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A review by mcummings
Steamside Chronicles by Ciar Cullen
3.0
This was a book that Amazon.com recommended to me, and since it seemed like it was going to be steampunk and time travel (and it was a little shorter than most) I was in.
There are however, some definite problems with the book. I was initially confused by the story. Emily Fenwick, who is a cop in 2010, finds herself pulled into 1890's New York. But there are two versions of the 1890's - Normal and Steamside. She meets up with a cast of characters there, led by Jack Pettigrew and his sister Annalise Pettigrew. While I often enjoy first person point of view, it kepts switching back and forth between Emily (Fen) and Jack (The Man) in a way that I had trouble tracking. And the names that they used to refer to each other also kept changing, which again caused me problems. And while I enjoy a good romance, the main characters relationship was very teen angsty, yet explicit, so I wouldn't quantify it as young adult.
But I really enjoyed the actual story. Are the characters time traveling, or are they in a limbo world or maybe even dead? Their ancestors become involved, as well as Howard Carter! So now we have added Egyptology to the steampunk and time travel - which I totally love. And I never felt like the characters were doing anything stupid - they were trying to figure out how to get back home - which helped me feel how it would be to live in their shoes.
There are however, some definite problems with the book. I was initially confused by the story. Emily Fenwick, who is a cop in 2010, finds herself pulled into 1890's New York. But there are two versions of the 1890's - Normal and Steamside. She meets up with a cast of characters there, led by Jack Pettigrew and his sister Annalise Pettigrew. While I often enjoy first person point of view, it kepts switching back and forth between Emily (Fen) and Jack (The Man) in a way that I had trouble tracking. And the names that they used to refer to each other also kept changing, which again caused me problems. And while I enjoy a good romance, the main characters relationship was very teen angsty, yet explicit, so I wouldn't quantify it as young adult.
But I really enjoyed the actual story. Are the characters time traveling, or are they in a limbo world or maybe even dead? Their ancestors become involved, as well as Howard Carter! So now we have added Egyptology to the steampunk and time travel - which I totally love. And I never felt like the characters were doing anything stupid - they were trying to figure out how to get back home - which helped me feel how it would be to live in their shoes.