A review by aleffert
The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt

2.0

Trashy, steampunk fantasy kitchen-sink. This would make a pretty decent thing to read at the beach and that is no small accomplishment, but overall it kind of annoyed me. There were some rather clumsy bits of writing, awkward exposition, things appearing when they were convenient and disappearing when they weren't, the main characters were twinked out general issue orphans who weren't particularly interesting and were drafted by assorted ancient powers and deus ex machinae (excuse me, the "Hexmachina!") to save the world. The villains are properly heart eating villainous. Also, it went on for a long time without the plot really advancing. This was the sort of book that needed serious editing. It turns out that unless you're really good, because it would be cool shouldn't be the only reason to put something in a book.

That said, there were some interesting bits and a good amount of cool stuff that worked. I think this was his first or second book and I would consider reading something else by him, if I heard good things.