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golem's review
5.0
QUEER SKY PIRATES. It's not a traditional romance, but it's wildly romantic. There's an opium-addicted, womanizing, impoverished Victorian lady who can see krakens. There's a nonbinary skyship captain who has some kind of condition that I can't figure out ("aetherstruck"?) that makes their eyes really black and rainbow-y. There's this background romance between a good guy and a bad guy that in any other book would be the main story but it's not here. There's a bunch of magic with rotting corpses, but not too much, and some excellent sex workers. Also obviously it's like, steampunk and in thieves' cant. Great audiobook. Lots of great sex and some very good Dickens jokes. Everyone is queer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Violence
expendablemudge's review
3.0
Sampled through chapter the first, as it says in the book; could be a go.
I was amused by the thieves' cant that Piccadilly uses and was intrigued by the steampunk elements. Not so sure an entire book of it wouldn't wear on my nerve, so....
I was amused by the thieves' cant that Piccadilly uses and was intrigued by the steampunk elements. Not so sure an entire book of it wouldn't wear on my nerve, so....
bakarena's review
5.0
This all turned out to be quite unusual and I found myself to be quite fond of it.
susanscribs's review
4.0
What a unique, funny, poignant book - all delivered in an unforgettable (although sometimes difficult to parse) voice. After reading Alexis Hall's debut, Glitterland, I can easily say he doesn't write the same character twice! This is an author who loves language and uses each word brilliantly. At various times I felt like I was reading Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange and Oliver Twist if any of those classics featured people of color, homosexuals and genderqueers (if that's the correct term).
I read a review on a romance novel blog that indicated this is not a romance novel. Well, not on a traditional level that involves the protagonist, but there is a beautiful, tormented love story between two secondary characters, and our singular narrator finds his own happily ever after, if your definition of HEA means finding your place in the world and people who make you want to become your best possible self, whatever that may be.
I read a review on a romance novel blog that indicated this is not a romance novel. Well, not on a traditional level that involves the protagonist, but there is a beautiful, tormented love story between two secondary characters, and our singular narrator finds his own happily ever after, if your definition of HEA means finding your place in the world and people who make you want to become your best possible self, whatever that may be.
georgiewhoissarahdrew's review
4.0
Alexis Hall pulls off some astonishing feats in this book. The invention of a compelling new world, the creation of a distinctive narrative voice, and the telling of a love story entirely through a third party's eyes.
Starting with the story - although that is a structured word for what is actually a loose-flowing narrative. There are a number of stories going on - Ruben & Milord (the most obvious and traditional of them), Miss Grey's kraken-waking abilities etc - but the "real" story is how a street urchin, Piccadilly ("Dil") comes into a sense of his own abilities and place in life. That story is gently undercut with his learning to read, via Oliver Twist - a subtle paralleling of Dil's own journey.
The world-building is gorgeous, and alone is worth the book. It's a fragile world, suspended improbably in the sky, with half-nods to the earthly city of Gaslight (a Dickensian London), and to the Voyage of the Beagle, setting out into uncharted seas and letting go, in the process, of received wisdoms.
Much has been made of Dil's speech - which is a mixture of Cockney, Victorian slang, and, I suspect, new words of Hall's own invention. In fact, Georgette Heyer proves a really good training ground for understanding much of his speech, and Dickens (again) for most of the rest. I actually found the speech slightly irritating - there were contractions that felt wrong, and non-contractions where I'd expect them (e.g. 'twas not me, where I'd want 'tweren't me, but hey), and some rapid (but temporary) improvements to his vocabulary! But it's an incredibly difficult thing to pull off, the consistently inconsistent grammar etc, and on the whole it works.
I read this too quickly, the first time, and I'm going back to it now to take in at leisure.
notagreatreader's review
4.0
Well, this was a charming little page-turner containing quite some more emotional depth and subtlety than I expected it to.
tora's review
5.0
How many stars can you give something, because THAT is how many I give to this. THAT OR MORE. I'm blown away by how great this is.
poultrymunitions's review
5.0
sing hallelujah, julio—because otherwise your mouth's hangin' open for nothing.
the setting.
nineteenth century AU england.
a lawless prospecting town floating in the sky.
airships that run on magic—and the interdimensional sky-krakens who threaten them.
now, if that's not the most gloriously batshit thing i've ever heard of—
...why are you still sitting there with that face on? why haven't you bought it yet?
the characters.
a black, bisexual, teenaged card-sharp, fresh from the gutter and lookin' to score. [hot as fuck.]
a fallen missionary with everything to give—built like a boxer, with a heart of gold. [hot as fuck.]
a murderous crimelord, as vicious as he is beautiful, after one last payday before he dies. [hot as fuck.]
a lesbian, opium-addicted navigatrix who can hear the kraken stirring in their sleep. [hot as fuck.]
and
an androgynous skycaptain in piratical boots and fluttering petticoats, with eyes like twin portals to an infinity of stars.
[hot.] [as.] [fuck.]
doesn't that sound awesome?
c'mon, you know that sounds awesome.
gimme five.
do you see? do you see, now?
i am nearly deranged with the happy.
whores! and pirates! and yet more whores!
did i fucking tell you about the motherfucking krakens in the sky???
the story.
from the first line to the last, my ass was so riveted i could barely trouble to fap during any of the spectacular love scenes.
i read a late draft in march, and it was so good that i immediately pinged my editor to inform her in tones of both the vilest jealousy and the most overwhelming stupefaction:
"i've just read my favorite book of 2014."
i wasn't even kidding.
because even now, 200 some-odd books later and possessed of a knife-edged weariness for all things Shitty Writez, i am still in love with this amazing book.
i've just read it for the second time, y'see? and... i tried. i did. tried to take my time, to really appreciate all the lovingly inlaid nuance and cleverness; all the heartbreak and the magic; all the passion, and insight, and beauty, and romance—
—but no.
just like the first time, i got really, really into it.
inhaled that fucker all over again, like it was dick-flavored, crack-infused deliciousness in an awesome awesomesauce sauce.
people of earth: i tell you it's bloody wonderful.
crackling with energy and humor so sharp and sweet i cackled like a witch over a cauldron.
full of everything that makes everything fun—i told you about the krakens in the sky?—but also with the kind of inimitable joy and wonder you only find in the most truly special stories of all.
five. fucking. stars.
obviously.
i fell in love. i fell in love and my world can never go back to what it was.
and—because i am apparently beloved by god as well as alexis hall—it doesn't have to.
...bcuz there's more on the way.
more.
several more stories in this universe.
on the way.
to me.
(and also you. but whatever.)
and you can trust me on that—because i've already read them, too.
and just like 2014 before it...
the year 2015 is spoken for.
__________
now, i know some of you are lookin' at me right now all jelez and bitter and wondering how it is i got to read so much hotness soooooooo much sooner than you.
but you should chiiiiiiiill.
it's not as if i'm making a big deal about it.
i mean, i know it feels bad.
like a... fiery ball of crispy hate inside you, right? deep inside you?
as if i were strutting around the place like
hahahaha. but seriously, no, not at all.
y'see, the explanation is simple. i was a beta reader, for one.
but beyond that, me'n my boy alexis hall is tight. we go waaaay back. all the way to, like, february, at least.
i guess i'm just lucky like that, y'know?
it's really humbling.
the setting.
nineteenth century AU england.
a lawless prospecting town floating in the sky.
airships that run on magic—and the interdimensional sky-krakens who threaten them.
now, if that's not the most gloriously batshit thing i've ever heard of—
...why are you still sitting there with that face on? why haven't you bought it yet?
the characters.
a black, bisexual, teenaged card-sharp, fresh from the gutter and lookin' to score. [hot as fuck.]
a fallen missionary with everything to give—built like a boxer, with a heart of gold. [hot as fuck.]
a murderous crimelord, as vicious as he is beautiful, after one last payday before he dies. [hot as fuck.]
a lesbian, opium-addicted navigatrix who can hear the kraken stirring in their sleep. [hot as fuck.]
and
an androgynous skycaptain in piratical boots and fluttering petticoats, with eyes like twin portals to an infinity of stars.
[hot.] [as.] [fuck.]
doesn't that sound awesome?
c'mon, you know that sounds awesome.
gimme five.
do you see? do you see, now?
i am nearly deranged with the happy.
whores! and pirates! and yet more whores!
did i fucking tell you about the motherfucking krakens in the sky???
the story.
from the first line to the last, my ass was so riveted i could barely trouble to fap during any of the spectacular love scenes.
i read a late draft in march, and it was so good that i immediately pinged my editor to inform her in tones of both the vilest jealousy and the most overwhelming stupefaction:
"i've just read my favorite book of 2014."
i wasn't even kidding.
because even now, 200 some-odd books later and possessed of a knife-edged weariness for all things Shitty Writez, i am still in love with this amazing book.
i've just read it for the second time, y'see? and... i tried. i did. tried to take my time, to really appreciate all the lovingly inlaid nuance and cleverness; all the heartbreak and the magic; all the passion, and insight, and beauty, and romance—
—but no.
just like the first time, i got really, really into it.
inhaled that fucker all over again, like it was dick-flavored, crack-infused deliciousness in an awesome awesomesauce sauce.
people of earth: i tell you it's bloody wonderful.
crackling with energy and humor so sharp and sweet i cackled like a witch over a cauldron.
full of everything that makes everything fun—i told you about the krakens in the sky?—but also with the kind of inimitable joy and wonder you only find in the most truly special stories of all.
five. fucking. stars.
obviously.
i fell in love. i fell in love and my world can never go back to what it was.
and—because i am apparently beloved by god as well as alexis hall—it doesn't have to.
...bcuz there's more on the way.
more.
several more stories in this universe.
on the way.
to me.
(and also you. but whatever.)
and you can trust me on that—because i've already read them, too.
and just like 2014 before it...
the year 2015 is spoken for.
__________
but you should chiiiiiiiill.
it's not as if i'm making a big deal about it.
i mean, i know it feels bad.
like a... fiery ball of crispy hate inside you, right? deep inside you?
as if i were strutting around the place like
hahahaha. but seriously, no, not at all.
y'see, the explanation is simple. i was a beta reader, for one.
but beyond that, me'n my boy alexis hall is tight. we go waaaay back. all the way to, like, february, at least.
i guess i'm just lucky like that, y'know?
it's really humbling.
embblyy's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
olive2read's review
3.0
Some of this was 5 stars all the way. None of it was terrible but it still feels solidly 3 stars overall.