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ineffablebob's review
2.0
This book is a strange one. It's alternate history, set in the time of the Civil War. And it's also steampunk, with big airships and walking mecha-guns. And it's also fantasy with dragons and undead soldiers animated by alchemy.
That's a whole lot going on, and it makes the world-building hard to swallow. Usually my favorite part of the alternate history genre is seeing how the author uses a premise to reshape events, but in this case there's too many different changes. Any one of the big technology or magic innovations would be a major change to historical events all by itself. Put them all together and it reads more like a classic fantasy novel than alternate history, aside from the names.
Having said that, I still thought Lincoln's Wizard was a good start to a story. The characters are fairly interesting, particularly the main protagonist Braxton Wright. There's lots of action and the plot moves along with little downtime. Hickman and Willis have each written a lot of fantasy and know how to craft the story. But the reason I say "start to a story" is that this book is clearly an introduction to a longer series, probably at least a trilogy. And not one that the authors are in any rush to publish, given that it's been four years and the second book isn't out yet.
I can't recommend Lincoln's Wizard as alternate history, but as a fantasy story that happens to use some familiar names and places from American history, it's not bad. Still, I wouldn't bother with it until the authors manage to publish the rest of the story, whenever that ends up happening.
That's a whole lot going on, and it makes the world-building hard to swallow. Usually my favorite part of the alternate history genre is seeing how the author uses a premise to reshape events, but in this case there's too many different changes. Any one of the big technology or magic innovations would be a major change to historical events all by itself. Put them all together and it reads more like a classic fantasy novel than alternate history, aside from the names.
Having said that, I still thought Lincoln's Wizard was a good start to a story. The characters are fairly interesting, particularly the main protagonist Braxton Wright. There's lots of action and the plot moves along with little downtime. Hickman and Willis have each written a lot of fantasy and know how to craft the story. But the reason I say "start to a story" is that this book is clearly an introduction to a longer series, probably at least a trilogy. And not one that the authors are in any rush to publish, given that it's been four years and the second book isn't out yet.
I can't recommend Lincoln's Wizard as alternate history, but as a fantasy story that happens to use some familiar names and places from American history, it's not bad. Still, I wouldn't bother with it until the authors manage to publish the rest of the story, whenever that ends up happening.
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