Look! Four weeks in a row! I'm getting the hang of this book blogging malarkey (finally). This week's five recs are all steampunk books (or rather, mostly short stories). I don't read a huge amount of steampunk - I probably have more on my to-read shelf than my read shelf - but these are the best of the ones I have read.
The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan
Synopsis: Elizabeth Barnabus lives a double life — as herself and as her brother, the private detective. She is trying to solve the mystery of a disappearing aristocrat and a hoard of arcane machines. In her way stand the rogues, freaks and self-proclaimed alchemists of a travelling circus. But when she comes up against an agent of the all-powerful Patent Office, her life and the course of history will begin to change. And not necessarily for the better…
Comments: I love mystery stories. If there's one genre I'll always go back to, it's mysteries. So this one was right up my alley. And it has the perfect slowburn enemies to friends?/lovers? potential relationship. It's also pretty much the only full-length audiobook I have ever really liked.
The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Synopsis: Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Instead, she wants to soar, and her sights are set on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann-Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.
But Creeper keeps another secret close to heart - Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie…
Comments: Probably one of the best short stories I've ever read. It's got great world-building and a proper amount of plot - not too much for a short story, but also not too little.
The Persephone Star by Jamie Sullivan
Content Warnings: homophobia
Synopsis: As Post Mistress of Fortuna, Penelope Moser knows just about everything about everyone. It's a job she takes seriously, no matter who comes to pry for gossip, or how unsettling the messages are — but even she is more than a little frightened by rumors that The Persephone Star has been spotted nearby. That means Mirage Currier is out of prison and coming to settle up with the man who put her in jail: Cullen Wiley, Sheriff of Fortuna and Penelope's fiancé.
The worst comes to pass when Penelope is kidnapped — or so she thinks. But the simple truth she thought she knew starts to unravel, leaving her to choose between the man she promised to marry or the woman destined for the gallows.
Comments: You know you want to read about a band of Robin Hood style lady outlaws running around the country in an airship, stealing from rich ugly men. Especially when you get an f/f relationship into the bargain.
Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus
Content Warnings: racism
Synopsis: Having stumbled onto a plot within his homeland of Jamaica, former espionage agent, Desmond Coke, finds himself caught between warring religious and political factions, all vying for control of a mysterious boy named Lij Tafari.
Wanting the boy to have a chance to live a free life, Desmond assumes responsibility for him and they flee. But a dogged enemy agent remains ever on their heels, desperate to obtain the secrets held within Lij for her employer alone.
Assassins, intrigue, and steammen stand between Desmond and Lij as they search for a place to call home in a North America that could have been.
Comments: This one I found a little confusing to get into, because the author trusts you to just pick up the world as you go along, as opposed to fully explaining it but by the end it's very good. It's kind of a sci-fi/steampunk mix, and a great quick read.
Timekeeper by Tara Sim
Synopsis: I was in an accident. I got out. I’m safe now.
An alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, where a damaged clock can fracture time — and a destroyed one can stop it completely.
A prodigy mechanic who can repair not only clockwork but time itself, determined to rescue his father from a Stopped town.
A series of mysterious bombings that could jeopardize all of England.
A boy who would give anything to relive his past, and one who would give anything to live at all.
A romance that will shake the very foundations of time.
Comments: An alternative Victorian era, where clocks are alive, and have spirits - one of whom befriends Danny, a clock mechanic. There's also a mystery going on as well, as the mechanics try to unstop a Stopped town. And it's an alternative Victorian era without any homophobia.
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