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kate4ez's review against another edition
3.0
This review is based in the Podiobooks version. This was a fun, engaging story with interesting characters. I loved the futuristic/Victorian mashed-up setting. I also liked the idea of a school like the Institute. However, I was disappointed with the abrupt ending and convenient relationship between Cliffy and The Crone. I didn't really understand how they figured out she was the Crone, for that matter. That was one of the plot holes that made it hard to follow the story.
I'd love to see the author explore this world and The Institute in future stories, perhaps writing a story around Disraeli's story.
I'd love to see the author explore this world and The Institute in future stories, perhaps writing a story around Disraeli's story.
mellhay's review
4.0
I really love the creation of the servant education here. The Hidden Institute has a magical draw for me with the well created world and history here. Even the solid personality of Dizzy is wonderful. He's bold and knows they ways yet he's not fully conceded in demanding for his own needs. He has a respect for the help and what they do.
Cliffy is a street urchin through and through. He doesn't take well from the command of others. He is independent and use to having a bit of control over what he does. The story seems that he loses that, yet he has to have great control over himself. Cliffy is an inquisitive boy. He's not afraid to back down from anything, or anyone, and it finds him in mischievous situations. I really like Cliffy. He has a way about him. He's not a bad kid from the streets. He's independent yet has a heart and cares.
***FULL REVIEW****
Cliffy sees a man die, the man with him offers Cliffy a chance of a lifetime. Cliffy takes it but, being at The Hidden Institute, he's made some enemies of power. He's set to go to a ball in which being barely a freshman he would not be sent on this test. At that ball Cliffy learns the dangerous Silks are present. The Silks make it their life to find and expose those that graduate from The Hidden Institute and lie about who they are. Cliffy can't pass on the chance to learn who the Crone, and leader of the Silks, is. Slowly Cliffy uncovers secret groups in the Institute, one in particular that is hired to kill once they graduate.
The Malcolm Rutherford Holden Institute skates on the outskirts of the law as it's hidden from others. And they are criminals of a sense with falsifying information and histories of their students. The school has a huge mysterious feel of it's own as we enter. In a way it reminds me of a Hogwarts when we first enter, but for fake nobles. It's really fascinating and has it's own history, enemy, rules, and much more to it.
I really love the creation of the servant education here. The Hidden Institute has a magical draw for me with the well created world and history here. Even the solid personality of Dizzy is wonderful. He's bold and knows the ways yet he's not fully conceded in demanding for his own needs. He has a respect for the help and what they do. Yet he wants to be more than the low Nobel position the Institute teaches them to be.
There is a mechanical essence present to the story. It's not really steampunk or overly mechanical. The term Brand has attached to the genre is spot on, Neo-Victorian. There's a Victorian era feel to the story yet a bit more. There's an automation to take care of the needs of Dizzy and Cliffy at the Institute and in their rooms. lol. The automation helps in speech, posture, and to needs of chair opening and such. There are a few additional mechanicals in the story as well. I really like the idea of how they 'know' information.
Cliffy is a street urchin through and through. He doesn't take well from the command of others. He is independent and use to having a bit of control over what he does. The story seems that he loses that, yet he has to learn to have greater control over himself. Cliffy is an inquisitive boy. He's not afraid to back down from anything, or anyone, and it finds him in mischievous situations. I really like Cliffy. He has a way about him. He's not a bad kid from the streets. He's independent yet has a heart and cares.
We get to attend classes with Cliffy when he starts. I found I really enjoyed what each teacher brings to the students. The intent of what the students are to learn, the deep down reason and moral they need to know. The way the teachers teach these major points is very interesting. They use different ways than we would think so the students learn by doing. It sticks with Cliffy and the reader greatly, along with keeping the action and events interesting and important for later. And how the other students interact with Cliffy, all makes it intriguing.
Brand does an amazing job of drawing a world and details of why things are as they are crafted to the way of living of the Royals and all around. I love this full circle creation and connection.
Cliffy is a street urchin through and through. He doesn't take well from the command of others. He is independent and use to having a bit of control over what he does. The story seems that he loses that, yet he has to have great control over himself. Cliffy is an inquisitive boy. He's not afraid to back down from anything, or anyone, and it finds him in mischievous situations. I really like Cliffy. He has a way about him. He's not a bad kid from the streets. He's independent yet has a heart and cares.
***FULL REVIEW****
Cliffy sees a man die, the man with him offers Cliffy a chance of a lifetime. Cliffy takes it but, being at The Hidden Institute, he's made some enemies of power. He's set to go to a ball in which being barely a freshman he would not be sent on this test. At that ball Cliffy learns the dangerous Silks are present. The Silks make it their life to find and expose those that graduate from The Hidden Institute and lie about who they are. Cliffy can't pass on the chance to learn who the Crone, and leader of the Silks, is. Slowly Cliffy uncovers secret groups in the Institute, one in particular that is hired to kill once they graduate.
The Malcolm Rutherford Holden Institute skates on the outskirts of the law as it's hidden from others. And they are criminals of a sense with falsifying information and histories of their students. The school has a huge mysterious feel of it's own as we enter. In a way it reminds me of a Hogwarts when we first enter, but for fake nobles. It's really fascinating and has it's own history, enemy, rules, and much more to it.
I really love the creation of the servant education here. The Hidden Institute has a magical draw for me with the well created world and history here. Even the solid personality of Dizzy is wonderful. He's bold and knows the ways yet he's not fully conceded in demanding for his own needs. He has a respect for the help and what they do. Yet he wants to be more than the low Nobel position the Institute teaches them to be.
There is a mechanical essence present to the story. It's not really steampunk or overly mechanical. The term Brand has attached to the genre is spot on, Neo-Victorian. There's a Victorian era feel to the story yet a bit more. There's an automation to take care of the needs of Dizzy and Cliffy at the Institute and in their rooms. lol. The automation helps in speech, posture, and to needs of chair opening and such. There are a few additional mechanicals in the story as well. I really like the idea of how they 'know' information.
Cliffy is a street urchin through and through. He doesn't take well from the command of others. He is independent and use to having a bit of control over what he does. The story seems that he loses that, yet he has to learn to have greater control over himself. Cliffy is an inquisitive boy. He's not afraid to back down from anything, or anyone, and it finds him in mischievous situations. I really like Cliffy. He has a way about him. He's not a bad kid from the streets. He's independent yet has a heart and cares.
We get to attend classes with Cliffy when he starts. I found I really enjoyed what each teacher brings to the students. The intent of what the students are to learn, the deep down reason and moral they need to know. The way the teachers teach these major points is very interesting. They use different ways than we would think so the students learn by doing. It sticks with Cliffy and the reader greatly, along with keeping the action and events interesting and important for later. And how the other students interact with Cliffy, all makes it intriguing.
Brand does an amazing job of drawing a world and details of why things are as they are crafted to the way of living of the Royals and all around. I love this full circle creation and connection.
darusha's review against another edition
3.0
For fans of steampunk or possibly Dickens, this is a great SF read. I was completely drawn in to the beginning and instantly intrigued by the Neo-Victorian world created here. However, the pacing and ultimate lack of fleshing out that world stopped this from being a four or five star book.
As a coming of age tale in a interesting world of intrigue and extreme class division, the story was great. The major flaw, for me, was that there wasn't enough of it. I wanted to know more -- a lot more -- about the world our hero Cliffy lives in. What is daily life like for the "commoners." Do they work? At what? And what's the deal with the nobility? How did they take power, and what are they doing with it? How did such an obvious gulf open between the social classes? And what exactly are these wars about that get mentioned but never explained?
I also found the pacing a bit off. The first half is very detailed, giving us a great view into Cliffy's day to day life. But it seems that in the second half, where things are getting really interesting, entire years disappear in the breaks between chapters.
If this were a draft of a novel, it would have me super excited to read the final version. As is, it's a good story that I wish had gone more places.
As a coming of age tale in a interesting world of intrigue and extreme class division, the story was great. The major flaw, for me, was that there wasn't enough of it. I wanted to know more -- a lot more -- about the world our hero Cliffy lives in. What is daily life like for the "commoners." Do they work? At what? And what's the deal with the nobility? How did they take power, and what are they doing with it? How did such an obvious gulf open between the social classes? And what exactly are these wars about that get mentioned but never explained?
I also found the pacing a bit off. The first half is very detailed, giving us a great view into Cliffy's day to day life. But it seems that in the second half, where things are getting really interesting, entire years disappear in the breaks between chapters.
If this were a draft of a novel, it would have me super excited to read the final version. As is, it's a good story that I wish had gone more places.
kateofmind's review against another edition
4.0
Brand Gamblin has another winner on his hands, and it may be even more fun than Tumbler, because this one has bear polo. Yes, exactly what it sounds like -- polo played on the backs of bears. The players are young gentlemen cheating their way to nobility in an extremely socially stratified future America in which even the servants of the aristocracy must be nobly born. That's hardly fair, is it? Enter THE HIDDEN INSTITUTE, a school where the children of the well-off bourgeois (and a few guttersnipes like our hero, Cliffy) can learn to pass as noble and, if they're willing to dare being executed if exposed, try to make their way in the upper classes.
As Cliffy learns to ape a gentleman, he runs afoul of two conspiracies, the Legion and what fans of the podcast novel version of THE HIDDEN INSTITUTE have nicknamed the "Silk Goon Squad," young ladies who've made a bear-polo caliber sport of exposing parvenus.
There is danger, charm, acutely observed sociology, and a lesson in the real value of an education, all in a few hundred pages. It's a great little read.
I would really give this five stars but for the typos in the dead tree edition (went into more detail on that in my full review at Kate of Mind. Wish GoodReads let me give a half a star, or three quarters, because taking a whole star off seems harsh but there it is.
As Cliffy learns to ape a gentleman, he runs afoul of two conspiracies, the Legion and what fans of the podcast novel version of THE HIDDEN INSTITUTE have nicknamed the "Silk Goon Squad," young ladies who've made a bear-polo caliber sport of exposing parvenus.
There is danger, charm, acutely observed sociology, and a lesson in the real value of an education, all in a few hundred pages. It's a great little read.
I would really give this five stars but for the typos in the dead tree edition (went into more detail on that in my full review at Kate of Mind. Wish GoodReads let me give a half a star, or three quarters, because taking a whole star off seems harsh but there it is.
nomad_scry's review
3.0
Another good one from Gamblin. I have a feeling that, like Tumbler, I will like it even more after it's settled into me for a while.
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