Helpful Score: 3
You know, by all rights I shouldn't be admitting to this. I liked it. Yeah, it is, at its heart, a romance novel. But what the hell. I remember reading Dragonsinger and its sequels and loving the hell out of them back in my teens. This is in the same vein. Johnn Four's Roleplaying Tips #411 introduced me to it and piqued my interest enough to seek it out and read it.
The quote I cribbed from the author's website and it sums up things without revealing too much about the story. And while I like Taya, Cristof and Alister, the world is its own star.
The setting is Ondinium, capital of the city state of Yeovil. Its a stratified society of castes (with strong meritocratic elements) with the exalted at the top (leaders and ruling the roost), the cardinals (technologists, programmers (of difference and analytical engines), lictors (soldiers and police), famulate/plebians (craftsmen and laborers) and icarii, messngers granted the ability to fly at the cost of duty to Ondium. The society is ruled by a republic of the exalted, and advised by their analytical engines (including one Great Engine). It also has ondium - a metal that is lighter than air, allowing the creation of the wings of the icarii and mechanical computers (complete with punch cards) far better than were attempted in our world. Its a steampunk (or would steampulp be better?) world of beauty, intrigue, espionage and power plays, and not a utopia either. Its interesting.
The world is fun and as I said, as much of a star as the human actors of the piece. And Pagliassotti drips and drabs it out, not laying too many info dumps on the reader, making discovery part of the delight. The plot is decent too - I had my suspicions about the plot twist, but not the reasons behind it, from the moment some things are said. There is a separate plot moving along that is just as important as the first, but only dipped into once the first is closed - in some ways it felt added, but not forced. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was good.
All in all, a fun steam punk-ish romance. One I could easily see being adapted for a steampunk style game.
The quote I cribbed from the author's website and it sums up things without revealing too much about the story. And while I like Taya, Cristof and Alister, the world is its own star.
The setting is Ondinium, capital of the city state of Yeovil. Its a stratified society of castes (with strong meritocratic elements) with the exalted at the top (leaders and ruling the roost), the cardinals (technologists, programmers (of difference and analytical engines), lictors (soldiers and police), famulate/plebians (craftsmen and laborers) and icarii, messngers granted the ability to fly at the cost of duty to Ondium. The society is ruled by a republic of the exalted, and advised by their analytical engines (including one Great Engine). It also has ondium - a metal that is lighter than air, allowing the creation of the wings of the icarii and mechanical computers (complete with punch cards) far better than were attempted in our world. Its a steampunk (or would steampulp be better?) world of beauty, intrigue, espionage and power plays, and not a utopia either. Its interesting.
The world is fun and as I said, as much of a star as the human actors of the piece. And Pagliassotti drips and drabs it out, not laying too many info dumps on the reader, making discovery part of the delight. The plot is decent too - I had my suspicions about the plot twist, but not the reasons behind it, from the moment some things are said. There is a separate plot moving along that is just as important as the first, but only dipped into once the first is closed - in some ways it felt added, but not forced. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was good.
All in all, a fun steam punk-ish romance. One I could easily see being adapted for a steampunk style game.
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