Scan barcode
A review by kblincoln
Breath of Earth by Beth Cato
5.0
Dirigibles, alternate-San Francisco, giant hidden geomantic fantastics, and a lovely little romance between an engineer and a girl who is realizing the secret power she's kept hidden all this time is going to matter as San francisco is attacked and all the people she's ever known are torn away.
Ingrid has grown up with her Japanese "uncle" in a house of geomancers- men who can siphon energy from the earth and expell it into stones that act like batteries. There are difficult relations in this alternate San Francisco-- the Japanese and the U.S. have allied and Chinese in the U.S. are suffering as a result. This complicated set of racial relations is a solid basis for the story that I think sets it apart from your usual steampunkery adventure.
Ingrid and her new allies survive the fall of San Francisco, only to go after the culprits who initiated it. It's pretty much non-stop action. The scene that is sticking with me is Ingrid and her love interest, Cy, surviving a mad stampede of cattle. Very gory, quite startling.
I'll definitely be following Ingrid into her next adventure-- which I hear is in Portland! (it's like this book was made for me.)
Ingrid has grown up with her Japanese "uncle" in a house of geomancers- men who can siphon energy from the earth and expell it into stones that act like batteries. There are difficult relations in this alternate San Francisco-- the Japanese and the U.S. have allied and Chinese in the U.S. are suffering as a result. This complicated set of racial relations is a solid basis for the story that I think sets it apart from your usual steampunkery adventure.
Ingrid and her new allies survive the fall of San Francisco, only to go after the culprits who initiated it. It's pretty much non-stop action. The scene that is sticking with me is Ingrid and her love interest, Cy, surviving a mad stampede of cattle. Very gory, quite startling.
I'll definitely be following Ingrid into her next adventure-- which I hear is in Portland! (it's like this book was made for me.)