Book Review: The Iron Wyrm Affair

The Iron Wyrm Affair

By:  Lilith Saintcrow

Publisher:  Orbit Books

Publish Date:  August 7, 2012

Format:  Paperback, 5"x8" 308pgs

Genre:  Urban Fantasy, Steampunk, Fantasy

Series:  1st in Bannon and Clare series

Recommendation:  Oh yes!  London in a new light, full of magic and clockworks all with a strong murder mystery to solve! To save lives, and the country.

Synopsis:
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.

The game is afoot...

First Sentence:
When the young dark-haired woman stepped into his parlour, Archibald Clare was only mildly intrigued.

Purchase At:

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My Thoughts and Summary:
Emma Bannon might have been a late to save one unregistered mentath, but she was in time to save Archibald Clare.  Though they will have to fight sorcery to keep him safe, that's where Emma comes in - a Prime Sorceress.  The Queen relies on sorcerers and mentath's to help her run the country.  Someone has been killing registered mentath's of the Queens, and now moved on to unregistered ones.  Clare does not feel he was fully the focus after the first attack in the presence of Emma.  Maybe the focus on sorcery too?

A story with an alternate Victorian Era of elegance, full of crafted magic, touch of steampunk style mystery, and a cunning of Sherlock Holmes creating a memorable and stunning partnership of Emma Bannon and Archibald Clare.  I am a magic lover.  I also truly enjoy the Victorian Era feel with steam accents.  Blend them together and I'm sold!  Lilith blows you away with the combination and an intriguing murder mystery.

Each paragraph is compacted with details of every angle. The world grows, the characters grow.  The case reveals.  Every word is needed to feel the creation here.

I enjoyed the Prelude.  Clare and Bannon first meeting as Clare is called to the Queen by Bannon's visit.  Ooooo, makes me curious of Clare and his history along with the strong-ness present in Bannon.  When danger is afoot for Clare.  We learn quick as the story takes off and doesn't slow with the information or action.

I was taken with the term mentath.  See, Clare is a mentath.  Mentath's are like walking talking calculators and logic analysts.  He reads everything from reactions of people to encyclopedias and deduces logical answers.  And he's right!  But magic throws a wrench in the gears of his thinking process.  For any mentath actually.  Clare handles the "logic" of magic rather well...but does find an aspect that doesn't compute for him.  When this happens, a mentath can be lost in their minds.  Emma finds Clare is unexpectedly digesting magic easier than any mentath has, and could use his logic and calculating to find the murderer.

Now we have the magical side of things.  Oh, I don't know where to start to describe this best.  Emma is a special brand and branch of magic.  It is so COOL! to see her at her best (or worst she might thing).  The wave of magic that flows through the city each morning.  The powers present.  Wow.  The Queen and the country...WOW!  Emma is strong and a protector.  yet, she still wonders about her Shield, her protector that fights to protect her as she is one of many valued sorcerers, with his history.

We get to see the thinking and reasoning from both Emma Bannon and Archibald Clare, Sorceress and Mentath.  Two completely different takes on things and the world.  Magic and Calculating.  We get a chapter from both point of views, moving the story and mystery forward at a solid pace.

This book is worth picking up.  It's heavy with amazing building and story.



**I read this book for my own enjoyment.

Teaser Tuesday (162)

Teaser Tuesday

is a weekly event

Sponsored by MizB of Should be Reading

Here's how it works:

Grab the book you are currently reading (anything at all)

Open the book to any random page.

Share 2 teaser sentences from anywhere on the page

Please Make Sure They Are Not Spoilers!

(Don't Give Too Much Away)

Just enough to pique our interests

This Week:

Miss Bannon exhaled, sharply, and the lights faded.  She shook her fingers, and sparks popped.  One of the clockhorses neighed, and the cab jolted.

The Iron Wyrm Affair
By:  Lilith Saintcrow
93pg



The second book of Bannon & Clare is to be released May 21, 2013.  If you need this book:

Who? What? Where? (113)

Who are you with? Where are you at? What's happening?

Share with us just a little bit of what is happening in the book you are reading, right where you are now.

Just a tiny taste of what's happening, remember try to not give spoilers of the book.

his is a new meme I'm going to try and will tweak as I go. And please don't laugh at my lame attempt at drawing. ;D )

This Week:

I'm with Archibald Clare in his study as he raises from his chair to change out of his dressing gown.  We've received an intriguing late night visitor, Emma Bannon.  This being our first meeting.  The sorceress left her shield, Mikal, to guard Clare as she went outside to the hansom.  Clare realized this unexpected call to the Queen, and the guarding, must mean danger afoot.

The Iron Wyrm Affair
By:  Lilith Saintcrow


Yes, I've just started this one. But I like the feel of the characters in the first pages.  Feels like a good one!

Others have shown interest in joining in this post, and linking up.  So I've created a linky for that.
My only requests; copy the picture to use, and link back to My World...in words and pages.
Please visit any joining in.
Thank you!

Lilith Saintcrow in PRINT!

Lilith Saintcrow has a few books that were in ebook format, NOW IN PRINT!

Awesome right!  I know I'm a fan of print books.  This doesn't happen all that often, and since people asked, Orbit did it.  The prices are a little higher with being Trade Paper back, but they are available to drool and fawn over on your shelves.

The Hedgewitch Queen
(Romances of Arquitaine #1)

Amazon   /   Barnes&Nobles   /   Book Depository

Vianne di Rocancheil is a lady waiting at the Court of Arquitaine, where she studies her books, watches for intrigue, and shepherds her foolhardy Princesse through the glittering whirl. Court is a sometimes-unpleasant waltz, especially for the unwary, but Vianne treads its measured steps well.

Unfortunately, the dance has changed. Treachery is afoot in gilded and velvet halls. A sorcerous conspiracy is unleashed, with blood, death, and warfare close behind. Vianne must flee, carrying the Great Seal of Arquitaine with her. This is the one thing the conspirators need to rule, and they won’t rest until they have it. A life of dances, intrigues, and fashion has not prepared Vianne for this. Nor has it prepared her for Tristan d’Arcenne, Captain of the King’s Guard and player in the most dangerous games conspiracy can devise. Yet to save her country and avenge her Princesse, Vianne will become what she must and do whatever is required.

A Queen can do no less.

The Bandit King
(Romances of Arquitaine #2)

Amazon   /   Barnes&Nobles   /   Book Depository

Tristan d'Arcenne is what he always wished to be--Vianne di Rocancheil's Consort. But Vianne is no more a noblewoman, she is the Queen of Arquitaine, faced with treachery, invasion, war, and a Consort whose secrets may well shatter their marriage. For before Tristan was hers, he belonged to a King...and that King died by Tristan's hand.

Arquitaine needs them both. The country is locked in a deadly game whose rules change by the moment. The Queen is an adept player, but hardly ruthless enough. The contest requires a man who has nothing to lose, a man who has already done the worst and will continue to do so for his wife, his country, and his own salvation.

The Bandit King approaches...

The Damnation Affair
(Bannon and Claire 1.5)

Amazon   /   Barnes&Nobles   /   Book Depository

The West is a wild place, where the poison wind blows and the dead walk. But there is gold, and whiskey, and enough room for a man to forget what he once was--until he can no longer can.

Jack Gabriel's been the sheriff in Damnation almost since the town grew out of the dust and the mud. He keeps the peace--sort of--and rides the circuit every dawn and dusk with the chartermage, making sure the wilderness doesn't seep into their fragile attempt at civilization. Away from the cities clinging to the New World's eastern rim, he doesn't remember what he was. At least, he tries not to. Good enough.

But Damnation is growing, and along comes a schoolmarm. Catherine Barrowe is a right proper Boston miss, and it's a mystery why she would choose this town where everything scandalous and dangerous is probably too much for a quality lady like her. Sometimes the sheriff wonders why she came out West--because everyone who does is running from something. He doesn't realize Cat may be prickly, delicate, and proper, but she is also determined. She's in Damnation to find her wayward older brother Robbie, whose letters were full of dark hints about gold, trouble...and something about a claim.

In a West where charm and charter live alongside clockwork and cold steel, where hot lead kills your enemy but it takes a blessing to make his corpse stay down, Cat will keep digging until she finds her brother. If Jack knew what she was after, he could solve the mystery--because he was the one who killed Robbie.

The thing is, Cat's brother just won't stay dead, and the undead are rising with him...



If you want to read the Bannon and Claire series: