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A review by annmarie_in_november
The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan
4.0
4 stars. Audio book read by Gemma Whelan.
Outstanding - and a surprise. I'd almost given up on steampunk - too many run-ins with infuriating alpha males and female protagonists being managed/coerced/sexually manipulated by them. Despite the 1,000+ reviews for this on Audible I avoided it for months. So glad I gave it a try. I loved it from the first scene, where we meet our protagonist Elizabeth Barnabus disguised as her alter ego - her 'brother' - a deception which allows her to live alone as an unmarried woman on a house boat (otherwise frowned upon) and earn a living as a private detective (otherwise impossible).
Great Britain is split into the Kingdom of Southern England and Wales, multicultural, colourful and socially free but ruled by the whims of aristocrats, and the Anglo-Scottish Republic, more staid and rigid, harsher on women's rights, but ruled by democracy. Elizabeth, born into a circus in the Kingdom, fled to the Republic when her father's debts were sold to a duke who claimed Elizabeth as his rightful payment.
The novel shows us all the small details that comprise her dual existence, cleverly arranged so that she can flip between her male and female personas without discovery (my favourite aspect), while also mapping out the expansive history of this alternate universe where celebration of the Regency-era Luddites has replaced Christmas, and a distinct anti-technology movement is managed by the global Patent Office, which monitors unseemly advances in the sciences.
To earn the money to save her boat, which is her home, her office and the base of her entire double life, Elizabeth chases a mysterious device across the border between Kingdom and Republic, travels with a circus, faces agents of the Patent Office and confronts the long-standing warrant for her arrest. I'm amazed at the amount of information, action and changes of scenery the novel packed in, while still, in every chapter, holding true to Elizabeth's character, to her core intelligence and well-reasoned planning, her understandable fear and the admirable self-restraint she shows under pressure.
Will definitely be listening to book 2!
Outstanding - and a surprise. I'd almost given up on steampunk - too many run-ins with infuriating alpha males and female protagonists being managed/coerced/sexually manipulated by them. Despite the 1,000+ reviews for this on Audible I avoided it for months. So glad I gave it a try. I loved it from the first scene, where we meet our protagonist Elizabeth Barnabus disguised as her alter ego - her 'brother' - a deception which allows her to live alone as an unmarried woman on a house boat (otherwise frowned upon) and earn a living as a private detective (otherwise impossible).
Great Britain is split into the Kingdom of Southern England and Wales, multicultural, colourful and socially free but ruled by the whims of aristocrats, and the Anglo-Scottish Republic, more staid and rigid, harsher on women's rights, but ruled by democracy. Elizabeth, born into a circus in the Kingdom, fled to the Republic when her father's debts were sold to a duke who claimed Elizabeth as his rightful payment.
The novel shows us all the small details that comprise her dual existence, cleverly arranged so that she can flip between her male and female personas without discovery (my favourite aspect), while also mapping out the expansive history of this alternate universe where celebration of the Regency-era Luddites has replaced Christmas, and a distinct anti-technology movement is managed by the global Patent Office, which monitors unseemly advances in the sciences.
To earn the money to save her boat, which is her home, her office and the base of her entire double life, Elizabeth chases a mysterious device across the border between Kingdom and Republic, travels with a circus, faces agents of the Patent Office and confronts the long-standing warrant for her arrest. I'm amazed at the amount of information, action and changes of scenery the novel packed in, while still, in every chapter, holding true to Elizabeth's character, to her core intelligence and well-reasoned planning, her understandable fear and the admirable self-restraint she shows under pressure.
Will definitely be listening to book 2!