HAPHAZARDLY IMPLAUSIBLE: Book Review
I met Jack through the Blogging from A-Z challenge. (As many of my blog posts reflect, lots of interesting things occurred during that challenge, and I look forward to participating in 2014). Anyway, as I read her blog and had her over here for an interview, I came to discover that we were rather kindred spirits.
I'm slow about buying books, so I didn't get around to buying hers until recently, but I just have to tell you about this book. Haphazardly Implausible... I mean, the title just begs you to crack open the cover, right?
It's not the genre I usually read, it's more steampunk than anything else. But I really enjoyed it. Despite the typos (which I happen to know are currently being fixed in another round of editing) I absolutely fell in love with the story and characters.
Three unlikely heroes. A world teetering on the edge of war. A mad man who will stop at nothing to gain complete power.
Peter Jones, Isidore Thaddeus Reichmann, and Singur have never met. They live in different countries and have little in common. Peter is an Aeropilot in the Scottish Royal Air Force. He has grown up believing his parents abandoned him, only a week before they were killed. Isidore is a famous detective who is running from his past, while trying to save the last person he cares about. Singur is an inventor who has been forced to hide his real name his whole life, or risk being killed.
Little do they know their lives are about to entwine and that together they have the power to save the world from complete destruction, or destroy everything.
Loyalties are questioned. Friendships are betrayed. Trust is shaken. Who do you turn to when the people you've always relied upon turn out to be your worse enemies?
This story has a very complex plot. You will follow three main characters, who are all seemingly unrelated at first, and who are all operating in different parts of the world. Despite this fact, however, I found that the author handled these various story lines quite well, and I never felt like skimming through any part of the story to find out what was happening in another part of the story. (Sometimes that happens, when an author is following one main character, then switches at some crucial moment to a totally different character for a chapter or two). However, with this book I never wanted to skip ahead. Every plot line had me thoroughly hooked. I spent the entire book wondering how these various characters' stories were going to intersect.
The characters are very well-developed, despite there being quite a few of them. (I love a story with a large cast, though).
This is definitely the first book in a series, and the end leaves you hanging a bit. So, if you don't like waiting for the end, you may want to wait until the rest of the series is finished and available. The story wraps up fairly well, answering enough questions that you don't feel like you just stepped off a cliff and found nothing but air beneath you. But there is a lot of story left to discover. I can't wait to read the sequel, and I look forward to reading more of this author.
I also love that I can recommend this book without reservations. It is intense, and I'm a little worried that some of my favorite characters are going to end up dead before the story is over, because Jack is always talking about how she's having to kill off characters over on her blog (never revealing which ones, though!!!), but the writing is clean and family-friendly. (Which you all know I appreciate rather a lot!)
I am particularly hoping to get my hands on "A Stretch of Loyalty" next, because I hear that is more of a fantasy story, which is my preference. But for my very first steampunk excursion, this one was highly enjoyable.
You can learn more about Jack's books on her website.
Do you have any good steampunk genre book recommendations? Friday is the big Aom-igh MAP reveal!!! Don't forget to swing by and check it out! Also, tomorrow, in honor of Halloween, I shall be posting a short SPOOKY bit of flash fiction for the SPOOKY STORY BLOGGING CHALLENGE. It shall be about a childhood fear of my own... so you won't want to miss that!