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jess64au's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A standard but strong historical fiction about the pearl harbour bombing.
rick_k's review
2.0
They say you can't judge a book by its cover, and they are correct. The illustration (click the link to see the whole image) by Rednose Studio is amazing and absolutely made me want to read this story, but this short story is a mess.
Hero of the Five Points is set in New Rome (alternate New York) in the Five Points region of Mannahatta (Manhattan) with a culture and political climate identical to Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. In this universe the Americas had at some point been under the control of the Romans and their ruins establish the foundation of the cities in a way similar to what you might find Europe. However Europe and the Americas no longer have communication or trade and the First Nations have a more established cultural foothold in this version of the United Nations of America. With characters lifted roughly from the film, our protagonist, Dalton Dent infiltrates the Dead Rabbits lead by Kit Burns, who is a more thuggish Bill the Butcher, and aided by the also undercover Hellcat Maggie.
The forward tells us it is 1853, which is peculiar. In this story Thomas Edison is an old and prosperous man, which of course he would only be 6 years old in our timeline. Lektricity (ahem, electricity) has come and gone with the science of the day taking a steampunk flare featuring dirigibles, steam power (including steam-powered robots with AI), but not ballistics, instead featuring ray guns. The timeline and logic is a mess. Also in the forward it tells us this short story is from the world of the League of Seven series for middle grade readers, but even pre-teens can do a simple to search to figure out when Edison was born. Integrating actual historical places and figures then not establishing a cursory understanding of their actual characteristics reflects the laziness of the writing in general. There is a lot of wild fantastical world building which must be explored in League of Seven because it is simply distracting here.
Hero of the Five Points is set in New Rome (alternate New York) in the Five Points region of Mannahatta (Manhattan) with a culture and political climate identical to Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. In this universe the Americas had at some point been under the control of the Romans and their ruins establish the foundation of the cities in a way similar to what you might find Europe. However Europe and the Americas no longer have communication or trade and the First Nations have a more established cultural foothold in this version of the United Nations of America. With characters lifted roughly from the film, our protagonist, Dalton Dent infiltrates the Dead Rabbits lead by Kit Burns, who is a more thuggish Bill the Butcher, and aided by the also undercover Hellcat Maggie.
The forward tells us it is 1853, which is peculiar. In this story Thomas Edison is an old and prosperous man, which of course he would only be 6 years old in our timeline. Lektricity (ahem, electricity) has come and gone with the science of the day taking a steampunk flare featuring dirigibles, steam power (including steam-powered robots with AI), but not ballistics, instead featuring ray guns. The timeline and logic is a mess. Also in the forward it tells us this short story is from the world of the League of Seven series for middle grade readers, but even pre-teens can do a simple to search to figure out when Edison was born. Integrating actual historical places and figures then not establishing a cursory understanding of their actual characteristics reflects the laziness of the writing in general. There is a lot of wild fantastical world building which must be explored in League of Seven because it is simply distracting here.
nathanaeljs's review
1.0
In an alternate United States, a secret agent infiltrates a gang of street urchins to hunt down a monster. Sounds exciting, right? Unfortunately, the finished product is decidedly less so.
I love the idea of steampunk. The cosplay is amazing and I'm a sucker for the latest "Here's Your Favorite Superhero Steampunk Style!" artwork. Steampunk fiction has not impressed me nearly as much. It's always very trope-y, but often there's next to no explanation for why the world is this way. There'll be clockwork sentient automatons, zeppelins, improbable lightning guns and none of this gets explained. This story has all of that, scattered across a series of ultra-violent gang warfare set pieces. Then we learn our main character is a secret agent working for a society that protects the world from monsters that eat electricity (I have no recollection of how to spell the ridiculous cutesy alternate spelling for electricity this world uses), inspired ancient legends, and periodically return to destroy human civilization. On top of all that, the story is set in an alternate United States formed from various Native American tribes and European settlers. There isn't much in the way of details on how that happened in the story, so I'm going to assume the Native Americans invented death rays and robots back before Columbus invaded. It's just too much stuff going on in a thirty page story. Just pick a setting already and quit trying to kitchen sink it.
The incredibly jumbled, yet still fairly dull story might have squeaked by with a two star rating though until I hit a huge jump the shark moment toward the end. Thomas Edison, all around jerk, saboteur, animal torturer, and invention-thief, appears as a psychopathic mad scientist who wants to create some sort of Dr. Moreau-style race of monster men. Edison was not a nice guy, but the level of nerd rage it requires to write a long dead jerk into your story as a child-murderer is just kind of laughable. This is like the people who write fanfiction about their favorite TV shows and make the love interest they don't like into a raging maniac.
In short: I don't recommend this.
I love the idea of steampunk. The cosplay is amazing and I'm a sucker for the latest "Here's Your Favorite Superhero Steampunk Style!" artwork. Steampunk fiction has not impressed me nearly as much. It's always very trope-y, but often there's next to no explanation for why the world is this way. There'll be clockwork sentient automatons, zeppelins, improbable lightning guns and none of this gets explained. This story has all of that, scattered across a series of ultra-violent gang warfare set pieces. Then we learn our main character is a secret agent working for a society that protects the world from monsters that eat electricity (I have no recollection of how to spell the ridiculous cutesy alternate spelling for electricity this world uses), inspired ancient legends, and periodically return to destroy human civilization. On top of all that, the story is set in an alternate United States formed from various Native American tribes and European settlers. There isn't much in the way of details on how that happened in the story, so I'm going to assume the Native Americans invented death rays and robots back before Columbus invaded. It's just too much stuff going on in a thirty page story. Just pick a setting already and quit trying to kitchen sink it.
The incredibly jumbled, yet still fairly dull story might have squeaked by with a two star rating though until I hit a huge jump the shark moment toward the end. Thomas Edison, all around jerk, saboteur, animal torturer, and invention-thief, appears as a psychopathic mad scientist who wants to create some sort of Dr. Moreau-style race of monster men. Edison was not a nice guy, but the level of nerd rage it requires to write a long dead jerk into your story as a child-murderer is just kind of laughable. This is like the people who write fanfiction about their favorite TV shows and make the love interest they don't like into a raging maniac.
In short: I don't recommend this.
echthroi's review
4.0
I'd give this a 4.5 if I could. It's a steam-punky alt-history that reads like a cross between a children's book and a violent gang study. It's a very fun short story.
booksandbosox's review
3.0
I liked trying to work out the connection between this story and the characters in the League of Seven series, but I didn't quite enjoy this as much as I've enjoyed the books.
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