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A review by mackle13
The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan
2.0
This review is an example of why I should review things right away because, frankly, I forget a lot about this rather forgettable book already...
Anyway -
It's set in an AU universe where the Luddite rebellion was successful, and now Britain is split into two parts, one that embraces technology and one that doesn't, but there's also the Patent Office who seems to be worldwide, and their job is to limit "disruptive" technology, so, like, if technology is going to put people out of work, they limit the impact of that technology - without ever really addressing the rise and fall of technology and how tech which puts some people out of jobs also creates new jobs.
But, anyway.
Elizabeth poses as her non-existent twin-brother to work as an Intelligence Officer, after she is forced to flee from the part of the world where people can be slaves. (I don't remember the names, but the one part where London is is more progressive with tech but less with individual freedoms, and it's colorful and bohemian, and the other part is all repressed and grey clothed, but has more personal freedoms like not being a slave... )
She's hired to find a missing aristocrat, who also fled from the Empire place, and is forced to risk her personal safety by going to London to find him.
She gets mixed up in some political turmoil which never seems fully explored - the whole "Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire" doesn't even begin to get touched on in this book - and she becomes a person of interest to the Patent Office, who can, like, black bag and torture people.
But one of the Patent Officers inexplicably likes her and helps her, so it's ok...
Ugh.
Elizabeth, for all the derring-do of the book, doesn't seem to have much agency a lot of the time, and has to rely on other people to save her and help her get out of situations she seems to get herself into.
Also, I wouldn't, personally, call this book particularly steampunk. There's some tech and gadgets, but it's more background dressing than anything else. It's actually more focused on alchemy, and the creation of the elixir of life, and there's a lot of weirdly random hokum mixed in with the technological stuff.
Overall, as I said, a forgettable story that I will not be continuing with.
***
Oh, one last thing - there is a circus, at one point, but based on the title of the book I expected there to be a lot more circus type stuff than there was.
Anyway -
It's set in an AU universe where the Luddite rebellion was successful, and now Britain is split into two parts, one that embraces technology and one that doesn't, but there's also the Patent Office who seems to be worldwide, and their job is to limit "disruptive" technology, so, like, if technology is going to put people out of work, they limit the impact of that technology - without ever really addressing the rise and fall of technology and how tech which puts some people out of jobs also creates new jobs.
But, anyway.
Elizabeth poses as her non-existent twin-brother to work as an Intelligence Officer, after she is forced to flee from the part of the world where people can be slaves. (I don't remember the names, but the one part where London is is more progressive with tech but less with individual freedoms, and it's colorful and bohemian, and the other part is all repressed and grey clothed, but has more personal freedoms like not being a slave... )
She's hired to find a missing aristocrat, who also fled from the Empire place, and is forced to risk her personal safety by going to London to find him.
She gets mixed up in some political turmoil which never seems fully explored - the whole "Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire" doesn't even begin to get touched on in this book - and she becomes a person of interest to the Patent Office, who can, like, black bag and torture people.
But one of the Patent Officers inexplicably likes her and helps her, so it's ok...
Ugh.
Elizabeth, for all the derring-do of the book, doesn't seem to have much agency a lot of the time, and has to rely on other people to save her and help her get out of situations she seems to get herself into.
Also, I wouldn't, personally, call this book particularly steampunk. There's some tech and gadgets, but it's more background dressing than anything else. It's actually more focused on alchemy, and the creation of the elixir of life, and there's a lot of weirdly random hokum mixed in with the technological stuff.
Overall, as I said, a forgettable story that I will not be continuing with.
***
Oh, one last thing - there is a circus, at one point, but based on the title of the book I expected there to be a lot more circus type stuff than there was.