Deathsniffer

I liked the overall concept of the book. However found it a bit drawn out and dragged in spots. The Narrator did a good job with the characters, which helped keep me interested til the end.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

Looking forward to the next one.

I bought this about 3 weeks ago, but books that I had been waiting for, were released so I kept putting it off. I finally got to it and I must say, it was different, in topic and setting. It took a bit to evolve but was worth it. I hadn't noticed it was labeled "Book 1", so when I saw that, I was very excited. When the second book comes out, I won't have to re-read this one, unless I want to because for me, it was quite different from other fantasy stories I read. It was unique tale and most enjoyable. Romy Nordlinger read very well, occasionally I got the characters mixed up but not enough to affect the story. It is just exactly what the title says and a lot more.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Kind of half-baked, alas

I love gaslamp fantasy. I was totally primed to enjoy this book, but it felt like a poorly realized first draft. It's not just the unedited feeling that comes from grammatical errors (past participles seem a particular point of confusion). It's that the world-building was half-baked.

First off, this is NOT "historical fantasy" as it has been labeled! It takes place in an imagined world that seems vaguely inspired by Victorian London. In fact, there seems no reason that it couldn't have just been an alternate London...except that making it a made-up world eliminates requirements for historical research and consistency about cultural mores. So we end up with, e.g., a world where it's scandalous for an unchaperoned woman to be left alone with a man -- but women routinely hold every category of job (even homicide detective) and curse like sailors. Such inconsistencies are left completely unexamined.

Then there's the violence and the cursing. Both are quite explicit, and pointlessly, awkwardly so. The bad language in particular feels unnatural and ill-timed, as if it's a costume that a more delicate book is putting on to look tough. It's kind of embarrassing.

And above all, there's the fact that the "deathsniffer" is supposed to be a brilliant detective but seems like a bumbling amateur, hurling insults at suspects rather than questioning them and not pursuing obvious lines of inquiry.

Maybe I'm being too tough on this well-meaning book. I'm sorry. But as I said, I'm an easy-to-please reader of the genre, and it just didn't please me.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!