Book Review: Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
Genre(s): Steampunk, Fantasy
Publisher: Harper Collins
Description: Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade… and a librarian. These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences – the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling – will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest… and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray. For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun – he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices – must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot… or see England fall to the Phoenix!
This is a fun, well paced book that does Steampunk right. I have read other titles from both of the authors and the combination of Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris is truly a recipe for greatness. This is not a historically accurate book and at no point do the authors present it as one. For those of you who like your historical fiction to follow real history, you might want to think twice before reading this book. If you are one of the aforementioned people and choose to pass this book up you will be missing out.
The Steampunk genre has gotten quite a bit of play in the last few years; it is hard to not see Steampunk cosplayers at Cons and Conventions. I still haven’t figured out what purpose those goggles have, but they seem to be a signature item for a good Steampunk costume.
Ballantine and Morris do an excellent job of threading Steampunk elements into the story without overdoing it. Some similar stories I’ve read revolve their stories around the Steampunk gadgets rather than being a well written story. The authors of Phoenix Rising didn’t fall into that normal trap. As I read this book I enjoyed trying to figure out the modern day equivalents of Steampunk equipment that the authors describe in the book. My favorite was the differential machine that Wellington Books uses in the archives of the Ministry of Particular Occurrences. Imagine a huge steam powered computer/MP3 player. Most Steampunk devices have a kind of Rube Goldberg feel to them and it is a beautiful thing.
This book combines aspects of the “The Odd Couple”, the first three Indiana Jones movies, any good detective novel and the TV show, Cold Case. This seems awfully busy but it all comes together to make a story worth reading. Throughout the book the characters are type casted, and it works so well. I normally hate it when that happens, I feel like there is no originality when this happens. Phoenix Rising embraces the type casting so much so that most of the characters’ names reflect an aspect of their personality or function. I got an almost James Bond character naming convention vibe. Wellington Books the Archivist (not quite Pussy Galore, but it works) is a shining example how his name fits his “role”. If you find this concept abhorrent there is good news; as the story develops we see that Eliza Braun and Wellington Books are more than their names would suggest and the hints that the authors drop, make you want to read the next story to learn more about this “Odd Couple”. Ballantine and Morris have developed deep characters that are fun to follow and easy to love.
Ballantine has used her Kiwi heritage to bring in a decidedly non-British perspective to Eliza Braun without resorting to the normal American type-casting. The brash less than civilized character in these books always seems to be an American, Ballntine choose one of the “other” colonies to draw the outsider from and it was refreshing. The author’s inclusion of agent Bruce Campbell made me long for my boom stick.
The banter between all of the characters is what really makes this book a cut above the rest. I could hear the conversations as they happened and even with the inclusion of period terms it all flowed. I’m sure there were a few jokes I didn’t get thanks to my American-ness, but I don’t feel like I missed much. The developing relationship between Books and Braun was highlighted by their trading of quips and sidebar comments. I have read good authors who just don’t seem to add that third dimension to their characters the way Ballantine and Morris do.
This is just the first book in this series and I am excited to read the rest. I enjoyed the trailer that the authors posted on YouTube and their podcast is great. I could see these stories being made into a movie and adapted to a RPG using the Savage Worlds or FATE rule sets. People love Steampunk and I think in Ballantine and Morris we have authors that can carry the torch. If you haven’t purchased this book or downloaded it you are missing out. Buy it, open the cover and enjoy the hissing sound as you escape into a well developed, exciting romp thru an alternate reality.
I think my goggles just fogged up.
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