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Aetherium #0
Wreck of the Frost Finch
ASIN B005Y578ZQ moved to the most recent edition here
Omar Bakhoum joined an airship expedition to the glaciers of Europa to find a lost island and to learn about the aether mist that reveals the souls of the dead, even though howling storms, rampaging beasts, and a deadly samurai stand between him and his goal. But when Omar is accused of murder over the north sea, his quest for answers may end in a watery grave. Welcome to a fantastical world where strange machines sail the seas and the skies, enormous prehistoric beasts roam the earth, and the restless dead whisper to the living.
Omar Bakhoum joined an airship expedition to the glaciers of Europa to find a lost island and to learn about the aether mist that reveals the souls of the dead, even though howling storms, rampaging beasts, and a deadly samurai stand between him and his goal. But when Omar is accused of murder over the north sea, his quest for answers may end in a watery grave. Welcome to a fantastical world where strange machines sail the seas and the skies, enormous prehistoric beasts roam the earth, and the restless dead whisper to the living.
72 pages, ebook
First published November 21, 2013
29 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Robert Lewis
68 books97 followersJoseph R. Lewis enjoys creating worlds in which history, mythology, and fantasy collide in unpredictable ways. He also likes writing about heroines that his daughters can respect and admire. Joe was born in Annapolis and went to the University of Maryland to study ancient novels, morality plays, and Viking poetry.
www.josephrlewis.com
www.josephrlewis.com
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 18, 2018
Okay, so, I found this book very amusing.
Firstly, the plot itself was... Sort of... I would say this was kind of like a fable? Our main character is sort of an important person but also has a few major flaws that keep creeping into his reasoning. He's immortal but doesn't seem particularly preturbed by the idea of being alive for thousands of years. Early into the first chapter he's challenged to a sword fight that he really doesn't want to take part in but also relents to doing so and using his various advantages to overcome his opponent, namely being unkillable thus far. But our main character isn't particularly bright on his own, nor is he particularly powerful on his own, nor is he particularly well connected on his own, but thanks to his tool he can kind of make up for his shortcomings. And that's good, because he has a very, very big idea. But it's kind of a case of putting the cart before the horse.
You'd suppose he, having been alive for four thousand years or so, would be used to seeing theories like his own and how paradolia can be part of the human condition, that sometimes a rose is just a rose. If anything, it seems like he's read a little too deeply into the lore of his own setting and fit things neatly together that do, in a way, make sense. You'd think he'd also be used to seeing people who think they have it all figured out. In fact he slays one fairly early into the book (a samurai named after one of the early directors of Japanese cinema that popularized samurai movies, by the way). Gearing for success is good, planning for it is good, but when you expect the best and have no other recourse you might find yourself stranded, very literally.
Secondly... I acquired this book via the Summer Steampunk bundle on Storybundle. So I was expecting brass and steam and a lot of late nineteenth century aesthetic with maybe not so much in the way of values. It's not that I don't like steampunk, it's that I often see steampunk as kind of a backdrop for stories that can be told in just about any genre instead of going for what inspires steampunk (clash of almost-modern technology and Victorian values, problems with industrialization and the devaluing or even effacing of the lower class as an identity and the emerging middle class struggling against an upper class that seems both ridiculous and quaint, a lot of stuff you might pick up in a lit course focusing on the Victorian/Edwardian era but almost more so thanks to the changes in the setting).
I'm gonna be really blunt with this next part.
What I wasn't expecting was an immortal Egyptian man with a lightsaber full of souls that acts as his Wikipedia, WebMD and MP3 player.
I remember maybe two hints of something that passes for steampunk until the second chapter: The main character notices an airfield and gets off of a train to get to where he is. Literally we get a short intro to the character and then he gets into a sword fight and we learn that magic exists. He doesn't even do the fight himself, so much, as he calls on a soul in his blade to essentially guide him through the combat techniques he needs to use. His magic sword burns brightly with some kind of inner heat and is called a seireiken. It's essentially a katana made out of a magical metal that gets hot as it harnesses Aether, or some kind of spirit energy. Instead of, say, making his opponent bleed out or damaging his organs, he just has to touch his opponent with it to steal their soul. He has thousands of them in his sword, and by snapping another one he gains all the souls inside.
Later, he's sitting in an airship and gets bored. So instead of meditating or finding some way to amuse himself as one unequipped with a magic sword would, he uses the sword to listen to a Hellan (Greek) scholar do what is essentially an old school educational podcast to him, and seemingly can change the channel to dancers and singers that keep him entertained. When a man is dead later on he can summon the soul of a doctor to do a quick survey of the symptoms to determine how the man died.
He's not really like a mary sue... If anything he seems like literally just a man, maybe even an anti-hero in the more traditional sense (not to say a dark, brooding, a protagonist but not particularly a standard moral 'hero'). He's immortal, but he's not particularly more competent than the average person other than drawing on the competencies of other people (only two of which in the sword we actually know how he acquired, one by the first fight in the story, the other by a man who willingly went on his deathbed). He's driven and motivated but not particularly inclined to help others, in fact he seems more happy to acquire knowledge for himself rather than share willingly with the world. And he has a major flaw: he is geared for the success of a plan that draws on things in his setting but might even be far fetched for that. Other than that what would be his purpose? We're not even really sure. We get some of Omar but not enough to really determine where he would go should, say, his big goal in life not really pan out. It kind of sounds like hubris.
But really, by the end this book feels like a preview. We get hints of Aether but not really a good general picture other than that it reacts to metals that can be made into tools and that it somehow is involved in or is souls. We get hints of an ice age covering large swaths of Europa (mainland Europe, mostly France, Germany and further into Russia and that area) but no idea of how long that's been or what the rest of society looks like. We get hints of a not-quite-war that motivates a character to do some things but not really a good idea of what either side is like.
We get Omar though. Omar seems like he's kind of a simple guy with a big dream who has access to a lot of useful tools. When his dream shatters he is literally broken. Will he show up in the next novel as promised by the end of the book? I did get it as part of the bundle, so I guess we'll see.
This was interesting, a neat travel guide into a setting that explores a lot of places and establishes a lot of things but I'm not sure if it stands on it's own as well. It can be hard to figure out how much exploring a setting is too much and how little exploring a setting is too little but this felt like it was on both ends of that spectrum: we saw a lot of places and people from those places but we didn't spend a lot of time on what makes them unique. We get a lot of neat setting conventions but we get maybe one example of that, we can extrapolate on those a little but it's just a hint. We got a major resolution to someone's arc but it feels like we met him at the tail end of it. This is some neat concepts for a world but I feel like this book would have been served by a little more.
Firstly, the plot itself was... Sort of... I would say this was kind of like a fable? Our main character is sort of an important person but also has a few major flaws that keep creeping into his reasoning. He's immortal but doesn't seem particularly preturbed by the idea of being alive for thousands of years. Early into the first chapter he's challenged to a sword fight that he really doesn't want to take part in but also relents to doing so and using his various advantages to overcome his opponent, namely being unkillable thus far. But our main character isn't particularly bright on his own, nor is he particularly powerful on his own, nor is he particularly well connected on his own, but thanks to his tool he can kind of make up for his shortcomings. And that's good, because he has a very, very big idea. But it's kind of a case of putting the cart before the horse.
You'd suppose he, having been alive for four thousand years or so, would be used to seeing theories like his own and how paradolia can be part of the human condition, that sometimes a rose is just a rose. If anything, it seems like he's read a little too deeply into the lore of his own setting and fit things neatly together that do, in a way, make sense. You'd think he'd also be used to seeing people who think they have it all figured out. In fact he slays one fairly early into the book (a samurai named after one of the early directors of Japanese cinema that popularized samurai movies, by the way). Gearing for success is good, planning for it is good, but when you expect the best and have no other recourse you might find yourself stranded, very literally.
Secondly... I acquired this book via the Summer Steampunk bundle on Storybundle. So I was expecting brass and steam and a lot of late nineteenth century aesthetic with maybe not so much in the way of values. It's not that I don't like steampunk, it's that I often see steampunk as kind of a backdrop for stories that can be told in just about any genre instead of going for what inspires steampunk (clash of almost-modern technology and Victorian values, problems with industrialization and the devaluing or even effacing of the lower class as an identity and the emerging middle class struggling against an upper class that seems both ridiculous and quaint, a lot of stuff you might pick up in a lit course focusing on the Victorian/Edwardian era but almost more so thanks to the changes in the setting).
I'm gonna be really blunt with this next part.
What I wasn't expecting was an immortal Egyptian man with a lightsaber full of souls that acts as his Wikipedia, WebMD and MP3 player.
I remember maybe two hints of something that passes for steampunk until the second chapter: The main character notices an airfield and gets off of a train to get to where he is. Literally we get a short intro to the character and then he gets into a sword fight and we learn that magic exists. He doesn't even do the fight himself, so much, as he calls on a soul in his blade to essentially guide him through the combat techniques he needs to use. His magic sword burns brightly with some kind of inner heat and is called a seireiken. It's essentially a katana made out of a magical metal that gets hot as it harnesses Aether, or some kind of spirit energy. Instead of, say, making his opponent bleed out or damaging his organs, he just has to touch his opponent with it to steal their soul. He has thousands of them in his sword, and by snapping another one he gains all the souls inside.
Later, he's sitting in an airship and gets bored. So instead of meditating or finding some way to amuse himself as one unequipped with a magic sword would, he uses the sword to listen to a Hellan (Greek) scholar do what is essentially an old school educational podcast to him, and seemingly can change the channel to dancers and singers that keep him entertained. When a man is dead later on he can summon the soul of a doctor to do a quick survey of the symptoms to determine how the man died.
He's not really like a mary sue... If anything he seems like literally just a man, maybe even an anti-hero in the more traditional sense (not to say a dark, brooding, a protagonist but not particularly a standard moral 'hero'). He's immortal, but he's not particularly more competent than the average person other than drawing on the competencies of other people (only two of which in the sword we actually know how he acquired, one by the first fight in the story, the other by a man who willingly went on his deathbed). He's driven and motivated but not particularly inclined to help others, in fact he seems more happy to acquire knowledge for himself rather than share willingly with the world. And he has a major flaw: he is geared for the success of a plan that draws on things in his setting but might even be far fetched for that. Other than that what would be his purpose? We're not even really sure. We get some of Omar but not enough to really determine where he would go should, say, his big goal in life not really pan out. It kind of sounds like hubris.
But really, by the end this book feels like a preview. We get hints of Aether but not really a good general picture other than that it reacts to metals that can be made into tools and that it somehow is involved in or is souls. We get hints of an ice age covering large swaths of Europa (mainland Europe, mostly France, Germany and further into Russia and that area) but no idea of how long that's been or what the rest of society looks like. We get hints of a not-quite-war that motivates a character to do some things but not really a good idea of what either side is like.
We get Omar though. Omar seems like he's kind of a simple guy with a big dream who has access to a lot of useful tools. When his dream shatters he is literally broken. Will he show up in the next novel as promised by the end of the book? I did get it as part of the bundle, so I guess we'll see.
This was interesting, a neat travel guide into a setting that explores a lot of places and establishes a lot of things but I'm not sure if it stands on it's own as well. It can be hard to figure out how much exploring a setting is too much and how little exploring a setting is too little but this felt like it was on both ends of that spectrum: we saw a lot of places and people from those places but we didn't spend a lot of time on what makes them unique. We get a lot of neat setting conventions but we get maybe one example of that, we can extrapolate on those a little but it's just a hint. We got a major resolution to someone's arc but it feels like we met him at the tail end of it. This is some neat concepts for a world but I feel like this book would have been served by a little more.
June 1, 2015
“They do have toilets in their air-ships…”
… and they are actually using them. If nothing else that made the world real to me.
But let’s not rush ahead, let’s start at the beginning. If you pick up this book based on the blurb, you are most certainly in for a disappointment. Sure, everything mentioned on the back cover happens over the curse of this story, but it doesn’t do it any justice. Those events are not the essence of the story. It’s not so much a mystery or an adventure story, it’s more like a travel report, giving the reader a first impression of a new and fascinating alternate earth, where the last ice age never ended and Europe is nothing more than icy, barbarian wilderness.
Luckily I didn’t take the book up based on the back cover. Being a big fan of all things Steam-punk I’m always searching for new reading material. So, some time ago I came across “The Burning Sky” by Joseph Robert Lewis which was the first part of the “Halcyon-Trilogy”. The description sounded quite interesting and I marked that book as to be read. Then many things came in between and I all but forgot about the book. When I came back to it just a few weeks ago I had to realize, that those books were no longer available. Out of interest I looked up what other books Lewis might have written and stumble upon “Assassins of the Steam Age” being the first part of the “Aetherium-Series”. What caught my eye was the blurb because it was the exact same as the one of “The burning Sky”. Lewis obviously took the “Halcyon-Trilogy” and the following “Europa-Trilogy” and “Chimera-Duology” which are set in the same world, gave them new titles and a new order as the series “Aetherium”. I really wanted to read “Assassins of the Steam Age” then, but when I found out, that there was a prelude (and that I might get the whole series for free if I read and review said prelude) I decided to start at the beginning and took up “Wreck of the Frost Finch”. And I think that was a good decision.
Writing/Storytelling: The Story is told from the hero’s point of view. The narrative voice however is mostly unjudging, free of anything what might be the hero’s personal opinion or emotions, regaling anything that happens on the airship journey in the same neutral, slightly distant tone. Landscape or murder seemingly doesn’t make any difference to the narrator. As I said, the whole story seemed more like a travel report, than an adventure or mystery. On the one hand that made it difficult for me to connect with the hero, one the other hand it gave me a great, unbiased view of the narrative world.
World/World building: Being a builder of fantasy and science fiction worlds myself, the world and the way it’s build are of great importance to me in any book I read. A wonderful and care-fully crafted world with an inherent logic can do much for me, even amend for a not so well crafted story. I don’t expect a fictitious world to follow our universe’s laws of physic, but I ex-pect it to have its own “natural laws” – how strange they ever may be – and stick to them. And in that expectation, this book rewarded me greatly. I will not say its world is perfect for I have never encountered one so far (Not even Tolkien’s Middle Earth), but from the glimpse I got in this book, it sure as hell has the potential.
It’s fresh and inventive, with a premise I’ve never encountered before: The last ice age never ended. Europe is mostly buried under tons of ice and snow, with only very few coastal valleys being inhabitable. There never was a Roman Empire, nor the many middle age kingdoms or the vast British Empire. The centre of Civilisation in the world are the kingdoms – or more accu-rate “Queendoms” for they obviously have female succession rules – of northern Africa and the Middle East. These countries are technologically advanced, having airships and being able to generate electricity from sunlight or wind. No timeframe is given for reference, but from the feel of it, it seemed like late nineteenth century to me. And while there are nations highly advanced there are other regions of a merely barbaric technology level with prehistoric creatures still roaming the vast, cold wilderness. And with the “Aetherium”, the sun-steel, and the souls of the dead wandering the earth and even interacting with the living the world holds an interesting mystical and even magical element that waits to be fleshed out in the following novels.
The world building didn’t seem too obvious to me, but then, sending the hero on a trip into the unknown, letting him tell what he sees, what he encounters on his travels is a neat trick. Albeit I have to say if seen this gone wrong many times. Not so here. While the narrator gives the reader lots of information of this world, there are no info dumps and never once the narrative voice tells something just to inform the reader. So even if many facts about the world are told, others remain hidden or at least vague for the narrator never explains in detail what the hero already knows or is common knowledge in the world.
Hero/Heroine: The main character is Omar Bakhoum, nicknamed “Omar the Immortal”, some kind of a scholar from the Empire of Eran. He is on a quest to discover the origin of the “sun-steel” and its mystic qualities. He is sure, the answer to his questions lays on the island Ysland far up in the North and he accompanies an airship expedition across the frozen wilder-ness of Europe. As I said narrative voice made it a little difficult to really connect to Omar, to understand what’s driving him for it’s too impassionate and distant. From what little the reader got to know his quest for understanding one of the founding pillars of his world sounds definite-ly interesting. But for now one can only hope that his story will continue in one of the later books since there are most of the questions still open.
Conclusion: This book is not so much a story on its own but more a prelude to a much bigger story, opening up quite a few story lines but resolving almost none of them. It gives a first glance of a new, inventive and quite intriguing world and it most certainly got me hooked.
PS: For anyone who wonders: This book was first published under the title “Omar the Immor-tal” as first part of the “Europa”-Trilogy.
… and they are actually using them. If nothing else that made the world real to me.
But let’s not rush ahead, let’s start at the beginning. If you pick up this book based on the blurb, you are most certainly in for a disappointment. Sure, everything mentioned on the back cover happens over the curse of this story, but it doesn’t do it any justice. Those events are not the essence of the story. It’s not so much a mystery or an adventure story, it’s more like a travel report, giving the reader a first impression of a new and fascinating alternate earth, where the last ice age never ended and Europe is nothing more than icy, barbarian wilderness.
Luckily I didn’t take the book up based on the back cover. Being a big fan of all things Steam-punk I’m always searching for new reading material. So, some time ago I came across “The Burning Sky” by Joseph Robert Lewis which was the first part of the “Halcyon-Trilogy”. The description sounded quite interesting and I marked that book as to be read. Then many things came in between and I all but forgot about the book. When I came back to it just a few weeks ago I had to realize, that those books were no longer available. Out of interest I looked up what other books Lewis might have written and stumble upon “Assassins of the Steam Age” being the first part of the “Aetherium-Series”. What caught my eye was the blurb because it was the exact same as the one of “The burning Sky”. Lewis obviously took the “Halcyon-Trilogy” and the following “Europa-Trilogy” and “Chimera-Duology” which are set in the same world, gave them new titles and a new order as the series “Aetherium”. I really wanted to read “Assassins of the Steam Age” then, but when I found out, that there was a prelude (and that I might get the whole series for free if I read and review said prelude) I decided to start at the beginning and took up “Wreck of the Frost Finch”. And I think that was a good decision.
Writing/Storytelling: The Story is told from the hero’s point of view. The narrative voice however is mostly unjudging, free of anything what might be the hero’s personal opinion or emotions, regaling anything that happens on the airship journey in the same neutral, slightly distant tone. Landscape or murder seemingly doesn’t make any difference to the narrator. As I said, the whole story seemed more like a travel report, than an adventure or mystery. On the one hand that made it difficult for me to connect with the hero, one the other hand it gave me a great, unbiased view of the narrative world.
World/World building: Being a builder of fantasy and science fiction worlds myself, the world and the way it’s build are of great importance to me in any book I read. A wonderful and care-fully crafted world with an inherent logic can do much for me, even amend for a not so well crafted story. I don’t expect a fictitious world to follow our universe’s laws of physic, but I ex-pect it to have its own “natural laws” – how strange they ever may be – and stick to them. And in that expectation, this book rewarded me greatly. I will not say its world is perfect for I have never encountered one so far (Not even Tolkien’s Middle Earth), but from the glimpse I got in this book, it sure as hell has the potential.
It’s fresh and inventive, with a premise I’ve never encountered before: The last ice age never ended. Europe is mostly buried under tons of ice and snow, with only very few coastal valleys being inhabitable. There never was a Roman Empire, nor the many middle age kingdoms or the vast British Empire. The centre of Civilisation in the world are the kingdoms – or more accu-rate “Queendoms” for they obviously have female succession rules – of northern Africa and the Middle East. These countries are technologically advanced, having airships and being able to generate electricity from sunlight or wind. No timeframe is given for reference, but from the feel of it, it seemed like late nineteenth century to me. And while there are nations highly advanced there are other regions of a merely barbaric technology level with prehistoric creatures still roaming the vast, cold wilderness. And with the “Aetherium”, the sun-steel, and the souls of the dead wandering the earth and even interacting with the living the world holds an interesting mystical and even magical element that waits to be fleshed out in the following novels.
The world building didn’t seem too obvious to me, but then, sending the hero on a trip into the unknown, letting him tell what he sees, what he encounters on his travels is a neat trick. Albeit I have to say if seen this gone wrong many times. Not so here. While the narrator gives the reader lots of information of this world, there are no info dumps and never once the narrative voice tells something just to inform the reader. So even if many facts about the world are told, others remain hidden or at least vague for the narrator never explains in detail what the hero already knows or is common knowledge in the world.
Hero/Heroine: The main character is Omar Bakhoum, nicknamed “Omar the Immortal”, some kind of a scholar from the Empire of Eran. He is on a quest to discover the origin of the “sun-steel” and its mystic qualities. He is sure, the answer to his questions lays on the island Ysland far up in the North and he accompanies an airship expedition across the frozen wilder-ness of Europe. As I said narrative voice made it a little difficult to really connect to Omar, to understand what’s driving him for it’s too impassionate and distant. From what little the reader got to know his quest for understanding one of the founding pillars of his world sounds definite-ly interesting. But for now one can only hope that his story will continue in one of the later books since there are most of the questions still open.
Conclusion: This book is not so much a story on its own but more a prelude to a much bigger story, opening up quite a few story lines but resolving almost none of them. It gives a first glance of a new, inventive and quite intriguing world and it most certainly got me hooked.
PS: For anyone who wonders: This book was first published under the title “Omar the Immor-tal” as first part of the “Europa”-Trilogy.
October 12, 2020
~It is a short story…I’m okay with that. I did not care for the main character. He left me kinda cold. Not someone I’d want on my team or in my crew (maybe he has some redeeming characteristics that will come out in the future).
~Did not care for the ending seemed that the story just stopped…there wasn’t truly an ending.
~In the books favor, I did not realize that it was a prequel when I read it. That would explain why it ended abruptly…it wasn’t really the ending (eight more books in the series).
~I can’t really complain about something, or fault the author, if I don’t give the series a fair try. However, I can’t give it five stars because it is a prequel…a teaser, if you will…and it did NOT entice me to continue on to the next book in the series.
~Did not care for the ending seemed that the story just stopped…there wasn’t truly an ending.
~In the books favor, I did not realize that it was a prequel when I read it. That would explain why it ended abruptly…it wasn’t really the ending (eight more books in the series).
~I can’t really complain about something, or fault the author, if I don’t give the series a fair try. However, I can’t give it five stars because it is a prequel…a teaser, if you will…and it did NOT entice me to continue on to the next book in the series.
May 30, 2022
This very short book (a bit too long to be called a short story but a bit too short to be a novella) is an introduction to the Aetherium series.
Steampunk, ghosts, ninja blades, airships, you name it, it's all mashed up here. Which is usually not my cup of tea - I often feel that plots with too much going on lose coherence. Hence the two stars.
But I sometimes go out of my comfort zone and it was short enough to be bereable. And it gives you an idea of what to expect of the series, which is something I apreciate in this case.
So I've decided to give the first book of the series a try - since I had already bought it anyway - and hopefully the plot will be a little more to my taste.
Steampunk, ghosts, ninja blades, airships, you name it, it's all mashed up here. Which is usually not my cup of tea - I often feel that plots with too much going on lose coherence. Hence the two stars.
But I sometimes go out of my comfort zone and it was short enough to be bereable. And it gives you an idea of what to expect of the series, which is something I apreciate in this case.
So I've decided to give the first book of the series a try - since I had already bought it anyway - and hopefully the plot will be a little more to my taste.
February 27, 2018
A fun short introduction to the series
This is a long short story that introduces one main character and hopefully another supporting character for the series. It's a fun story in its own right and I hope the series is is good.
This is a long short story that introduces one main character and hopefully another supporting character for the series. It's a fun story in its own right and I hope the series is is good.
November 12, 2019
Short story (didn't realize how short when I started reading it), but a decent tale. It's been done before, but the story was entertaining nonetheless, so don't hesitate to give it a try if it comes into your hands.
June 9, 2019
I kept trying to figure out if this was set in an alternative distant past or a distant present, so I spent too much brain power on that, but I did like the characters and the setting.
November 26, 2019
I didn't realize this was a #0 before I was a good distance through so I guess it lacks on the character and worldbuilding that a prequel shouldn't have anyway.
Will look into the other books.
Will look into the other books.
January 15, 2015
3.5
(Read status updates to construct yourself a review.)
It started off with the consideration of a 5 or 4.5 (potential).
During the middle I thought about giving it a 4.5 or 4 and decided on a solid 4.
Then the last 2 chapters came and ruined the story and the atmosphere that I previously perceived, so I decided on a 3.5.
Not sure what to make of the writing style. I'd describe it as "observant" and descriptive while not being biased (which I liked). While reading on I discovered some of the advantages and disadvantages (and effects) to it but I'm not sure whether the disadvantages may have been avoided while still keeping that writing style.
(Read status updates to construct yourself a review.)
It started off with the consideration of a 5 or 4.5 (potential).
During the middle I thought about giving it a 4.5 or 4 and decided on a solid 4.
Then the last 2 chapters came and ruined the story and the atmosphere that I previously perceived, so I decided on a 3.5.
Not sure what to make of the writing style. I'd describe it as "observant" and descriptive while not being biased (which I liked). While reading on I discovered some of the advantages and disadvantages (and effects) to it but I'm not sure whether the disadvantages may have been avoided while still keeping that writing style.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2021
I received this book free from LibraryThing in return for an honest review.
I found this story enjoyable. I really like the main character. I idea behind the story is intrigues me.
Omar is a warrior, who has a mystical sword. He has found a way to live forever. The sword holds the souls of all who have been slain by it, & they are under the power of the bearer of the sword.
This short story has Omar looking for the Ysland where the sun- steel, which the sword is made of, is originally from.
I found this story enjoyable. I really like the main character. I idea behind the story is intrigues me.
Omar is a warrior, who has a mystical sword. He has found a way to live forever. The sword holds the souls of all who have been slain by it, & they are under the power of the bearer of the sword.
This short story has Omar looking for the Ysland where the sun- steel, which the sword is made of, is originally from.
June 19, 2015
What Omar Bakhoum seeks in Europe beyond the ice is a island (Ysland) of the "sun-steel", a island of immortals like himself, and their secrets about souls and aether, what he and Captain Riuza Ngozi of the Frost Finch is something else entirely and could mean their end, lost and injured with no way to return to civilization.
August 14, 2015
This was a fun read that established a lot of world-building, but it did it in an interesting and organic way. The souls of the dead, apparently, linger in this world and can be gathered by sun-steel, which some people have forged into weapons. Exploring a world that is different than ours but similar, Lewis does a good job of making his reader want more.
December 3, 2025
Based in the ice age never recessed form Europe. It stays in a steam age and Africa and the Middle East is where civilization develops. The story follows an air ship/ blimp is on a mapping trip of frozen Europe.
October 14, 2015
Very good
This is another good steampunk related type of story once again. Ok, so it does have that moments within the story, but it's still good to read.
This is another good steampunk related type of story once again. Ok, so it does have that moments within the story, but it's still good to read.
October 4, 2015
Cracking yarn
As the heading says..nothing complicated but well written, good characterisation and a driving plot. Well worth a look. Download it.
As the heading says..nothing complicated but well written, good characterisation and a driving plot. Well worth a look. Download it.
February 17, 2023
Three stars for the world, two stars for the characters. Struggled to tell some apart even by the end.
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