Splinter Town

by Peter Maloy

An impossible wooden town built inside an ancient volcano off the coast of England.A clash of ideologies five hundred years in the making.A discovery in a shipwreck brings an Assassin-Thief to Splinterton.Tales of bravery, madness, folly and redemption unfold as the people of Splinterton face a battle for their independence. They will need help from their traditional allies, and terrifying new ones.Set in 1924, this genre-defying novel weaves its story lines around a background of steam-level science fiction with a strong cast of characters.

321 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 10, 2021

About the author

Busy packing as many experiences into one life as is humanly possible.

Started out moving people from all walks of life across the United Kingdom and Europe, went on to make approach path landing lights in case the Space Shuttle ever landed in Spain. Wrote software for prototypes of GameBoy Advance, and very early GPS devices.

If all goes to plan, heading to the fourth country I'll have lived in towards the end of 2023.

I've met ambassadors, aristocracy, and rather menacing East End... gentlemen. It has been a blast!

Reviews

[Ben Maloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed my first trip through the Splinter Town universe, and am excited to return once I pick up my physical copy. The world is quite unlike any in any novel I have read previously; being both familiar and resonant with our own world, and offering majestic and fantastical diversions from our reality that kept me hooked at each new discovery.

Splinter Town and the outside world is peopled with a myriad cast of characters with their own agendas and priorities, bolstered by intriguing main characters who you can't help but get attached to. Stories of folley, redemption, madness, and political intrigue abound, making Splinter Town a real page-turner.

I am excited to revisit Splinter Town, the immerse myself in the wonderful world within, and I look forward to further installments to come!

[Stella Jorette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splinter Town, an autonomous island nation off the coast of Wales, must fend off an English incursion! Will the ingenuity of the town's people, their spies, and the efforts of a rogue assassin be enough to to keep the town independent? And what evil propels the corrupt prime minister and his allies?

This genre defying book is a fun read. Highly atmospheric with rust and brine aplenty, and full of unexpected twists and turns. The town is richly described and unique. My only quibble is a court scene that regurgitates much of the story; however, the verdict is spot on.

[Scuffed Granny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Maloy’s book has much to offer the reader in terms of imagination. His visualisation of a town built on a caldera in the middle of the Bristol Channel is reminiscent of the roaming cities of Mortal Engines in its ability to be self-sufficient and in the pride of the people inhabiting it. I liked the idea of this stand-alone island and Maloy has created a colourful mass of characters to occupy it who come across as simple folk who all get along and are quite happy to be separate from everyone else.

Obviously, the countries surrounding them have different ideas and Splinterton as it is known in the book, becomes embroiled in a plot which threatens to take over its little dominion and its valuable natural resources.

This book is a hotchpotch as there are elements of many genres of fiction mixed here: mild fantasy in the creation of Splinterton itself and the Syrenis; political in the machinations of the different countries and their keenness for power; espionage in the form of Martlet; steam punk in the resourcefulness and inventiveness of the people of Splinterton ; and black humour in the creation of the order of St Valencia la Fey, a group of fighting nuns who pride themselves on their madness.

And for the most part it works quite well as all the different elements combine effectively to drive the plot to its conclusion.

One thing that I did find difficult about the book is the formatting of the dialogue as it could have been better controlled with more effective punctuation. The author has also chosen to use capitalisation for certain nouns in the book and I wonder if this has been done as a stylistic feature, to emulate older fiction where this would have been accepted in the narrative; a unique quirk that mirrors the historical feel of Splinterton itself.

There are some dark episodes in this book which I think could have been made more tense: there is one particularly gruesome discovery which, in its discussion by the characters, I felt, lacked depth, the findings of the search party blandly discussing it in very basic terms and almost flippantly.

All in all, I quite liked Splinter Town, it having particular resonance for me as someone who is familiar with the places mentioned even if the borders in Maloy’s book are different in his fictional world.

This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery where I had the privilege to read it as an ARC.

[Peter Maloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well... I wrote it, and it is... not bad!

This is a debut book - probably a little rough round the edges, but I left it for 4 months before doing the final round of edits, and I can honestly say I found myself enjoying the story as I read it again.

There's a lot to explore, I'm setting up a world that is very close to the 1920s (at least in Britain), but with some significant differences due to a cataclysmic event thousands of years in the past. The world is inhabited by very diverse characters, and the story weaves its way between them before arriving at a dramatic conclusion.

[Jessica Lucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splinter Town by Peter Maloy is a fantastical read. It is set in an alternate 1920s British universe that edges on steampunk and post-apocalyptic concepts. The characters were well drawn, and there is plenty of action to keep them busy.