Scan barcode
mdpenguin's review against another edition
3.0
I thought that the world that Duncan created was reasonably interesting. It put me in mind of Infomocracy in that both worlds have a super-governmental organization that enforces laws over countries that have been divided up a bit. The difference, beyond the fact that one is cyberpunk futurist world and the other is a luddite steampunk world, is in the fact that Malka Older is clearly a political science scholar wheras Duncan is clearly an author of detective novels.
Overall, the story and the world interested me but the characters were flat and inorganic. They responded to their environments but never seemed to me to have personalities that would have been borne of their circumstances. Characters simply fit the role that Duncan needed for them to tell his story. Even the protagonist, Elizabeth Barnabus, seemed to have developed as a product of the plot moreso than as a fully conceptualized person. It's not a bad read but I'm not terribly anxious to read the sequels even though I have the other two books as part of the Humble Bundle from which I got this one. I will admit that a bit of a spoiler from the name of the series and the description of Barnabus in the glossary at the end tempt me a little, but I suspect that Duncan's writing just isn't for me so I probably won't get around to reading them.
Overall, the story and the world interested me but the characters were flat and inorganic. They responded to their environments but never seemed to me to have personalities that would have been borne of their circumstances. Characters simply fit the role that Duncan needed for them to tell his story. Even the protagonist, Elizabeth Barnabus, seemed to have developed as a product of the plot moreso than as a fully conceptualized person. It's not a bad read but I'm not terribly anxious to read the sequels even though I have the other two books as part of the Humble Bundle from which I got this one. I will admit that a bit of a spoiler from the name of the series and the description of Barnabus in the glossary at the end tempt me a little, but I suspect that Duncan's writing just isn't for me so I probably won't get around to reading them.
tclinrow's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent start to the series. I loved Elizabeth Barnabas and found the world she inhabited to be as fantastic as it was familiar - so strange to have such familiar place names but for them to seem so alien, it was brilliantly mystifying for me. Looking forward to starting the second book!
macthekat's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful! And so thoughtful an the role and freedoms of women in a man dominated world. I really like the duality of England.
The protagonist is a young woman who masquerades as her own twin brother to make a living in Victorian London. She does it enough that she sometimes starts to think of her self as that second persona. It delt with the gender issues really well. I don't think I have read anything by a man before that gave the feel of a woman in a bad city so well before. Constantly mentioning all the places where her gender got in her way of her freedom (she is acutely aware because she sometimes have the freedoms) and all the places where men are creeps at her.
The protagonist is a young woman who masquerades as her own twin brother to make a living in Victorian London. She does it enough that she sometimes starts to think of her self as that second persona. It delt with the gender issues really well. I don't think I have read anything by a man before that gave the feel of a woman in a bad city so well before. Constantly mentioning all the places where her gender got in her way of her freedom (she is acutely aware because she sometimes have the freedoms) and all the places where men are creeps at her.
kpp90's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
acereviews's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
thecatsmum's review against another edition
5.0
This is the first steampunk novel that I've read, and I have a feeling that I might be spoiled by it once I've finished the series.
mcmanifold's review against another edition
3.0
Took me a while to get into it, but the world definitely has promise.
libra17's review against another edition
5.0
I found The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter while browsing in my local library. I haven't read any steampunk in a while and I thought to give it a whirl. I was beyond impressed with the book for a few reasons.
First: the protagonist. Elizabeth is a likeable, empathic character who is not overly stereotypical Mary Sue and not a stereotyped pseudo-victorian lady. Her character struck a balance that I adored, and I'm actually very impressed that she was written by a guy (there are female authors who don't write female characters this well).
Second: the lack of romance. Though marriage is mentioned a few times in TBCD, it is not front-and-center as is common for books set in victorian or pseudo-victorian times. There is literally no romance in this book. It is a story about Elizabeth struggling to save herself; she has no time for romance and the plot reflects that, for which I was both grateful and impressed.
Third: the sheer amount of detail in the worldbuilding. Duncan went out of his way to create a believable alternate history for the series to exist in, complete with built-in explanations beyond 'because no one ever invented or thought about _____, and you've just gotta believe that.'
Fourth: that there was no clear good or bad country. Both the Republic and the Kingdom have their faults. Just like any culture in any time, neither is perfect; one still has de facto slavery and the other has no womens' rights (also making a kind of de facto slavery, if you're a woman with no ethically behaving male extension - be he husband, brother, or father - to help one navigate the world). Even the Patent Office is not a clear villain, though it clearly has its issues and faults. All of this acts as a stand-in for real-life issues with power and corruption, and adds to the believability of the world.
Fifth: the not-pretty parts. It's been a while since I've read steampunk, but I remember a common problem with the genre being that writers tend to focus on the pretty parts of victorian society - the titles, the manners, the aesthetics of fashion - and either update wholesale or downplay the not-pretty parts of victorian society. There were effectively no women's rights in victorian society? That's not a problem, because the protagonist has a love interest who doesn't think she's property. Indoor plumbing doesn't exist/isn't widespread yet? That's ok, because in this story nobody has bodily functions or they're rich enough to have one of the few early installations. And so on and so forth. It's just a fact that most of victorian society would be repugnant to the 21st century who's actually confronted with it presented seriously, so it tends to get either glossed over or updated with so much liberty as to be unrecognizable. And, for the most part, that's not really a problem (I think, for most readers, if they wanted an actual presentation of the victorian era they'd be reading nonfiction), but it is still refreshing to read a book that tries to be true to the era. Elizabeth runs into major issues due to her biological sex, and her only way around those issues (without acquiring a husband, at least) is to pretend to be her own male twin. She gets locked in a room for several days with a stinking chamber pot, and makes sure the reader knows just how bad the smell was and how not okay she was with the action. She is chased repeatedly by the private army a man who legally owns her and wants her captured to be his sex slave. This is not a pretty victorian world, although it is a semi-realistic one, and it made for a more interesting read than if those issues had been glossed over or did not exist.
Overall, I very much enjoyed The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter, will read the next book (Unseemly Science), and would reccomend it.
First: the protagonist. Elizabeth is a likeable, empathic character who is not overly stereotypical Mary Sue and not a stereotyped pseudo-victorian lady. Her character struck a balance that I adored, and I'm actually very impressed that she was written by a guy (there are female authors who don't write female characters this well).
Second: the lack of romance. Though marriage is mentioned a few times in TBCD, it is not front-and-center as is common for books set in victorian or pseudo-victorian times. There is literally no romance in this book. It is a story about Elizabeth struggling to save herself; she has no time for romance and the plot reflects that, for which I was both grateful and impressed.
Third: the sheer amount of detail in the worldbuilding. Duncan went out of his way to create a believable alternate history for the series to exist in, complete with built-in explanations beyond 'because no one ever invented or thought about _____, and you've just gotta believe that.'
Fourth: that there was no clear good or bad country. Both the Republic and the Kingdom have their faults. Just like any culture in any time, neither is perfect; one still has de facto slavery and the other has no womens' rights (also making a kind of de facto slavery, if you're a woman with no ethically behaving male extension - be he husband, brother, or father - to help one navigate the world). Even the Patent Office is not a clear villain, though it clearly has its issues and faults. All of this acts as a stand-in for real-life issues with power and corruption, and adds to the believability of the world.
Fifth: the not-pretty parts. It's been a while since I've read steampunk, but I remember a common problem with the genre being that writers tend to focus on the pretty parts of victorian society - the titles, the manners, the aesthetics of fashion - and either update wholesale or downplay the not-pretty parts of victorian society. There were effectively no women's rights in victorian society? That's not a problem, because the protagonist has a love interest who doesn't think she's property. Indoor plumbing doesn't exist/isn't widespread yet? That's ok, because in this story nobody has bodily functions or they're rich enough to have one of the few early installations. And so on and so forth. It's just a fact that most of victorian society would be repugnant to the 21st century who's actually confronted with it presented seriously, so it tends to get either glossed over or updated with so much liberty as to be unrecognizable. And, for the most part, that's not really a problem (I think, for most readers, if they wanted an actual presentation of the victorian era they'd be reading nonfiction), but it is still refreshing to read a book that tries to be true to the era. Elizabeth runs into major issues due to her biological sex, and her only way around those issues (without acquiring a husband, at least) is to pretend to be her own male twin. She gets locked in a room for several days with a stinking chamber pot, and makes sure the reader knows just how bad the smell was and how not okay she was with the action. She is chased repeatedly by the private army a man who legally owns her and wants her captured to be his sex slave. This is not a pretty victorian world, although it is a semi-realistic one, and it made for a more interesting read than if those issues had been glossed over or did not exist.
Overall, I very much enjoyed The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter, will read the next book (Unseemly Science), and would reccomend it.
liriel27's review against another edition
3.0
I liked a lot of things about this book, but it is definitely set up for a series. The ending felt very anticlimactic/unfinished.