The Bureau of Extraordinaires

by C.L. Bevill

Major Silas Deveraux will never be the same after enduring terrible experiments performed by mad scientists during the Civil War. In the aftermath he joins the newly formed Bureau of Extraordinaires in order to protect men such as himself. After traveling to New Orleans to investigate the mysterious deaths of other extraordinaires he encounters a young woman named Agatha. She is also an extraordinaire but a very different type with origins a thousand times more enigmatic than his own. Together they work to uncover a most diabolic plot that has more secrets than tick marks on an aether meter’s clockwork face.

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 21, 2018

About the author

C.L. Bevill has been in the U.S. Army, cleaned floors, a graphic illustrator, a therapist, and a stay at home mother. She lives in the Alabama area with her husband and daughter and keeps plugging away at the next great American novel.

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining fantasy listening 🤓

This kindle ebook novel is free from Amazon

A story that starts with the civil war where experiments were done on prisoners. The war ends but strange events are happening around the country. A Bureau is formed to investigate and the fun begins!

I would recommend this novel and author to readers of fantasy world 🌐 adventures action thriller novels 😊🙃 2025 👮🌜

[Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting is interesting (steampunk post-Civil War New Orleans), the characters are great (essentially, superheroes translated to the steampunk setting), and the plot is lively, so this could be a fun read. But the writing is terrible, and kept pushing me out of the story. It’s frustrating, because a helpfully ruthless editor could have fixed this pretty easily. The problem is a combination of occasional overwriting and frequent wrong word choices.

Here’s an unusually painful example, from a passage where the author is explaining (in passing) the overarching political and social dynamics of her alternate-history setting:

The war had caused an unsettling detonation of technology that disrupted every facet of the Americas. No one had been left unimpaired by the changes that the conflict had wrought. Farmers and country folk had been forced to become factory workers and learn accordingly. Consequently, the advent of how factories were adapting were fraught with what it took to become economical and effective. This was, of course, at the cost of the workers. Whispers on the wind spoke to changes in laws that would protect those who were being utilized by the very wealthy, but those types of modifications would take time.

Taking the historicity of this vision as a given (it’s science fiction, after all), this passage has several pain points. The word should be ‘explosion’, not detonation; ‘disrupted every facet’ should be ‘shattered every facet’ or ‘disrupted every aspect’; ‘unimpaired’ should be ‘untouched’; ‘the advent of how factories were adapting were fraught’ is ungrammatical. It and the following sentence should probably be combined into something like, ‘Struggling to stay competitive, factories treated their workers badly, with little care for their well-being or safety.’ Finally, ‘Whispers on the wind spoke to changes in laws’ is cliche and clunky. The combined effect is that, instead of being drawn into an expansive feeling of wonder, imagining what this world could be like, I found myself groaning and struggling to get back into the plot.

Other problems are more sporadic - ‘inferred’ when the author means ‘implied’; the hero is described as an ‘animalistic beast’ - is there another kind? -; phrases use the wrong prepositions.

This author has written multiple books, but, as best I can see, no others set in this world. If there were others, I would be tempted to try them, hoping the writing improved.

[Lucinda G. DeLap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adventure, mad scientists, extraordinary humans that are both good and bad & one very silly character

I love this book! The people are so interesting to follow thru the book. The things that the author had created is unbelievable amass had me searching for a second book. Please tell me there will be more. I love all of these characters.

[Dana Linde · Rating 4 out of 5]

As steampunk fantasy goes, I found the book engaging. I enjoyed the main characters and their personal struggles. The supernatural experiments which led them to become members of the bureau were interesting to follow along with their tinkering to abolish the newest version of extraordinaires. Etta and Nurse Cheval especially engaging, fun characters. I felt some issues were left unresolved including what happens to Dr. Morrow and Agatha's father. I would also have loved further development of some of the relationships. Another difficulty was wrapping my head about the aether technologies being described.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful steampunk adventure. During the Civil War scientists experimented on prisoners of war to create super soldiers. After the war, these augmented men try to fit back into the world but leaving families behind. In the 1870s a Bureau of Extrordinaries is formed both to protect the men and police them. There is a report of many of them in New Orleans but there is also someone killing them in gruesome ways. While they look for the killer they find out that experiments are still going on.

[Jocelyn Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is full of fun characters, unexpected twists, and a unique supernatural premise that kept me hooked from start to finish. I loved the clever dialogue and the way Bevill built such a fascinating world around the Bureau. I had such a great time reading this book that I'm genuinely sad there's no Book 2. (Yet??) I would absolutely love to see more adventures in this world.

[Yeloroze 72 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary Read...lol

Loved this! It Have my imagination a lot of creative freedom while reading. I love images that just jump off the page and strike your imagination. Post Civil War era and in New Orleans for the setting was perfect. Hoping for more!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! I was hoping after reading this that this was going to be a series! I enjoy steampunk & this was a different take on the genre. Maybe one day @clbevill will pick it back up & write more in this story!

[Harriette E Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun Read!

I really enjoyed this book. It was different enough from my usual reading materials that I found out difficult to put out down. I will definitely be reading more books from this author.

[Carl M. Hames · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional

C.L. Continues to outdo herself. Great story and characters. Exciting from start to finish. I loved her slant on history and technology.

[Jeremy L Quintanilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darn good read.

Good story, interesting characters and a great way to get away from things and get lost in a steampunk world

[aem · Rating 4 out of 5]

entertaining. quite a bit of gore!

[sherry laz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am blown away!

I have known for a long time that Mrs Bevill is an excellent writer! I love the Bubba series, Veiled Eyes...all of them! This book is on a whole different level of excellence! A blend of diverse, smart, funny, and intriguing characters take us down an ingenous path of history and sci-fi blended with action, adventure and mystery! (Sorry for the run on sentence...just paying homage to this wonderful author!)
I cannot wait for book 2 to come out! I hope you take the time to download and read this book today!! You won't regret it!!