Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
Series: The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences
Publisher: Eos, 2011
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Steampunk/gaslamp
Rating: 4 pints of blood
I like the muted, almost sepia tones, but the setup of the models confuses me a bit. The book features Wellington and Eliza as equal protagonists, but the book cover focuses so much on the female model it gives the impression this is her story (and oh yeah, he's kind of in it, too). There are a lot of delightful Victorian and steampunk-type details here, but they kind of get overshadowed by all the skin she's displaying. It's not that I don't appreciate a pretty, scantily clady lady (I totally do), but it seems out of place enough here to be jarring. Is she hanging out here in her underpants? Why? Just... why?
I know steampunk has risen in popularity in recent years until it's positively mainstream, but you know what? I don't care. I like it. In fact, if you do enough poking around the internet, there maaaay be photographic evidence of a certain blogger out in public dressed in steampunk gear. Phoenix Rising promised me a story somewhere between urban fantasy and steampunk with a bookish hero and an action girl heroine, and there's no part of that that doesn't appeal to me.
After her most recent mission ended a little more... explosively than the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences would have liked, Agent Eliza Braun finds herself reassigned to the Archives, where the very proper Wellington Brooks spends his days filing the cases and artifacts handed in by other agents. As someone who craves the adventure of field missions, Eliza finds the quiet and fussy archives to be the worst punishment anyone could have conjured for her.
Wellington Books might be the smartest agent in the Ministry, but it seems unlikely anyone would ever find that out. As the archivist --not a librarian, thank you very much-- he's more than delighted to be surrounded by books and gadgets and given free reign to bury himself in the lonely section of the ministry other agents only visit under duress. To have the brash, loud Eliza assigned to him makes him wonder who he could possibly have offended.
Somewhere amidst all their filing, Books and Braun stumble on an old unsolved case, one where people disappear and are found days later missing all their blood, bones, or muscle. Eliza can't leave this one unsolved, and soon she and Books find themselves deep in a dark world of politics and assassins, each with a partner they're not sure they can trust and without Ministry backup. To get out of this alive, they'll need both wits and guns.
So what kind of book is this? Well, our charmingly nerdy hero is named Books and our gunhappy heroine is named Braun. If you're amused by that, you'll probably enjoy Phoenix Rising. If you just rolled your eyes, you should probably click away from this review right now. I had a great time. It hit all the right buttons for me, and I was very annoyed to discover that someone had the gall to have book 2 checked out of the library already, forcing me to wait before I can get my hands on it.
The book runs at a good clip, and is one part buddy cop movie, one part urban fantasy, with generous dollops of steampunk stirred in. There's snarky banter and detective work and Victorian manners and clockwork gadgets and a hint of potential romance and really big guns. There's a lot going on here, and while some might find it a little crowded, it's just a big collection of fun. I really enjoyed both Books and Braun, who grew into increasingly complex characters as the story rolled on and certain revelations about hidden personality traits and their histories were revealed, both to the reader and each other.
The short version? Well, I immediately went looking for volume two. What more needs to be said?
Phoenix Rising is available in mass market paperback
or as an e-book
.
Publisher: Eos, 2011
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Steampunk/gaslamp
Rating: 4 pints of blood
I like the muted, almost sepia tones, but the setup of the models confuses me a bit. The book features Wellington and Eliza as equal protagonists, but the book cover focuses so much on the female model it gives the impression this is her story (and oh yeah, he's kind of in it, too). There are a lot of delightful Victorian and steampunk-type details here, but they kind of get overshadowed by all the skin she's displaying. It's not that I don't appreciate a pretty, scantily clady lady (I totally do), but it seems out of place enough here to be jarring. Is she hanging out here in her underpants? Why? Just... why?
I know steampunk has risen in popularity in recent years until it's positively mainstream, but you know what? I don't care. I like it. In fact, if you do enough poking around the internet, there maaaay be photographic evidence of a certain blogger out in public dressed in steampunk gear. Phoenix Rising promised me a story somewhere between urban fantasy and steampunk with a bookish hero and an action girl heroine, and there's no part of that that doesn't appeal to me.
After her most recent mission ended a little more... explosively than the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences would have liked, Agent Eliza Braun finds herself reassigned to the Archives, where the very proper Wellington Brooks spends his days filing the cases and artifacts handed in by other agents. As someone who craves the adventure of field missions, Eliza finds the quiet and fussy archives to be the worst punishment anyone could have conjured for her.
Wellington Books might be the smartest agent in the Ministry, but it seems unlikely anyone would ever find that out. As the archivist --not a librarian, thank you very much-- he's more than delighted to be surrounded by books and gadgets and given free reign to bury himself in the lonely section of the ministry other agents only visit under duress. To have the brash, loud Eliza assigned to him makes him wonder who he could possibly have offended.
Somewhere amidst all their filing, Books and Braun stumble on an old unsolved case, one where people disappear and are found days later missing all their blood, bones, or muscle. Eliza can't leave this one unsolved, and soon she and Books find themselves deep in a dark world of politics and assassins, each with a partner they're not sure they can trust and without Ministry backup. To get out of this alive, they'll need both wits and guns.
So what kind of book is this? Well, our charmingly nerdy hero is named Books and our gunhappy heroine is named Braun. If you're amused by that, you'll probably enjoy Phoenix Rising. If you just rolled your eyes, you should probably click away from this review right now. I had a great time. It hit all the right buttons for me, and I was very annoyed to discover that someone had the gall to have book 2 checked out of the library already, forcing me to wait before I can get my hands on it.
The book runs at a good clip, and is one part buddy cop movie, one part urban fantasy, with generous dollops of steampunk stirred in. There's snarky banter and detective work and Victorian manners and clockwork gadgets and a hint of potential romance and really big guns. There's a lot going on here, and while some might find it a little crowded, it's just a big collection of fun. I really enjoyed both Books and Braun, who grew into increasingly complex characters as the story rolled on and certain revelations about hidden personality traits and their histories were revealed, both to the reader and each other.
The short version? Well, I immediately went looking for volume two. What more needs to be said?
Phoenix Rising is available in mass market paperback
or as an e-book
.