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suze_1624's review
3.0
I hadn't fully appreciated the paranormal extent of this story - dont know how I missed it, it is in the blurb!
I was expecting the historical and steampunk but not Martians.
This series had been a low blip on the radar then I read a review and decided to invest. I found the read quite intense and the tension and horror quite palpable.
The Martian bit was a bit confusing to me and how both men are affected also.
I enjoyed the historical parts, was OK with the rest.
The book read quickly with an intense yet sparse style - no extra fluffy padding here!
I was expecting the historical and steampunk but not Martians.
This series had been a low blip on the radar then I read a review and decided to invest. I found the read quite intense and the tension and horror quite palpable.
The Martian bit was a bit confusing to me and how both men are affected also.
I enjoyed the historical parts, was OK with the rest.
The book read quickly with an intense yet sparse style - no extra fluffy padding here!
the_novel_approach's review
5.0
Agamemnon Frost and the House of Death is a fun and fantastical adventure that I could easily give away far too much of. This installment in the series is a blend of dark danger, insidious enemies, a diabolical master, and imagination galore, the beginning of what I hope will be many more installments to come. Kim Knox has delivered a story that’s a little steampunk, a little sci-fi, a lot of action and some out-of-this-world threats, and then has set the story in Victorian England to make it just that much more interesting. This all comes together to create a world I can’t wait to dig a little deeper into, complete with two men I can’t wait to get to know better. Because, let me assure you, there’s absolutely nothing common about either of them.
If you love steampunk, sci-fi, fantasy, or all of the above, I’d definitely recommend getting to know Agamemnon and Mason yourself.
You can read the rest of this review at The Novel Approach
If you love steampunk, sci-fi, fantasy, or all of the above, I’d definitely recommend getting to know Agamemnon and Mason yourself.
You can read the rest of this review at The Novel Approach
ladyhighwayman's review
4.0
Even with reading the summary, I still didn't know what I was getting into, here. Steampunk? Aliens? Victorians? Yes, to all of the above.
Surprisingly, it all worked. I'm not much into aliens, but I liked this. The centerpiece of all this is the new relationship between Frost and Mason. Mason is thrown into all this when he becomes valet for a night for Frost, who seems to be a fop, but is more so.
Mason didn't know what he walked into when he took this job, but it has changed his life forever. This is a short book, so I can't give too much away. However, I will say, that the attraction between Mason and Frost happened immediately, due to the length of the book, but I didn't find it forced.
This is the first book in a trilogy, I believe. I will definitely be continuing with it.
I was provided a galley of this from NetGalley. This didn't affect my opinions.
Surprisingly, it all worked. I'm not much into aliens, but I liked this. The centerpiece of all this is the new relationship between Frost and Mason. Mason is thrown into all this when he becomes valet for a night for Frost, who seems to be a fop, but is more so.
Mason didn't know what he walked into when he took this job, but it has changed his life forever. This is a short book, so I can't give too much away. However, I will say, that the attraction between Mason and Frost happened immediately, due to the length of the book, but I didn't find it forced.
This is the first book in a trilogy, I believe. I will definitely be continuing with it.
I was provided a galley of this from NetGalley. This didn't affect my opinions.
poultrymunitions's review
2.0
i dunno, really.
it suffered from a reliance on expository dialogue to advance the plot.
mostly, i feel like it could have been longer, unfolding at a more naturally visual pace, and thus obviate the need for one character to explain to another character what has happened, what is happening, or what is about to happen.
the arc's too short. by the time my feet are settled in the world, the conclusion's come and gone, and the bits i really cared about have only been teased.
it reads like the first segment of a serial, which is only bad inasmuch as it leaves me unsatisfied with the amount of story i got for my money.
i'd definitely read more. there's some good character work with the titular character and the narrator, and the dynamic between them is in an interesting state by the end.
kind of a rough start, though :-/
it suffered from a reliance on expository dialogue to advance the plot.
mostly, i feel like it could have been longer, unfolding at a more naturally visual pace, and thus obviate the need for one character to explain to another character what has happened, what is happening, or what is about to happen.
the arc's too short. by the time my feet are settled in the world, the conclusion's come and gone, and the bits i really cared about have only been teased.
it reads like the first segment of a serial, which is only bad inasmuch as it leaves me unsatisfied with the amount of story i got for my money.
i'd definitely read more. there's some good character work with the titular character and the narrator, and the dynamic between them is in an interesting state by the end.
kind of a rough start, though :-/
catevari's review
2.0
I picked up this book because I'd read a review of the second book of this series that sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the first book was bad enough that I'm not sure I have the patience to see if the second book improves on the imperfections of the first.
I had four basic problems with this book. First of all, there's just nothing really remarkable about it, nothing that really sets it apart from any other story. Everything that happens is both fairly cliché and predictable. Even the addition of Martians couldn't really make a blip, except as a way to make the technology even more handwavy than usual.
Which raises the second problem: the world building and technology. On the one hand, I am really, deeply willing to buy into an author's made up world and technology. On the other hand, the author has to do their part and make it something I can buy into. For much of the story, I felt like Knox felt like she could substitute made up words for actual world-building and even the made-up words frequently lacked a satisfying context—or context soon enough in the narrative—to really enhance the story.
I understand that the POV character, Mason, is coming lately into a situation already in play but that's the whole point of a character like that: it gives you the opportunity to explain things to your reader at the same time that you're explaining them to your newbie character in a way that feels (reasonably) natural and organic. To create that character and then fail to explain almost everything is an unforgivable writing failure. And tremendously frustrating.
In other ways, the writing is no great shakes. Knox attempts to emulate the language and style of the gaslight era, but I thought it often lacked a necessary clarity and, more importantly, especially for such an action-heavy story, it lacked a lot of the visual cues necessary to give a good grasp of what's going on and where. And in a few places, it just fell down completely, as whenFrost reveals that the Martian automata conversion machines cannot identify whether a person is already converted or not. Even if my husband wasn't a mechanical engineer, I fully grasp how stupid a concept that is, and Knox's attempts to woo-woo wave it away by saying that the air pollution keeps the machine working properly doesn't hold water any better. There is no engineer in the universe, I imagine, that would create a machine that converts people into automata and then can't tell whether a person has been converted or not. It makes no logistical sense and, at that point, my willing suspension of disbelief was utterly shattered, to no recovery.
As well, because Mason is a stranger to the situation and the characters at hand, it stretches believability past the breaking point that he would trust Frost so quickly and unquestioningly—so profoundly that it overcomes his automata programming —or that Frost would be so immediately devoted to him, for no logical reason on either side, in turn. In some sense, it's slightly premature to call it love, but there are definitely all the markers and overtones of instant-love, without any sensible justification for it. In fact, given that trusting Frost leads to Mason's DEATH, and rebirth as an automata, Mason has every reason not to trust Frost.
Which was another thing that bothered me, though it's purely personal: I really dislike it when characters are killed off and then reborn in another form—and this is true of vampire stories, too, but more so with cyborgs, robots, automatons, brains in a jar, pod people, etc.—and it's treated as a) no big deal and b) like the replacement is identical to the original person. Again, I realize it's a personal preference and certainly, Mason is not, post-transformation, in a position to mourn his own death, but the fact is the original and real Agamemnon Frost is dead. Mason is dead. All these other people who have been replaced by so-called automata are dead. And what's left is an imitation. A copy. It isn't the same thing and it's both annoying and less interesting when an author fails to acknowledge that in some way.
At the end of the day, I guess it all comes down to one, important thing. I wanted to like this book, but instead, I was bored by it. There were other feelings, too, but none so egregious as the feeling of being bored when I was expecting to be entertained.
I had four basic problems with this book. First of all, there's just nothing really remarkable about it, nothing that really sets it apart from any other story. Everything that happens is both fairly cliché and predictable. Even the addition of Martians couldn't really make a blip, except as a way to make the technology even more handwavy than usual.
Which raises the second problem: the world building and technology. On the one hand, I am really, deeply willing to buy into an author's made up world and technology. On the other hand, the author has to do their part and make it something I can buy into. For much of the story, I felt like Knox felt like she could substitute made up words for actual world-building and even the made-up words frequently lacked a satisfying context—or context soon enough in the narrative—to really enhance the story.
I understand that the POV character, Mason, is coming lately into a situation already in play but that's the whole point of a character like that: it gives you the opportunity to explain things to your reader at the same time that you're explaining them to your newbie character in a way that feels (reasonably) natural and organic. To create that character and then fail to explain almost everything is an unforgivable writing failure. And tremendously frustrating.
In other ways, the writing is no great shakes. Knox attempts to emulate the language and style of the gaslight era, but I thought it often lacked a necessary clarity and, more importantly, especially for such an action-heavy story, it lacked a lot of the visual cues necessary to give a good grasp of what's going on and where. And in a few places, it just fell down completely, as when
As well, because Mason is a stranger to the situation and the characters at hand, it stretches believability past the breaking point that he would trust Frost so quickly and unquestioningly—
At the end of the day, I guess it all comes down to one, important thing. I wanted to like this book, but instead, I was bored by it. There were other feelings, too, but none so egregious as the feeling of being bored when I was expecting to be entertained.
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