No sane airshipman will fly near a storm, but the cover of storm edge offers effective concealment for airship pirates who can strike quickly from above before anyone knows a ship is near. With the protection of Aide, the goddess of air travel, one airship defies the elements to seek fortune for the rag tag aerialists who make up the pirate crew.
The elements are the least of their problems when they find themselves saddled with an airsick clerk, a crewmember suspected of working for the East India Company and a love sick farm girl whose headstrong misconceptions compel her to seek adventure where no decent woman would wander unescorted.
Battling businessmen, mechanoids and villagers armed with torches and pitchforks, Captain Bonny must decide who to trust, and whether the only rational course of action is one of apparent madness.
"Steampunk and speculative fiction fans will probably adore it."
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
This is a fantastic Steampunk adventure,pirates, runaways,stowaways, heists, betrayal and all fuelled by the Victorian desire for opium. After a large opium theft the captain of the ship has to escape, landing in a cornfield, which is where the Captain picks up a problem. Stealing the opium won't be as hard as living to sell it.
Written by Jaq D. Hawkins, which is either a pen name, or the most appropriate author name in history, this is a tale of pirates and drugs and daring, mixed with real world grit and themes. Just as the Dragon in the title has multiple meanings, being both an opium reference, and a seafarer's. There are plots within plots, wheels within wheels, and even the bit part characters have their own desires and designs. Most of the plot happens when they collide.
Nothing and no one in this book is one-dimensional, and the author loves subverting expectations. Alliances change, friendships shift, and people develop under pressure in unexpected ways. Khana, the golden-eyed tabby ship's cat is as much a supporting character as any of the airmen with her own foibles and scrapes. At the end I found myself wondering about her fate first, a question the author mercifully answers.
This is absolutely beautifully written. The writing isn't just immersive, it is evocative. The scenes leap off the page, and the characters come to life. There was only one typo that took me out of the story: a confusion of palfrey and paltry that made me laugh. Paltry means small but palfrey is a type of women's horse. Mind you, 'Palfrey wages' would definitely be something to complain about, and expensive to maintain.
Steampunk and speculative fiction fans will probably adore it, but so may readers of Victoriana, heists, and lovers of quasi-historical fiction. If you like good writing and excellent characterisation in general, then I'd suggest you give this a look.
This is a glowing review of what sounds like an amazing book. I've never read a novel centered around a desire for opium; how intriguing! Also, dynamic characters who subvert expectations? That makes this a need-to-read. Thanks for the great review.
I picked this up on *@Reader*'s say so through the boards and I could not put it down. The Victorian genre of "Scientific Romance" is about all I can fit to this: real people, in a real Vicorian world of slums and pirates, and airships. The entire book's difference to the real world could be summed up as "If airships had been invented fifty years earlier and become the main source of transport..."
Wow! What a review. Makes me want to read this right away. It also reminds me of *Ruby in the Smoke* by Phillip Pullman. That was one that I couldn't put down. I do hope this one will be the same. Thank you!
