Ubalblog

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[  Currently: Watching My son sleep ]
The Court of the Air is a brings us a very old plot with slightly new trappings. Two orphans are key to protecting the world from its destruction. They are hunted by the forces of evil who want to stop them. They are also aided by small groups of friends, some of whom pay the ultimate price.

The new trappings of this story, a blend of steampunk and fantasy set in a world not our own, but heavily based on our own. The Jackles are clearly the British, with a society reminiscent of the Victorians. The Commonshare is also reminisacent of the Soviet Union. There are also an entire species of machines, not to mention walking, talking crustaceans. Woven into that is the use of magic by some and an entire group of people who have been twisted by coming into contact with something called the feymist, granting them special powers.

As a read, this book is brilliant at times, and at others a grind to get through. Author Hunt has bought into the current trend of gritty fantasy trend. Bad things happen to innocent people in this book, and Hunt lets you see it. An extrodinary number of those forementioned nice people die trying to help the two orphans save the world. At one point I began to ask myself if they all wore red shirts. And the collateral damage in this book is horrifying.

At the core of this book is Hunt’s philosophy of a yin and a yang. One orphan is the offensive weapon of the forces of good, while the male is the defensive weapon. And while that is lovely idea, it gets a little clumsy at times. At other points it is completely transparent what the author is doing. If Hunt had chosen to edit this work a bit more, refining his ideas, it would have turned out better. As it stands, I have read better steampunk stories involving orphans before.

Take it or leave it.