Winston & Baum and The Secret of the Stone Circle

Winston & Baum #1

by Seth Tucker, Caralyn Edwards-Tucker (Illustrator)

Winston & Baum are two men who are no strangers to danger, and the mythical creatures that plague the English countryside. Now Queen Victoria, a cyborg of brass and bolts, has charged them with an important mission. Representatives from the fairy world have warned that dark forces are gathering to conquer the British Isles and rid it of man and good fey alike. In an unholy bond between the dark races of the English fey and German monsters, a child has been ordered dead. If the girl dies, then the evil forces will be unstoppable. Traveling the English countryside in search of the child, led only by dreams, Winston & Baum must confront overwhelming odds to rescue the girl and keep her safe. The German forces are not willing to surrender so easily and it is discovered that everything is not as it seems. Winston & Baum will have to unravel the Secret of the Stone Circle to save God, Queen, and country.

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 16, 2012

About the author

I was born in a small town in Georgia. As soon as I learned to read, I fell in love with books and my local library where I was able to experience all manners of adventure. It is my hope that as a writer, I can provide the imagination filled escapes to others, that I enjoy.

Reviews

[Katie Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Story, Good Characters, Needs More Revisions

"Winston & Baum and the Secret of the Stone Circle" is a great story with strong characters. An Englishman and an American partner up as a fey-fighting, bounty hunter team in a Steampunk-themed London. Winston is the brawn while Baum is the brains of their operation. Rather than driven by hate, revenge, or the thrill of butchery, these men do know a good bit about their prey. They even befriend a goblin and give him a home after his clan is slaughtered. The bounty hunters are drawn into the land quarrels between the fey leaders and Queen Victoria. Save the girl, save London… oh and all the while trying to stay alive themselves is much of the plot. This novel is certainly action-packed and will keep you reading.

That said, this book is clearly Mr. Tucker’s first novel, and he is very much an independent author just starting out, with no funds available to hire an editor. Mr. Tucker asked me, a fellow self-published and prolific author, to read his work and edit it. Being an avid supporter of independents, I agreed to lend some aid. I am saddened that "Winston & Baum and the Secret of the Stone Circle" was published in its current first edition. Simply put, it reads like a first draft. The repetition of words, the run on sentences, the lack of verbs in sentences, and just plain not having the skill set to put into words what Mr. Tucker is trying to describe are all highly distracting blunders in what could be a wonderful read. A novel must be done in layers: first it needs bones, then muscles and sinew, and finally skin. Mr. Tucker’s work is just bones. It needs some serious polishing.

In the book’s current state, I’d give it two stars for the great story and characters. However, I gave it a four star review in the hopes that Mr. Tucker will make the corrections I have provided to him and grow into those two additional stars. With work, "Winston & Baum and the Secret of the Stone Circle" will be much improved. Best of luck Mr. Tucker!

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely love the story. Ghostbusters of the Fantasy world! It kept me engaged and I could not put it down. Dan, Lee and somehow Brackish are embedded in my heart and the world was so real, so deep and involved. Absolutely fantastic.

I will definitely be reading more of these books.

The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is the constant grammatical and spelling errors throughout the book. Other than that I believe the story is exceptional and very well worth the read!

I've also posted a review on Amazon under Gina S. On 12/28/15.

In exchange for an honest review, I was given a free copy of this book by Shut Up & Read @Goodreads.com.

[Geoff Genge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Tucker created a complex and richly populated world in Winston & Baum and the Secret of the Stone Circle. It is a world a step apart from our own in which goblins, dwarves, witches and the like are as common in 1800’s England as lamplighters and crumpets. It is also a world filled with wonderful steampunk contraptions like electric velociter vehicles and fully-automatic shotguns, and it’s in this world that his two bounty-hunting heroes flourish.

Winston and Baum are two very different men often at odds culturally but singular in their goal of getting the job done. One an American hunter and the other a Brit with a love of cutting edge technology. When we meet them, they are already well-established legends in the field of bounty hunting bothersome monsters that plague England, so much so that when a supernatural problem threatens the empire, a rebuilt Queen Victoria summons the titular duo to go to the heart of the problem and save all the races at risk.

This is a fun book filled with novel ideas that make each chapter a discovery and one which would appeal to any age reader who enjoys action, adventure, and steampunk. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this stylish series.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winston & Baum and The Secret of the Stone Circle (Winston & Baum Steampunk Adventures)
by Seth Tucker

Introduction
In exchange for an honest review, I received a free copy of this book from the Shut Up & Read group on Goodreads. I picked it from the listings because the description and cover art intrigued me. This characters and world would make a nice graphic series, especially with the artist who did the cover.
Genre /Intended Audience
Fantasy Steam Punk, mild violence, suitable for all teens and adults
Narration
Omniscient third person, the narrator only occasionally dipping into POV thoughts of the characters
Characters
Dan Winston - the American half of Winston & Baum, Exterminators of the Strange and Weird
Lee Baum - the British half; an inventor and engineer
Ms. Edwards - their landlady
Ironhill Trungsden - dwarf representative of the Seelie Court
Elizabeth - orphan rescued by Dan; she has some psychic abilities
Brackish Thumtum - goblin sworn to Dan and Lee
Kate McKendrick - young human girl destined to be human representative on the fey council
Setting
Steam punk alternative Victorian England
Some Steampunk things
Velociter - steam powered three-wheeled car; I was never clear how big, but able to run over orcs and keep going
The Tin Man - a sort of tank invented by Lee
Theme
None that was apparent to me.
Plot
Queen Victoria calls on the team of Winston and Baum to find and protect Kate (they don’t know who or where she is when they take the mission) from the Unseelie Court. The duo gladly accepts the challenge and goes on a supernatural road trip through the English countryside slaying witches, orcs, trolls, and the occasional undead creature. On the way, they pick up a ward (Elizabeth)
and an unexpected new partner (Brackish).
About the Author
Seth Tucker writes the Winston & Baum Steampunk Adventures series and stand alone horror novels. Find out more on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... or the author’s website http://radioactiverabbitink.com
My Opinion
Winston & Baum and The Secret of the Stone Circle has an interesting premise and potentially engaging characters. It was a light, fun, and original take on the steam punk genre. The author mixes the usual steampunk elements — steam powered cars, airships, mechanical arms, and all manner of nascent technology — with the Fey and other supernatural creatures. Dan and Lee run a supernatural exterminator service of sorts. As the novel begins, they already have a storied career and reputation. They had even saved Queen Victoria from assassination!
The premise and title characters are interesting, but the execution is uneven. Dan and Lee are individuals with distinct personalities early on, but later, especially in some of the action filled chapters, I found myself stopping to ask, “Wait, which one is Dan?” On second reading it was clearer, but I shouldn’t have to read a book twice! I re-read the book in order write an accurate review. In doing so, I did find that in some places the writing and story telling was very engaging, just not consistently so.
The author doesn’t take the time to give us a true POV in each scene. Most of the action is told from a medium third person POV: we see the action as the character does but rarely get a beat on their thoughts or feelings.
Dramatic tension is limited, as the main characters never seem in any real danger of harm or death. There were several missed opportunities for interesting interaction between the leads, who are surprisingly formal with each other given their long standing partnership. A little more humor would have gone a long way - especially given the inherent difference between Dan and Lee.
There were also a number of editing issues, which the author indicates he is working on correcting in a second edition.
Overall, I have to give it three stars for being light and entertaining, but flawed in storytelling and editing. I would recommend it for fans of steampunk looking for a quick light read, especially if you have Kindle Unlimited.

[Peter Last · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Winston & Baum and the Secret of the Stone Circle" has an interesting premise. Admittedly, this is the first steampunk book I have ever read, but I found it entertaining to see our world merged with magic and magical creatures as well as a smorgasbord of what I can only assume are steampunk staples like steam-powered cars, airships, carriages, and other gadgets. The cast is also intriguing: a pair of “Exterminators of the Strange and Weird.” The brawn of the duo is a crass American stereotype while the brains is an English inventor. But premise can only carry a story so far, and problems begin on the first few pages. Simply put, the writing is bad. Technical errors litter the pages including missing words and letters, extra words and letters, misplaced spaces, incorrect capitalization, and misplaced or missing punctuation. Sentences are often confusing, repetitive, and more than a few caused me to stop to decipher them. These errors are not uncommon in lesser-known books, and I usually forgive them, but the sheer volume here makes them worth noting. The plot is a generic fetch quest with a few obstacles along the way. The actual objective is known from the onset, but specifics are provided to our protagonists over the course of the story, meaning their ability to plan and prepare is nil. Without a plan to be stymied and thwarted, the obstacles thrown in their way feel less like problems to overcome and more like random events tossed in to make the plot more exciting. This is not helped by the fact that the action feels very safe, is clinical and devoid of emotion, and consequently comes across as sterile. Problems pop up from time to time but are solved almost immediately, bringing into question why they were introduced in the first place. The characters, an American and an Englishman, have plenty of differences to make this duo fun and quirky in their interactions. This holds true for the first portion of the book, but the boorish nature of Baum and the more refined attitude of Winston quickly homogenize into two characters who act very similarly. They are also mostly static throughout the book with no developmental arcs and little insight into who they are. The antagonist is not so much a single person but a parade of characters who enter the novel to threaten the protagonists only to be defeated easily and in short order. Because of this, there is no time to build trepidation or stakes, making the final conflict devoid of emotional impact. In conclusion, while the world and characters of this story have potential, the execution and writing squander it, so I cannot recommend this novel.