The Iron Wyrm Affair

Steampunk. My only previous knowledge of this sub-genre is Gail Carriger's works, so it's pretty much inevitable that there were comparisons in my head as I was reading this particular book. In fact, apart from the the obvious Londoncentric setting (albeit called Londinium) and some personality traits shared between the major characters, Lilith Saintcrow's book sits very well on it's own.

The characters are only partly defined with a level of mystery that will no doubt be slowly unveiled over the next few books in the series. I'm particularly intrigued to learn more about Clare and the way his mentath mind works. Bannon seems to lack depth at the moment, but the foundations have been laid for exploring both her personality and her Discipline; not to mention her back story.

The writing was slick and there was always something to keep you turning the page with the characters jumping from one life-threatening scene to another with unfailing regularity. There are at least two deaths in the first 5 pages! The writing is only let down by a incessant need to describe non-events in great detail but leave the major mysteries as just that. I did skip some paragraphs because of this but it doesn't detract overall.

The part I felt really let it down was the character of Victrix/Britannia. As the the personification of a Goddess, Victrix didn't really have much of a clue what to do when the bad guys starting banging on the door and Britannia herself could have made an appearance so that she didn't seem such the damsel in distress.

I'll definitely read more of this author's works in the future and I am looking forward to the next instalment which will hopefully fill in some of the backstory of Bannon, Clare and Mikal and flesh out the cultural aspects of the alternate London the story is set in.