Review – The Iron Wyrm Affair (Bannon and Clare, Book 1) by Lilith Saintcrow (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 323 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: August 7, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0316201261
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Bannon and Clare series
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Emma Bannon, forensic sorceress in the service of the Empire, has a mission: to protect Archibald Clare, a failed, unregistered mentath. His skills of deduction are legendary, and her own sorcery is not inconsiderable. It doesn’t help much that they barely tolerate each other, or that Bannon’s Shield, Mikal, might just be a traitor himself. Or that the conspiracy killing registered mentaths and sorcerers alike will just as likely kill them as seduce them into treachery toward their Queen.

In an alternate London where illogical magic has turned the Industrial Revolution on its head, Bannon and Clare now face hostility, treason, cannon fire, black sorcery, and the problem of reliably finding hansom cabs.“

This is the first book in the Bannon and Clare series. This series is a historical fiction/steampunk novel set in an alternate London. I really wanted to love this book but I struggled with it. There are some amazingly creative parts in here and I felt like I could have really loved the characters and story moe if the book had flowed better.

There is a lot thrown at the reader very quickly and I really struggled to picture settings and understand the world. The characters are also very hard to engage with; they seem very distant throughout.

The story jumps around a lot and the chapters are very short. This made for a choppy read that was very had to sink into and stay engaged with. I kept picking this up, reading a chapter, then putting it down and finding something else to do.

Emma was a fascinating character, as was Mikal. I loved Emma’s magic, Mikal’s crazy fighting abilities, and Clare’s mental acuity. However, I just struggled so much with picturing what was happening throughout and wish I could have followed the story better.

Overall this book was pretty disappointing to me because there is some great stuff in here, it was just hard to get through because of how poorly the story flowed and how poorly things were described. This is an okay read but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend. I won’t be reading anymore of the series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Steampunk Reading Challenge
– Paranormal Reading Challenge