Book Review: Whyborne and Griffin series
This is currently a four five book series with a smaller side novella but I'm reviewing them as one singular chunk so there may be mild spoilers. Also I haven't read the fifth one!
Widdershins, Eidolon, Threshold, Stormhaven, Necropolis
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
This series is four novels and a one-shot (Eidolon) and I believe there will likely be more. Which is great, because I really liked these stories and these characters. It’s Victorian-era (the VERY end of the era) but not steampunk and set in America and not England, and the genre of the books are more supernatural/mysteries. Overall I’d give the series a solid 4 stars, with some books in it rating higher and some lower. The weakest book is the second, Threshold, which just...has a shaky idea/foundation from the start and so just can’t be very strong no matter how well it’s written. It’s like...strange shrimp aliens that are also Native American legends, who want to take brains and steal intellect but also take smarter people up to their alien shrimp planet or maybe show them a whole new wooooorld universe? I DON’T EVEN KNOW. It wasn’t very well explained and it also wasn’t very well wrapped up, like...why were these things only contained to the town of Threshold? They wanted COAL? But also to put people’s brains in jars? But offered to take Whyborne on a magical mystery tour of space and time? Were there more shrimp-aliens elsewhere, or where they the last of their kind? If there are more, will they all come to Earth? When did they show up, and why Earth? Just because of coal? Or brains? Were they all destroyed in the end? And howwww? Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Also they were called yayhos which just made me think ho-yay. Also apparently yayho is a slang for cocaine because I looked it up to see if shrimp-aliens were based on anything real at all, which it doesn’t seem to be. But this was just one of the books and frankly all the others are much much better.
So basically, yes, Victorian-era supernatural mysteries in east coast America. The main character, Whyborne (whose name is Percival but is essentially never called that) is a scholar and researcher at a museum, and his best friend is a female researcher/archeologist, and his lover is an ex-Pinkerton private detective. So pairing all these careers up makes for a lot of opportunities to get mixed up in strange supernatural/occult/ancient magic and mysteries and things like that. All of which are pretty interesting, and there is actually some fairly creepy things that happen, and Whyborne is also slowly learning small bits of magic thanks to an arcane book he picks up in the first story. It reminds me a bit of Avatar (Airbender, not blue cat people) actually, since in each book he learns a new spell related to an element, and that element is kind of a ‘theme’ for the story, in terms of setting or the supernatural thing they deal with. First book is fire, second is wind, third is water, fourth is earth. It’s maybe a bit of a cliche set-up, but the books pull it off fairly nicely and without too much heavy-handedness, especially since Whyborne doesn’t just stop using old spells when he learns new ones--he uses the fire spell a lot, through all the books.
Griffin being a Pinkerton was pretty cool, that’s not something that I see written about a lot and it’s generally a pretty interesting topic, especially round about the era it was established (since the Pinkerton Agency still exists). Especially at the time these stories are set, the Pinkerton agency was HUGE--so big that Ohio even outlawed them, to prevent them possibly being hired as a private militia because there were more Pinkertons than US military. Though Griffin is no longer part of the agency, it’s still an interesting character background. Also the reason he ‘left’ is consistently relevant. Just the fact that this is a Victorian-era but set in the US (albeit in a fictional town) is a refreshing idea for a historical story, especially as most of it takes place in a city and not as a Western (which is what most things set in this period in America would be).
I really liked the third and fourth ones the best, I think the series really hit its stride at the third, especially with the little twist of the evil supernatural beast not wanting to be summoned after all, and teaming up with Whyborne to stop that from happening. The dreams were a nice eerie buildup throughout the book, and the climactic scene at the asylum was just really cool. There were a lot of subplots happening but they were all dealt with pretty deftly and relevantly--the dweller plot, Griffin’s family and Ruth, Griffin’s past and relationship to Zeiler, things tying back to the first book and the Brotherhood--it was just very well-plotted and thought out, and gave the impression that this series has been really thoroughly planned. Which is really nice. As it goes on, things get revealed rather than new stuff just kind of plopping down to force intrigue--it feels like the story is getting deeper instead of just broader, which can sometimes happen with long series. Everything (except maybe the shrimp aliens) seems to be related in some way, building on each other and not just occurring separately and randomly.
One of the really nice things about this series is the treatment of women. FIrst of all, Christine is pretty awesome, and she’s generally not booted out of the action; she’s integral to every book and has a very nice relationship with Whyborne and eventually Griffin as well. While other characters in the series disrespect her (refusing to call her ‘doctor’, for instance, insisting that she ought to be settling down with a husband, disbelieving that she leads archeological expeditions, etc.) this is because of the time the book is set (very late 1800s, nearly 1900s), and Whyborne himself is very respectful of her, and pretty much all women. Since pretty much the whole series is from his POV (with the exception of Eidolon) this means that there’s a very positive view/treatment of women in general. But every female character is also written like a person, not just a plot point. There are no ‘evil’ women, even the ones who pop up in roles that would generally force them into being antagonistic or impeding forces--such as the girl Griffith’s parents drag with them from Kansas in hopes of getting her engaged to him. While Whyborne is uncomfortable and shaken by her presence, he never once villifies her or even gets angry at her even in his mind. He understands that the situation isn’t her fault, and he actually is very kind and thoughtful in his interactions with her, and Ruth herself is written as a young woman who hasn’t had many opportunities and is far more interested in seeing more of the world outside a small farm town than she’s interested in getting married, especially by the end of the book. While not a major character, she’s clearly a person, not just an obstacle written in to create drama. And the entire situation doesn’t work as an excuse for a big dramatic relationship blow up; it works on a lot of levels to reveal more about Griffin’s childhood and past, his family, also how Whyborne and Griffin relate to each other. It doesn’t just create BIG DRAMA ANGST, but the situation works as something that brings their individual fears and worries to the surface and makes them deal with it separate from Ruth herself. Even the girl from the asylum, who has basically been made insane by the supernatural thing present in the book, is mentioned at the end to be doing work about exposing the terrible conditions inside asylums, basically doing things and having her own agency. There’s also Whyborne’s mother, who has some very vague sickness that keeps her as a shut-in, but she’s the only decent family member Whyborne has got and she’s also very educated and mentally and intellectually independent, if not physically so. Even when a woman is a villain (and it happens, but it’s a spoiler so I won’t say which book or who) she’s given reasonable motives and fleshed out and interesting and isn’t just a cackling lump of evil.
You get so entwined with Whyborne’s way of thinking about other people and how he doesn’t think too highly of himself much outside of his scholarly abilities (of which he’s fairly confident) and how he sees Griffin, that when Griffin’s own insecurities in relation to their differences and how Whyborne comes across to him are revealed, it makes nice little moments of really exploring how people see themselves and each other differently. Whyborne is just impressed by everything Griffith does and values him based on his confidence and strength and loyalty, things that he doesn’t see himself as having. So the reader basically sees Griffin like this as well, even when his anxiety attacks, his past, his family and upbringing all become a bigger part of his character. His thoughts are explored more in Eidolon, which is actually from his POV, but it also comes up in the main storylines as well--that Griffin is from a farm family and isn’t particularly well-educated, and so in Whyborne he sees intelligence and sophistication and class, things that he can never gain. So while Griffin sees himself as far below Whyborne’s good breeding and intellect, Whyborne sees Griffin as far more worldly and experienced and charismatic. Both of them believe they’ve basically caught someone out of their league, and with all the societal pressure around them to find women to marry and not reveal themselves, all their anxieties are pretty well founded. But they do get around to talking about these things, so it’s not always big immature drama misunderstandings.
Anyway, I definitely recommend this series butttt perhaps skip the second (Threshold).
Widdershins, Eidolon, Threshold, Stormhaven, Necropolis
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
This series is four novels and a one-shot (Eidolon) and I believe there will likely be more. Which is great, because I really liked these stories and these characters. It’s Victorian-era (the VERY end of the era) but not steampunk and set in America and not England, and the genre of the books are more supernatural/mysteries. Overall I’d give the series a solid 4 stars, with some books in it rating higher and some lower. The weakest book is the second, Threshold, which just...has a shaky idea/foundation from the start and so just can’t be very strong no matter how well it’s written. It’s like...strange shrimp aliens that are also Native American legends, who want to take brains and steal intellect but also take smarter people up to their alien shrimp planet or maybe show them a whole new wooooorld universe? I DON’T EVEN KNOW. It wasn’t very well explained and it also wasn’t very well wrapped up, like...why were these things only contained to the town of Threshold? They wanted COAL? But also to put people’s brains in jars? But offered to take Whyborne on a magical mystery tour of space and time? Were there more shrimp-aliens elsewhere, or where they the last of their kind? If there are more, will they all come to Earth? When did they show up, and why Earth? Just because of coal? Or brains? Were they all destroyed in the end? And howwww? Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Also they were called yayhos which just made me think ho-yay. Also apparently yayho is a slang for cocaine because I looked it up to see if shrimp-aliens were based on anything real at all, which it doesn’t seem to be. But this was just one of the books and frankly all the others are much much better.
So basically, yes, Victorian-era supernatural mysteries in east coast America. The main character, Whyborne (whose name is Percival but is essentially never called that) is a scholar and researcher at a museum, and his best friend is a female researcher/archeologist, and his lover is an ex-Pinkerton private detective. So pairing all these careers up makes for a lot of opportunities to get mixed up in strange supernatural/occult/ancient magic and mysteries and things like that. All of which are pretty interesting, and there is actually some fairly creepy things that happen, and Whyborne is also slowly learning small bits of magic thanks to an arcane book he picks up in the first story. It reminds me a bit of Avatar (Airbender, not blue cat people) actually, since in each book he learns a new spell related to an element, and that element is kind of a ‘theme’ for the story, in terms of setting or the supernatural thing they deal with. First book is fire, second is wind, third is water, fourth is earth. It’s maybe a bit of a cliche set-up, but the books pull it off fairly nicely and without too much heavy-handedness, especially since Whyborne doesn’t just stop using old spells when he learns new ones--he uses the fire spell a lot, through all the books.
Griffin being a Pinkerton was pretty cool, that’s not something that I see written about a lot and it’s generally a pretty interesting topic, especially round about the era it was established (since the Pinkerton Agency still exists). Especially at the time these stories are set, the Pinkerton agency was HUGE--so big that Ohio even outlawed them, to prevent them possibly being hired as a private militia because there were more Pinkertons than US military. Though Griffin is no longer part of the agency, it’s still an interesting character background. Also the reason he ‘left’ is consistently relevant. Just the fact that this is a Victorian-era but set in the US (albeit in a fictional town) is a refreshing idea for a historical story, especially as most of it takes place in a city and not as a Western (which is what most things set in this period in America would be).
I really liked the third and fourth ones the best, I think the series really hit its stride at the third, especially with the little twist of the evil supernatural beast not wanting to be summoned after all, and teaming up with Whyborne to stop that from happening. The dreams were a nice eerie buildup throughout the book, and the climactic scene at the asylum was just really cool. There were a lot of subplots happening but they were all dealt with pretty deftly and relevantly--the dweller plot, Griffin’s family and Ruth, Griffin’s past and relationship to Zeiler, things tying back to the first book and the Brotherhood--it was just very well-plotted and thought out, and gave the impression that this series has been really thoroughly planned. Which is really nice. As it goes on, things get revealed rather than new stuff just kind of plopping down to force intrigue--it feels like the story is getting deeper instead of just broader, which can sometimes happen with long series. Everything (except maybe the shrimp aliens) seems to be related in some way, building on each other and not just occurring separately and randomly.
One of the really nice things about this series is the treatment of women. FIrst of all, Christine is pretty awesome, and she’s generally not booted out of the action; she’s integral to every book and has a very nice relationship with Whyborne and eventually Griffin as well. While other characters in the series disrespect her (refusing to call her ‘doctor’, for instance, insisting that she ought to be settling down with a husband, disbelieving that she leads archeological expeditions, etc.) this is because of the time the book is set (very late 1800s, nearly 1900s), and Whyborne himself is very respectful of her, and pretty much all women. Since pretty much the whole series is from his POV (with the exception of Eidolon) this means that there’s a very positive view/treatment of women in general. But every female character is also written like a person, not just a plot point. There are no ‘evil’ women, even the ones who pop up in roles that would generally force them into being antagonistic or impeding forces--such as the girl Griffith’s parents drag with them from Kansas in hopes of getting her engaged to him. While Whyborne is uncomfortable and shaken by her presence, he never once villifies her or even gets angry at her even in his mind. He understands that the situation isn’t her fault, and he actually is very kind and thoughtful in his interactions with her, and Ruth herself is written as a young woman who hasn’t had many opportunities and is far more interested in seeing more of the world outside a small farm town than she’s interested in getting married, especially by the end of the book. While not a major character, she’s clearly a person, not just an obstacle written in to create drama. And the entire situation doesn’t work as an excuse for a big dramatic relationship blow up; it works on a lot of levels to reveal more about Griffin’s childhood and past, his family, also how Whyborne and Griffin relate to each other. It doesn’t just create BIG DRAMA ANGST, but the situation works as something that brings their individual fears and worries to the surface and makes them deal with it separate from Ruth herself. Even the girl from the asylum, who has basically been made insane by the supernatural thing present in the book, is mentioned at the end to be doing work about exposing the terrible conditions inside asylums, basically doing things and having her own agency. There’s also Whyborne’s mother, who has some very vague sickness that keeps her as a shut-in, but she’s the only decent family member Whyborne has got and she’s also very educated and mentally and intellectually independent, if not physically so. Even when a woman is a villain (and it happens, but it’s a spoiler so I won’t say which book or who) she’s given reasonable motives and fleshed out and interesting and isn’t just a cackling lump of evil.
You get so entwined with Whyborne’s way of thinking about other people and how he doesn’t think too highly of himself much outside of his scholarly abilities (of which he’s fairly confident) and how he sees Griffin, that when Griffin’s own insecurities in relation to their differences and how Whyborne comes across to him are revealed, it makes nice little moments of really exploring how people see themselves and each other differently. Whyborne is just impressed by everything Griffith does and values him based on his confidence and strength and loyalty, things that he doesn’t see himself as having. So the reader basically sees Griffin like this as well, even when his anxiety attacks, his past, his family and upbringing all become a bigger part of his character. His thoughts are explored more in Eidolon, which is actually from his POV, but it also comes up in the main storylines as well--that Griffin is from a farm family and isn’t particularly well-educated, and so in Whyborne he sees intelligence and sophistication and class, things that he can never gain. So while Griffin sees himself as far below Whyborne’s good breeding and intellect, Whyborne sees Griffin as far more worldly and experienced and charismatic. Both of them believe they’ve basically caught someone out of their league, and with all the societal pressure around them to find women to marry and not reveal themselves, all their anxieties are pretty well founded. But they do get around to talking about these things, so it’s not always big immature drama misunderstandings.
Anyway, I definitely recommend this series butttt perhaps skip the second (Threshold).