Author: SC Green
Publisher: Grymm & Epic
Rating: WARTY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often enough reward aplenty!
This novel had a prologue which I skipped as usual. My position is that if the author thinks it unworthy to put it all in chapter one or later, then it's not worth my time reading it. I've never regretted not reading a prologue! Unfortunately I did have regrets about reading this novel. It sounded interesting to begin with, and the premise certainly held promise, but for me this promise was a preemie.
This is a steam punk novel set in London (of course!) in 1830, eight years before the reign of Queen Victoria began. In this world, dragons live in swamps outside the city. Why, I have no idea. King George is on the throne and he is at best an evil, short-tempered man. I have no knowledge of what he is at worst, since I never read that far.
In this world, religion has been upturned completely. Now people worship science, which is just as wrong-headed as worshiping fictitious gods. Yes, science is a powerful and proven method, but no, it isn't a religion, nor should it be. But this is fiction, and in this world, engineers and inventors are the priests and prophets, running their own churches! Within the city is 'The ward' - an enclave, the purpose or meaning of which I never found out. Perhaps its significance and origin are gone into in parts of this novel which I never reached, since I DNF'd it.
The novel tells the story of white men, and it was one big turn-off. There were no significant women featured at all, nor were there people of color - not in the portion I read. Ah! you may exclaim, there were no women or people of color who rose to prominence as engineers and scientists during this era, so why should a writer include them? My response to that is that neither were there dragons, yet we find them on prominent display in this novel! What's napalm for the dragon is palmetto for the dragonette, surely? Otherwise all we have is a holocaust, this time giving us the sanctity of Aryan men, with women and darker skin tones eliminated to protect that bleached, phallic purity.
Even that might have been something I could have grudgingly put up with had the story been truly compelling or original, and had it drawn me in, but it did not. I found myself increasingly wondering why I should be interested in or care about these irritatingly self-absorbed and ultimately boring characters who seemed uninterested in moving anything along, let alone an actual story. Why should I care about mutants under the city when there are so many repulsive versions of them above ground? I could find no valid answer to that question and ceased further perusal of this tome.
I made it to about one third the way through, and then I simply could not make myself read any more. It just was not appealing to me at all. It didn't help that the novel kept going back and forth between first person (which I detest) and third. The fact that it had to do this speaks powerfully against first person as a valid writing vehicle. There are instances where it makes sense, but for the most part it's a mistake because it's all "Me!" all the time and that's not only irritating, but worse, it's completely boring.
With an insane George the Third ruling in England, England at war with France, dragons attacking citizens in London, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel being issued a royal contract to build an underground railway linking Buckingham Palace and Windsor castle, you'd think that there would be enough there to concoct a really engrossing story, but it did not pull me in, not in the least. There was too much rambling on and on about politics and far too much telling of plot, with no showing and almost nothing of interest happening at all.
The author is female which made it even more remarkable there's almost no female presence in this novel - not in the first third, at any rate. I couldn't help but wonder why. It's not like it's a true-to-life historical novel, and even if it were, there were plenty of women of note whose names and activities could have been included. They were not. As it was, this novel ventured deeply into fantasy land, and it would not have been a problem at all to have included a plethora of female characters of note, but none appeared other than in tangential or minor roles. Again, I can't speak for the entire novel, but from what I read of it, this was worse than neglectful - it was inexcusable.
I cannot recommend this novel. Sunken is a great title for it.
