A review by kblincoln
The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan
4.0
3.5 stars actually
This rating is based on my preference for fantasy and alternate history (steampunk or otherwise) that sheds light on human relationships and emotions by putting people into situations that would be impossible otherwise.
And cool ideas and gadgets.
But if the cool alternate history idea (in this case a British empire split in two between flamboyant Kingdom and sober Republic) and the gadgets/alchemy/magic are the main meat-and-bones of a book with relationships/emotional arc definitely secondary-- it's not my cup of tea.
Such is the case with Bullet-Catcher's Daughter. Uber-cool ideas (illusionist tricks and advice sprinkled throughout, a cross-dressing main character, intrigue, alternate history) but I never emotionally connected with the emotional arc the main characters was going through, nor did I get a sense of anybody other than Elizabeth herself.
There were so many sub-characters that could have been awesome, but we spend too much time in Elizabeth's rather dry, factual accounting of her adventures. In particular, her protege says to her at the end upon discovering her secret "Your brother was real to me, Elizabeth. I'd imagined...I'm imagined a future with him" but considering we only see the protege and the brother together during one incident (he's asleep all the time otherwise) this seemed rather hard to believe. And yet there would have been all kinds of emotional gold to be mined here in this awkward love triangle that could have revealed a bunch about Elizabeth's character and self-identity.
Cool ideas, needs more emotional cowbell.
This rating is based on my preference for fantasy and alternate history (steampunk or otherwise) that sheds light on human relationships and emotions by putting people into situations that would be impossible otherwise.
And cool ideas and gadgets.
But if the cool alternate history idea (in this case a British empire split in two between flamboyant Kingdom and sober Republic) and the gadgets/alchemy/magic are the main meat-and-bones of a book with relationships/emotional arc definitely secondary-- it's not my cup of tea.
Such is the case with Bullet-Catcher's Daughter. Uber-cool ideas (illusionist tricks and advice sprinkled throughout, a cross-dressing main character, intrigue, alternate history) but I never emotionally connected with the emotional arc the main characters was going through, nor did I get a sense of anybody other than Elizabeth herself.
There were so many sub-characters that could have been awesome, but we spend too much time in Elizabeth's rather dry, factual accounting of her adventures. In particular, her protege says to her at the end upon discovering her secret "Your brother was real to me, Elizabeth. I'd imagined...I'm imagined a future with him" but considering we only see the protege and the brother together during one incident (he's asleep all the time otherwise) this seemed rather hard to believe. And yet there would have been all kinds of emotional gold to be mined here in this awkward love triangle that could have revealed a bunch about Elizabeth's character and self-identity.
Cool ideas, needs more emotional cowbell.