Reviews

The Chronological Man: The Monster In The Mist by Andrew Mayne

ashmilo's review

adventurous challenging medium-paced

4.0

paperbackdragon's review

5.0

This is a series of novellas set in the late 19th century about a man, Smith, who investigates strange phenomena where the police have failed. This is the first book in the series, where he meets a new assistant, April Malone. April takes a job as a secretary/assistant, and reads newspapers and magazines and books for research, and makes coffee and sets out pastries every day, for a man she never sees. Then one day, Smith appears, and the adventure begins. People keep going missing in Boston, and it's up to Smith and April to find out why. Smith felt very much to me like a steampunk Doctor, which made me enjoy the story even more. (See sequel to see the rest of my review.)

metrazol's review

4.0

Diesel punk in 1890's Boston, what's not to love?

threerings's review

4.0

I bought this book for my Kindle because it was a steampunk book and it cost $0.99. And then two months later I read it and was surprised to discover that it was quite good. In 1890s Boston, Miss April Malone has a strange job. She goes to work everyday and sits in a room by herself. She gets requests to read a lot of different things, attend lectures, feed punch cards into things, and keep the coffee pot full. One day, after two years of this, a vault door in her workroom opens and a man called Smith appears and they go off to investigate a series of disappearances. The story is instantly engaging because it's so strange and mysterious. The mysterious "Smith" is at least 80 years old, but still young, and he seems to have been in the cellar the whole time, until the calculating machines decided it was time to wake him up. April is his "computer" due to her extraordinary recall. Without really any more explanation they proceed to investigate why people have been vanishing into heavy mist around the city.

Smith is fairly obviously influenced by Doctor Who, so much so that I can't picture him as anyone other than the 10th Doctor. But I have read a lot worse ideas than "someone pretty much exactly like the 10th Doctor is in 1890s Boston and there are monsters and weird science and a smart and awesome female assistant." Who or what "Smith" is isn't exactly addressed in this short novel, but I'm certainly ready for the sequel.

joshua_tree's review

4.0

It was Doctor Who meets Jules Verne. The story was a fun read (listen). I'm hoping that future books will reveal more of the mystery of Smith.

I listened to the 10 episode podcast as a (free) serialized audiobook. I'll probably splurge ($0.99) on the 2nd book in the series.

maleficentknits's review

1.0

Listening to this as a podcast in ten parts...

Sort of a Doctor Who steam punk novel... interesting enough that I hope the podcast updates regularly.

starting to lose interest... will give the next podcast a chance but we'll see...

just didn't appeal to me... a bit of Doctor Who and the Cthulhu mythos mixed into a steampunk soup just left me a bit off...

piratequeen's review

So far, I'm enjoying the hell out of this. The main character, Smith, bears a very strong resemblance to the Doctor. And, since I'm a huge "Doctor Who" nerd, this is a good thing. It also has the steampunk thing going on, which I always get a kick out of.

tomasthanes's review

4.0

Better than I expected, having read 2 other books by this author. Good story. Good characters (Miss Malone). Slightly Steampunk.