A review by beth_dawkins
The Doomsday Vault by Steven Harper
3.0
3.5
Alice is the daughter of an impoverished Baron. Almost all of her other relatives have died from the clock work plague, all but her father, and her mysterious aunt Edwina. Her aunt sends her clockwork inventions to put together every year for her birthday. One day she attends a ball, hoping to make a name for her family in society, and maybe even meet a man. She happens meet someone, but on her way home she is overran by plague zombies, only to be rescued by the mysterious group of people called The Third Ward. Soon after this she meets a young man named Gavin. Gavin used to be a cabin boy on an American airship that was over taken by privateers, near England. He has a gift with music, and soon gets tangled into things with Alice.
The clockwork world in this novel is inventive and fun. The clockwork plague makes most people zombies, but every now and again, it will turn someone into a clock-worker. They require little sleep, and spend their time making new inventions, until they go mad. The world is sweeping with neat creations, and eerily London fog. It does have zombies, but they don’t really eat people, instead they shuffle around at night, and slowly die. They fit more into the setting than the actual story. It is easy to picture the inventions and automations that pop out of this novel.
The story is a mix between mystery and action/adventure, with a romantic subplot. The mystery starts when a clock worker attacks London using the plague zombies, and tends to show up a lot. I was impressed with how the novel tied itself together. I guessed a couple of things, but there were some nice surprises along the way. There is a romantic sub-plot between Gavin and Alice. At the start of the story Alice, who enjoys fixing, and putting together automations is caught between what she believes is her duty to her father, and the adventures she really wants to have. She is also caught between duty and Gavin. Gavin on the other hand doesn’t like London, but does like Alice. Both characters are very likeable, but they sometimes felt indifferent or dry, which kept them at a distance.
There is a great deal of action, and adventure in the story. From a manor home full of traps, to a massive automation crashing through the city, both characters constantly have their hands full. While I enjoyed the automations, and neat objects jumping off the page, I never felt truly immersed with in the action. The tension in the scenes just wasn’t there for me. Instead it was easy to get lost in the action, at times I would stop reading and wonder what had just happened, then have to reread. This threw me off on occasion.
There are many side characters that seem burst with life, among them are clock workers, and automations, that are much more lifelike than I thought they could be. They add humor to the story that had me smiling, but like the main characters, they can also feel dry. I wanted more emotion to come out of the pages, but it never did. I liked the characters, but I never felt overly attached.
This novel is a steam-punk with a large dose of Victorian. I enjoyed the world it was set in, and all of the clockwork goodies that came with it, but the characters kept me at a distance. I didn’t feel enough emotion from them, and the story lacked a lot of tension. The story did tie itself together nicely at the end. The plot line also tied into the world around them, helping the world to feel more realized. It does end with a slight cliff hanger. This is the first in a series, and I will pick the next book up.
Alice is the daughter of an impoverished Baron. Almost all of her other relatives have died from the clock work plague, all but her father, and her mysterious aunt Edwina. Her aunt sends her clockwork inventions to put together every year for her birthday. One day she attends a ball, hoping to make a name for her family in society, and maybe even meet a man. She happens meet someone, but on her way home she is overran by plague zombies, only to be rescued by the mysterious group of people called The Third Ward. Soon after this she meets a young man named Gavin. Gavin used to be a cabin boy on an American airship that was over taken by privateers, near England. He has a gift with music, and soon gets tangled into things with Alice.
The clockwork world in this novel is inventive and fun. The clockwork plague makes most people zombies, but every now and again, it will turn someone into a clock-worker. They require little sleep, and spend their time making new inventions, until they go mad. The world is sweeping with neat creations, and eerily London fog. It does have zombies, but they don’t really eat people, instead they shuffle around at night, and slowly die. They fit more into the setting than the actual story. It is easy to picture the inventions and automations that pop out of this novel.
The story is a mix between mystery and action/adventure, with a romantic subplot. The mystery starts when a clock worker attacks London using the plague zombies, and tends to show up a lot. I was impressed with how the novel tied itself together. I guessed a couple of things, but there were some nice surprises along the way. There is a romantic sub-plot between Gavin and Alice. At the start of the story Alice, who enjoys fixing, and putting together automations is caught between what she believes is her duty to her father, and the adventures she really wants to have. She is also caught between duty and Gavin. Gavin on the other hand doesn’t like London, but does like Alice. Both characters are very likeable, but they sometimes felt indifferent or dry, which kept them at a distance.
There is a great deal of action, and adventure in the story. From a manor home full of traps, to a massive automation crashing through the city, both characters constantly have their hands full. While I enjoyed the automations, and neat objects jumping off the page, I never felt truly immersed with in the action. The tension in the scenes just wasn’t there for me. Instead it was easy to get lost in the action, at times I would stop reading and wonder what had just happened, then have to reread. This threw me off on occasion.
There are many side characters that seem burst with life, among them are clock workers, and automations, that are much more lifelike than I thought they could be. They add humor to the story that had me smiling, but like the main characters, they can also feel dry. I wanted more emotion to come out of the pages, but it never did. I liked the characters, but I never felt overly attached.
This novel is a steam-punk with a large dose of Victorian. I enjoyed the world it was set in, and all of the clockwork goodies that came with it, but the characters kept me at a distance. I didn’t feel enough emotion from them, and the story lacked a lot of tension. The story did tie itself together nicely at the end. The plot line also tied into the world around them, helping the world to feel more realized. It does end with a slight cliff hanger. This is the first in a series, and I will pick the next book up.