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A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel
– Book I
Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
Harper Voyager (HarperCollins)
5 May 2011/ ISBN 0062049763
Fantasy/Steampunk / London, England (parallel dimension) /1890s
Amazon
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
Ministry of Peculiar Circumstances agent Wellington Books thinks
he has met his match in the torture chambers of the enemy, but an
agent he has not seen before rescues him just in time. Eliza D Braun
is a dashing field agent from New Zealand on one of her daredevil
missions, but her rumbustious style does not sit well with her boss
Dr. Sound. Instead of being rewarded she finds herself demoted to
helping the archivist, who turns out to be Wellington. While filing
reports Eliza stumbles upon the case that her former partner was
working for when he went mad and was sent to Bedlam. Can she fare
better when matched with Wellington, and who exactly are they now
up against?
I love steampunk; just can’t seem to get enough of it. When
I heard about this new series I just had to read it. All the elements
you expect from this type of novel are here, from ingenious weapons
to bowler hats, reinforced corsets, sinister organizations intent
on world domination, hair’s breadth escapes and parasols.
It even hits the ground running as Eliza sweeps in for her daring
rescue, but then it stalls. Although this is not a romance much
is made of the two protagonists being thrown together and lacking
much in common as they snip at each other. This makes up much of
the action until the story picks up steam again (pardon the pun)
and we are plunged into the enemy’s territory on a mission.
In short, this is quite a long book with not enough in it, and nothing
at all to mark it out as being distinctive in any way. There is
no actual set-up of a world unique to this book, the reader merely
being expected to be au fait with the style and its elements. But
there is much potential here for a series of exciting adventure
stories as the intrepid pair sally forth on assignments. I will
be looking out for the next book in the series which I hope will
show signs of being distinctive, and less inclined to tread water
for too many chapters. |
