That Which Shiri is Reading

by Shiri Sondheimer · Published May 10, 2014 · Updated May 9, 2014

Because everyone loves a creepy ass circus. Okay, maybe it’s just me. The cover art grabbed me and the blurb cemented Mechanique‘s place at the top of the library pile.

My thoughts halfway through? I’m glad you asked: this is what a Steampunk novel should be: a fantastic story with excellent character development that happens to have some steampunk aspects, rather than a story driven by the conventions of the genre and how many of them the author can squeeze into a couple hundred pages. The later being the reason I don’t read a lot of Steampunk, the former being the way I wish more people would write it. There’s a war, intrigue, death, a circus, pickup trucks, clowns, and more (now with brass feet and filigree skull plates) and Ms. Valentine has introduced all of it without shooting her shadow-y mystery wad. She has, as has been discussed on both the podcast and the blog, faith in her reader, which this reader very much appreciates. I don’t want, or need, to know everything. I want a world I can take a bath in (so to speak). Mechanique is that world.

I am also super, super impressed that Ms. Valentine pulls of the first/second person present with fourth wall breaking. Because most of the time, I hate that shit. I have put books down after the first paragraph when I see it. I’m not knocking anyone here; this voice/tense pairing is a monstrous feat I would go near it with a fifty foot pole. Most of the time, however, when people do use it, it’s both a contrivance and badly, badly handled. In the case of Mechanique, however, it is anything but. Ms. Valentine handles the challenge deftly and easily, integrating it into the story instead of bashing the reader over the head with it. We’ll see how I feel at the end, but for the moment, I’m down.

(addendum after finishing: it was awesome and you should read it)

I am also making my way through the FCBD pile (along with the NSFCBD – Not So Free Comic Book Day — purchases of May 3). So far I’ve hit:

Silly, but at least the super sex issue is FINALLY resolved.

and

I thought this was going to be the silly one, but it’s creepy as hell and may go on to my pull list.

Shiri Sondheimer

Bloginatrix and disembodied voice at The Last Chance Salon (lastchancepod.com). RN at the Department of Therapeutic Misadventures. Currently at work on Hero Handlers (Spring '15).

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