if we’re using historical settings) then you’re implying misogyny is inevitable – that we don’t need a reason why a society would become misogynist that misogyny is an inherent ground state of being for

Again this doesn’t mean your fantasy setting shouldn’t contain prejudices – but work in the sources, reasons and development of that prejudice; make your portrayal of prejudice fit the world rather than assuming that misogyny/racism/homophobia/ableism et al simply must always be present.

We have also seen that attempt at a prejudice-less utopia fall flat, especially when it is set in a world that is very close to our own, as most Urban Fantasy is. Teen Wolf, for example, often claims to be set in a world without homophobia – yet we still have homophobic jokes (and the whole concept of coming out and the closet) that can only exist in a world where homophobic prejudice exists; Scott could not have made the Coach back off from kicking him out from a school event by dancing with Danny if they did not live in a world where gay teens are banned from prom for being gay. This lack of follow through is not just lazy, but also implies that the whole concept of a “utopia” is less to present a world where gay characters don’t face bigotry, but more to create a world where gay characters don’t have to be developed or have storylines that may centre on them.

Lady of Integrity (Magnificent Devices #7) by Shelley Adina

Claire has finished the university and she is ready to begin her position at Von Zepplin’s dirigible works. And she has a wedding to plan to her fiancé, Andrew. The Mopsies are returning to school, everything is looking up

When Alice arrives who has lost everything – including her first mate Jake, and member of Claire’s extended family. He is being held prisoner by the Doge of Venice in what is little more than an extortion scheme. The politics of the situation are tricky and there are few people to intervene beyond Claire herself.

She has never abandoned her flock in danger

It’s another swashbuckling adventure for Lady Claire and her flock, the excellent Alice, Elizabeth, Maggie, Tigg and Andrew

And I think that’s the first thing I want to praise about this – I like most of the flock. Most of the characterisation has fallen on Claire, Lizzie and Maggie, of course, since they’ve been the main protagonists but every character has had some characterisation. Even though she’s the protagonist, Claire doesn’t exactly eclipse those around her.

The world setting has expanded nicely – we’ve already seen adventures in North America and some insight into France and Germany, while this book moves to Venice with some nicely original ideas and concepts. I like that even when we don’t look in great depth at the politics of all the places Claire has passed through, there is a sense that a full system has been developed (even if it is not info-dumped on us).

The adventure itself is fun, lots of action and plotting, some plans that go awry, many members of the party using their talents, their intelligence and their creativity to cobble together success as nothing quite goes to plan. It was a fun romp in which Claire and her flock got to remind us just how awesome they are on a regular basis. I won’t say the story was especially twisty or nuanced or complex – but it was fun, a nice adventure story we kind of knew how it was going to end, but it wasn’t any less fun because of that

Like the rest of the books in this series, Lady of Integrity contains a lot of challenges to sexism that is both accurate to the period and still very much in evidence today

I also really liked the direct challenge to the idea that a man wants to keep his beloved woman safe because he worries for her – throwing back the equal challenge that women worry about the safety of their beloved men as well, but everyone expects them to deal with it. If Andrew wants to keep Claire safe out of fear for her and he couldn’t bear to lose her, why shouldn’t Claire feel the same about Andrew? It’s a common excuse but it’s a weak one.

A Lady of Spirit (Magnificent Devices #6) by Shelley Adina

Lizzie found a whole new family in the last book – which came with the revelation that Maggie was her cousin and not her sister. Now Lizzie has grandparents, a brother and a family name to become familiar with, all accepting her with open arms.

And where does that leave Maggie? Well, the illegitimate daughter is not nearly so welcome nor as sure as her place in the world and certainly not in the family. The rift between her and her sister/cousin yawns ever wider and even Lady Claire can’t fix this.

With all this family drama going on, the last thing Maggie needs to get wrapped up in is foiling a plot to invade Britain and overthrow the crown and government!

The last book was very much Lizzie’s book with her discovering who she was, dealing with her insecurities and doubts even while Maggie seemed to be more confident and focused. This book is Maggie’s book and it’s now her turn for considerable insecurity while Lizzie has the confidence and focus – but in a very different way.

Lizzie was insecure about who and what she wanted to be, how to be a lady, which role model to follow, who she aspires to be. Maggie doesn’t have those doubts, she has a fairly strong idea of what she wants to be and seems inclined to follow Lady Claire’s example. But she is insecure about who she is – after all, both she and Lizzie were revealed to be cousins, not sisters and that was the defining element of their identity. They were the Mopsies… what are they now? They could have continued as the Mopsies, probably, if it weren’t for Lizzie gaining a family – she found her father, she found a brother and, now, she finds grandparents, a family, and a good family name of considerable importance (so very important in the Victorian setting). Yet all of that is denied Maggie with her unknown father, her semi-disgraced mother and her viciously disapproving grandparents. All of these people deny Maggie, but in some ways they’re even cruelly by their deep acceptance of Lizzie – because that separates them. The Mopsies, treated as a whole for so long, are now being treated separately, which can only further damage Maggie’s sense of self and identity.

All of these together really work for Maggie, drawing on the last book and bringing all these pressures at once to make it a far more nuanced and complicated depiction beyond the simplistic “my grandparents hate me because I’m illegitimate” – there are so many more layers than that. And those layers define the rest of Maggie’s actions (her desperate need to find out who her father was and which of the competing tales are true) that wouldn’t make sense unless we take

I think there’s a small element of the patriarchy of the times in some ways with the fact Maggie looked to her absent father for identity more than her dead mother – but I think it has far more to do with her mother’s family (and that much valued family name) being thoroughly closed to Maggie by her grandparents’ hostility. It became less about valuing her father as grasping the only avenue of identity left open to her. Again, the layers in the story and the echoes of the last book really work together to add more depth to Maggie’s character.

A Lady of Resources (Magnificent Devices #5) by Shelley Adina

Some time has passed since the last book – Claire has graduated from university and is ready to embark on her new career, flush with success. And the Mopsies, now 16, have both graduated from school with a strong education under their bodices and ready to take on the world. Once they decide exactly how they want to do that

It’s a question that haunts Lizzie, fearful of splitting up from her sister, yet not wanting to follow down the same path. She has aspirations of being a lady – but will the barriers of class and upbringing ever truly allow her to become such? And what about Claire’s expectations and disappointment?

Into that comes some startling revelations about her past and new connections she never knew she had; but with them the difficult decision as to who truly counts as family?

This book was a little bit of a different shift from the last few books in the series. We have the obvious change in the protagonist which leads to a shift in its own right – but that is followed through for the whole book.

By this stage in the series, Lady Claire has achieved so much and proved herself over and over again. She is a skilled engineer, she is recognised as such. She has a career ahead of her and she has contacts and friends among the highest echelons – Claire’s presence in this book is relatively minimal but what there is is one of rousing success. And I love that – I love seeing the rewards for all of Claire’s hard work and dedication. I love that she has achieved so much and we get some righteous recognition for that. And I love that she still deeply cares about the Mopsies – and the whole flock – and is still willing to drop everything to rush across the country to play the Lady of Devices riding to the rescue, lightning rifle in hand (and, in the same way, how Claire can be hurt by the people she loves – because the fact a thoughtless word can hurt her so badly says a lot about how much affection Claire has for the Mopsies). It wonderfully adds to Claire’s story without her being the centre of this book – this is her victory and we can see how much Claire has changed from the character who first appeared in Lady of Devices.

Now switch to the Mopsies, Elizabeth specifically, and she’s a very different character. Not just a very different character from the accomplished, successful Claire today, but also different from Lady Claire as we first saw her. From the very beginning, Lady Claire has been true to herself. She has always known who she is, always known what she wanted and always known what she was capable of. Armed with the advantages of her education and her upbringing, she has always had an adamant sense of self and a powerful confidence in herself. She knows what her goals are – it’s fighting to achieve them in a society rife with sexism and her own reduced circumstances. Her identity and goals have always been solid – but she has had to fight incredibly hard to be able to express both.

But when we get to Elizabeth we have a different story. Lizzie spent most of her life surviving on the streets of London – and even then she knows how lucky she was that she fell in with friends and good people and wasn’t attacked, raped or forced into prostitution as could so easily have happened (fates that are so far removed from the upper classes that one man can’t even stand to have her talk about them!) And now she’s torn between two worlds – on the one hand chided for slipping into the accents of the poor and working class, yet at the same time criticised for not respecting her flock properly – particularly giving Trigg and Lewis the cold shoulder and appearing to regard them as beneath her (while feeling incredibly conflicted). There’s the complexity of trying to fit in with what she regards as her new social peers while, at the same time they would ostracise her when they know her actual origins and if she associates with the flock. While Lady Claire always knew who she was and who she wanted to be, Lizzie doesn’t have that same surety – about who she is or her ultimate goal or how to achieve it. In many ways, Lizzie seems to be finding herself in this book.

Interview with Shelley Adina, Author of the Magnificent Devices Series

On Sunday we had a special episode of Fangs for the Fantasy, with an interview with Shelley Adina, author of the excellent Magnificent Devices Series

Our reviews of the books can be found through our backlist, or individually:

Lady of Devices

Her Own Devices

Magnificent Devices

Brilliant Devices

Join us in Fan Poultrying Shelley Adina, examining the series, and hoping for some Prinny Punk!

Interview with Shelley Adina, Author of the Magnificent Devices Series

Today we had a special episode of Fangs for the Fantasy, with an interview with Shelley Adina, author of the excellent Magnificent Devices Series

Our reviews of the books can be found through our backlist, or individually:

Lady of Devices

Her Own Devices

Magnificent Devices

Brilliant Devices

Join us in Fan Poultrying Shelley Adina, examining the series, and hoping for some Prinny Punk!

Special Podcast With Author Shelley Adina

Hello everyone, tomorrow we have a special podcast planned at 2pm EST with Shelley Adina, the author of the steampunk series Magnificent Devices.  Please try and join us live.  There will be a chat room open for you to ask questions directly. For those who cannot make it, the podcast will be posted afterwards for you to listen to at your leisure. 

Brilliant Devices (Magnificent Devices #4) by Shelley Adina

Lady Claire is back and rumours of her demise are greatly exaggerated; though he reappearance causes quite a shock for Lord and Lady Dunsmuirs, especially since this is the second time Claire has been presumed dead. Reunited with her flock, Claire can return to her original plan, visiting Edmonton with the Dunsmuirs, seeing their holdings and making plans for the future – especially since she no longer has the threat of forced marriage being held over her.

Of course, things can’t be that easy. Alice is joining them, severely out of place among the nobility and desperately looking for her father who may be involved in nefarious schemes. And when they arrive at the Dunsmuirs’ most remote mine they find a whole crew of people ready to join them, from Britain, from the colonies and even the famous Baron Zeplin himself. Of course, not all of these people can be gathered without nefarious schemes afoot – and soon sabotage follows kidnapping follows lots of adventure and excitement as Claire and her flock must again try to avert disaster – this time on an international scale.

I have a big grin on my face which is my Magnificent Devices grin – it’s impossible not to smile your way through this book. It’s such swashbucklingly, good fun. The tone has that wonderful lightness of humour and joy that keeps up in even the direst of situations. At the same time it wonderfully maintains the sense of time and place – the Victorian feel, the language, the class, the clothing, the attitudes are all extremely vivid, carefully maintained and, at times, gloriously lampooned.

The story didn’t let up for a moment and was full of twists and new developments. For a long time I had no idea what the focus was going to be or what the main plot line was – partly because all the characters have their own lives and their own agendas – but it didn’t matter because these characters and their interactions are so much fun and so truly excellent that it was worthy reading even without the main plot of the book being present.

And when it did develop it was wonderful – intricate with new revelations and surprises, I didn’t predict it, didn’t know where we were going and was surprised every step. The action kept flowing and the story kept up – it was an extremely quick and fun read.

I have to say I feel minorly cheated by the ending. Not because of a cliffhanger or anything like that – no the story was brought to a close and in a wonderfully concise and clear manner, the bad guys vanquished, the good guys triumphant – but it was summed up in a latter. The letter covered everything and we knew how it was going to end before that letter because Claire & Co had, through daring and intelligence and each of their useful skills, come up with a plan that was rapidly reaching its forgone conclusion. We didn’t need to see the bad guys humbled and defeated to know they were. We didn’t need to see the glorious victory  that had become inevitable.  We didn’t need to see Claire and the Dunsmirs and Zeplin proud and triumphant. But I wanted to – after a book of wrangling and struggling and ducking and weaving, I wanted the pay off of a glorious victories, the enemies shamed and cast down, smugness all round. This letter did not have my smugness pay off nor nearly enough villains having their noses pushed into the mud. I am disappointed.

One things I love about this book – and this series – is how capable all of the characters are. Claire, obviously, is truly excellent. She’s skilled, she’s fiercely intelligent, she’s determined, she has a mature and caring devotion to her flock, she has a strong sense of duty and doing what is right. She’s practical and recognises when things won’t go her way even when she is right, she has a strong sense of who she is and what she wants but recognises that what she wants doesn’t mean other people are to be forgotten or duties cast aside. But at the same time she is young and given to becoming confused and befuddled when inexperienced, awed by famous people and, at times, overwhelmed. She is not a weapon, though she carries one she can use and she is not capable of bringing down entire regiments with her awesome skills – and she’s still one of the strongest characters we’ve come across.

Magnificent Devices (Magnificent Devices #3) by Shelley Adina

 Lady Claire Trevelyan is making her way across the Atlantic to the Americans with her flock of adopted wards and Lord and Lady Dunsmuir; thereby escaping forced marriage to Lord Selwyn and his dastardly plotting.

Unfortunately, they run into air pirates over the Americas and quickly find themselves at their mercy – and Claire’s little flock is separated. Ransoms are demanded and Claire and her charges must try to escape and reunite in a harsh, lawless, unforgiving land.

And then Lord Selwyn rears his ugly head again. After his theft of the device he’s seeking to make his own nefarious deals in the Americas – but he hasn’t given up on Claire either and will use any scheme he can imagine to force her to marry him.

Yet more excellent fun with Lady Claire! I love these characters, love this protagonist and love this world. Much of what I’ve said about the previous 2 books in the series applies here as well. These books are immense fun. They have a glorious Steampunk feel and aesthetic – including a perfect use of language and etiquette to get that ideal Victorian feel, and the immense humour potential that comes with it. There’s something so amazingly fun and funny about these so-very proper people being swashbuckling heroes.

The setting is really vivid, it’s extremely well described without being a clumsily long winded and it’s very different from both London and the world we expected. Replacing the civilised, proper settings of the city for this rural, frontier near-wilderness was a big change but the book pulled it off magnificently.

I think this book has a slightly darker, more serious cast than the previous ones. Because the flock is split up, Claire is frequently worried for the lives of her charges – which is a stark contrast to her usual worries and concerns in previous books. Their manoeuvring and adventures take on a much starker and more serious cast when you have missing children you care for, or when you are trying to face down a pirate who has frequently threatened to kill you. I think it’s good that the tone did become more serious because of that – the relationship between Claire and Jake, Tigg and the Mopsies is far too powerful and meaningful for menaces against them to be seen as light and funny.

The writing maintained its perfect pacing though – the action kept moving forwards, the characters were still incredibly awesome and the fun was still there in immense quantities. The darker, more painful emotions fit into the story seamlessly, there was no jarring change of style nor did the author flounder with the different tone and the extremely different setting. Was it less fluffy? Yes, I think it was – but it was still immensely fun.

And it’s still one of those books where you really feel for the characters – I can think of no greater testament to the realness of them than that. Reading this I was enraged on Claire’s behalf at her treatment by James Selwyn. It’s one of those books that is so well written that you feel for the characters – and share their outrage and their anger.