Heart of Veridon

The Burn Cycle #1

by Tim Akers

Jacob Burn: pilot, criminal and disgraced son of one of the founding families of the ancient city of Veridon. When an old friend delivers to him a strange artifact, Jacob's world crashes down around him as he runs not only from the law but also from those who were once friends. But even as the array of machines and strange creatures stalk him through the streets of Veridon, something even more sinister and dangerous makes its move against him, an entity that will make Jacob question everything he thought he knew about himself and the city.
Heart of Veridon marks the start of a superb new trilogy from an exciting new author, set in an exotic fantasy world.

Genres: Steampunk, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery, Ebooks

473 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Tim Akers was born in deeply rural North Carolina, the only son of a theologian. He moved to Chicago for college, where he lives with his wife of thirteen years and their German shepherd. He splits his time between databases and fountain pens.
- PyrSF

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

This is a very enjoyable steampunk novel that has a bit more science fiction than it does alternative history. It is an intimate story about a former pilot named Jacob Burns (Pilots are augmented people that are as much machine as they are flesh and blood which enables them to interface and thus fly zeppelins) all told in the first person.

Much of the book takes place in the strange city of Veridon and centers on the struggles of the Church of the Algorithm versus the Artificers. Although there is some quality world building around this unique setting, I feel that it was left untapped and that it could have been so much more. Maybe in subsequent books it will be more fully realized.

“I shrugged. The Church of the Algorithm was a strange group. That being said, they were the dominant religious organization in the city. Veridon was blessed with many mysteries, but the most profitable mysteries were the strange vessels that floated down the river at regular intervals. No one knew where they came from, or who sent them. They contained random collections of cog, half-built machines and enigmatic autonomic artwork. The Church of the Algorithm was built on the belief that these vessels were messages from a hidden God far upriver. They lived their lives trying to reassemble the machines, to reveal the nature of their deity. They worshipped a hidden pattern. We owed them a lot, sadly. Their divinations led to many of the technological discoveries that kept Veridon the dominant power on this edge of the world.”

Most of the book is action sequence involving Jacob and how damn difficult he is to kill…followed by unique settings and easy dialogue.

“Jacob Burn, the most charming man to ever survive two zepliner crashes, one of which he caused. Why, you must have to drive the ladies away with a stick”

The writing is sufficient and reads well, and is suitable for the young adult crowd.

“Emily gasped; her eyes open wide and full of fear. She breathed in, struggling, her hands clawing against the old wood of the chair. She looked at me and I flinched back. She tried to scream and burbled instead. Viscous gray liquid bubbled out of her throat and ran like syrup over her teeth and down her chin. Frantically, I pulled at the pipe but it wouldn’t budge. It felt hooked to her ribs. When it tore free a thin line of sandy metal streamed out and then stopped, resting against her chest. Emily spasmed and fell to the floor.”

This book had some cool steampunk machines. There were quite a few interesting side characters, including a literal “Spider Man”. I had fun reading this book but was left with an over feeling of being unsatisfied. It could have been more, and it could have been a bit longer. Overall worth a read for fans of the genre and good enough that I will seek out the next installment.

[Mpauli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart of Veridon is an entertaining genre mix set in a highly imaginative world. Foremost it is a Steampunk novel with zepliners flying through the air and many protagonists having complicated clockwork augmentations done to their body.
But this Steampunk scenario isn't based in London or the weird west, it's set in a imaginative fantasy city, the name giving metropolis Veridon. We have strange gods or the non-human race of the anansi, a human-spider hybrid.
Not everything about this world is completely explained as the reader is taking on the roller coaster ride of the plot.
The plot itself reminds me of good old spy-, sf- or cyber-punk archs, where the main protagonist, Jacob Burn, gets in possesion of a mysterious artifact, which is chased by various factions. Caught between Thugs, the police and a creepy Clockwork Angel Jacob has not much time to figure out the mysteries enshrouding the artifact, while staying alive at the same time.

The story is told in first person from Jacob's pov. I'm usually a fan of multiple third person povs, but for this story the format works really well.
There were a few things that didn't really make sense for me regarding the religions, but all in all this was a fun fast paced read that I enjoyed a lot.

The story wraps up completely in this volume, so there is no need to directly head into the sequel Dead of Veridon. But I think, I'm going to visit this fascinating world again rather sooner than later.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb debut; after reading the free fiction set in Veridon on the author's site a while ago, I kind of forgot about this marvelous setting until I read the short story “A Soul Stitched to Iron” featuring Jacob Burn the dispossessed nobleman, "steampunk cyborg" and former pilot working for organized crime which was a highlight of the superb Solaris Sf 3 for me.

The novel is written in first person with Jacob as a narrator and has a superb opening paragraph that cannot but hook you:

"I was on the Glory of Day when she fell out of the sky. I rode the flames and shattered gears down into the cold, dark Reine, survived
because I was only half-alive to begin with. Two times I’ve been dragged out of the wreckage of a zepliner, two times I’ve walked away. This time I was just a passenger. The first time I was captain, Pilot, and only survivor. The sky doesn’t like me much."

Veridon is a conflicted city between the old aristocracy, the new rich, and the Church of the Algorithm that made zepliners and other "steampunk tech" possible

Jacob Burn is a scion of the oldest nobility thrown out of house by his father Alexander after his failure as Pilot, later employed by cogwork underground wheeler-dealer Valentine and his right hand Cacher, while having a crush on Emily the "independent" operator who is Cacher's official girlfriend.

When he is entrusted a mysterious object on Glory by a dying associate, Jacob becomes a marked man and the center attention of various factions, one more sinister than other, so much so that Valentine does an "Alexander" on him and "disowns" him too; business as he puts it...

On his own Jacob finds two stalwart partners in Emily and a mysterious "bug-man", the "Anansi" Wilson, former engineer and savant until the Council cracked down on his Artificer order, and tries to figure what is the mysterious object and how to get of the mess alive.

A standalone with a definite ending but promising more in this great setting, Heart of Veridon is just superb and highly, highly recommended.
I truly hope that there will be more Veridon novels.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one of those books that's been sitting unread on my shelf (and/or Kindle) for entirely too long.

Our protagonist this time around is one Jacob Burn, scion of one of the great ruling families of Veridon, now estranged from his family and scraping out an altogether disreputable living consorting with criminals and ladies of easily-negotiated virtue. And as things begin, he barely escapes from a crashing zeppelin on his way back from completing a task, then gets invited to a party thrown by one of the heirs of one of the other ruling houses of Veridon, and then the murders begin.

Almost enough to make one nostalgic for the crashing zeppelin.

This is a steampunk-inflected book (and Jacob himself is very much steampunk-enhanced), but falls much more heavily on the weird end of the spectrum, more concerned with worm-animated river corpses than with top hats and goggles. Veridon is a fascinating, frequently horrific and/or grotesque place, adjectives that could be equally applied to many of its inhabitants, and Jacob is an intriguing and highly opinionated narrator, and I'll be happy to continue onward to the next book in the set.

[Yune · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steampunkish, reveling in its disturbing juxtaposition of people and cogs, religion and the grimy underworld and the aristocracy of the founders of Veridon.

There were some great ideas in here, and the setting is wonderfully weird, but the characters felt flat to me even as they got pulled into the whorls of a deep and deeper conspiracy. Too deep; I stopped feeling shocked early on and just waved the hero onward as he got into more trouble.

Sadly, one of the foremost thoughts in my mind is that this would make an awesome RPG premise.

[DEGEN Psychonaut · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great surprise. I had this on my TBR and put it off because of some reviews, but it was excellent and had incredible imagry and storyline that sucked me right in.

[ᴥ Irena ᴥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost didn't read this. Why would anyone mark this as young adult is beyond me. This is not a young adult novel. There is absolutely nothing young adult about it.

Heart of Veridon is written in the first person.
Jacob Burn is a criminal working for a very powerful crime lord in Veridon. He is an exiled son of one of the nobles. He and his father haven’t seen each other for a long time. Somehow, he finds himself on a zepliner whose whole crew gets slaughtered and an old friend entrusts him with a Cog to take to Veridon. That gets him into a whole lot of trouble.
All of the sudden different groups want something from him and all he knows is that everything goes back to that Cog.

The world Tim Akers created is rich and complicated. There are different factions trying to rule the city. Most of the Founding families had to sell their seats on the Council and those new ones are making their own deals. The Badge, which is Veridon police force, is after Jacob Burn too and he will have to wait for a long time in this story to understand why. All those factions in the city, with the addition of one unexpected, are after him. Even the Church of the Algorithm is involved somehow.

People in Veridon are not the only one who live there. There is a species living in the river, the Fehn. They take their share of the dead and make them their own. They are more than creepy. There are also anansi, spider or bug-like people. One of them plays a very important role in the story.

What I found impressive is how the author combined the machinery and flesh in this world. For example, one of the first scenes you see is the pilot of the zepliner Jacob is travelling on. The pilots are trained and modified to fly with the help of the patterns given by the Church of the Algorithm. Considering the fact that everything in Veridon depends on machinery and those patterns, you can imagine how powerful the Church is.

Another fascinating thing are the engram performances. Well, they are disgusting too in a way. Basically, bugs enter the body and completely change a person.

'Well, the way that the Summer Girl works, the way all engram singers work, is the maker beetles. That and the queen fetus. The Artificers burn a pattern into the queen, the queen takes up residence in the singer’s internal machinery, and then the beetles burrow their way—'

As I said, fascinating and disgusting. Not a fan of bugs.

I would like Jacob Burn more if I knew more about him sooner. You don’t
get much in the first half of the story, but I understand the reason for this. You know more about him while he searches for the explanation of the cog and his own connection to it.

The story touches the history and founding of the city, then the present power struggles and all that through Jacob Burn’s experiences. But the book is confined to Veridon. It is only mentioned that somewhere 'far away' there is a city more advanced than Veridon. You don’t get much of the outside world. Veridon itself is shown only through those power struggles..

I didn’t like the rushed ending either.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Waffled back and forth between two and three stars for this one. I felt like I should have liked this book a lot more than I did. It's got an interesting set-up and the world is something that would typically interest me. It's got several intriguing races living in a city powered by magical clockwork. It almost seems a bit reminiscent of China Mieville's Bas-Lag, which is one of my favorite worlds. Still I mostly felt bored reading this book. It jumps right into the action and there's nearly non-stop action and development after that. Which I think ended up being my biggest problem. I didn't have time to care. I gather that the author has other Veridon short fiction, which might have helped to have read it first because then maybe I would have felt a bit more interested and involved in the world. As it is, I really disliked the main character and nearly every other character in the book, which I'm assuming I wasn't supposed to. The main character manages to be bitterly suspicious and stupidly naive at once, and his only retort seems to be 'fuck you'. The only characters I felt some amount of connection with were the angels, who were basically the bad guys. I spent the whole book after the reveal about who they are waiting for them to bring down some bloody vengeance on the entire crappy city.

[Ylva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edit: the more I think of this story the more sympathy I have with the villains and less with the heroes, and I'm not sure this was the intent. I'm dropping my rating with at least a star for now.

Took me a while because I took a looong break before reading the last 40% in one day.

I loved the heavy fantasy element, as opposed to the usual late 1800's London setting (at least in the books I've read). This is a whole other world, and I really enjoyed the world-building, the religious overtones and the creatures. My only complaint is that I did not like the main charater very much, and found some of his actions really thoughtless.

Also, can't believe I shelved this all the way back in 2014. Proves there's good stuff in my way wayyy old backlog.

[Scooby Doo · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is steampunk? OK, so it's fantasy, but without swords and magic? Some alternate reality that doesn't have modern technology, but ... gears? Gears seem to get mentioned a lot.

I generally don't like books where I can't anticipate the story because it takes place in a world where I don't know the rules.

However, the writing was pretty good, and I found this "steampunk" unusual and intriguing. The fight scenes were overly long and the protagonist is basically indestructible so kind of boring.

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was kind of strange and not enough fun to stick with it for another 350 pages. From the cover and the description it sounds like some cool fantasy, sci-fi thing and those elements are definitely there, it just reads more like a detective novel. The main character doesn't really have much personality other than being a tough guy. There's a fair amount of action and some cool scenes, but just didn't grab me enough to keep reading when I have couple hundred other books on my shelves waiting.

[Twig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fantastic!! The world and the characters are super interesting. I loved the whole Steampunk setting and all the complex ideas about how the world in this books work. The characters were smart and likeable and I absolutley want to know what happend to Jacob next. It was a fantastic start and Im so excited to read the next one.

[Ian James · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great Gear Punk book

[Myra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where nothing happens and nobody says anything of import.

Jacob Burn is the disgraced son of a noble, and he manages to survive the crashing of not just one airship, but TWO. Just before the crash, he is given a Cog, which is different than other cog devices he’s seen, and some insistent gear-y folks are after it.

Queue action, meaningless dialog, more action, wounds!, action, more pointless dialog, falling, flying, gears, cogs, spider people, the church, action, action, more wounds!, and characters as flat as pennies. Jacob is a jerk. And he punches people. Often after agreeing to treat with them.

At first I thought this was a cool world and would be an interesting story but honestly nothing happens over pages and pages of action and dialog that don’t solve problems (if you didn’t get that idea from my super technical list).

It’s trying to be like a James Bond steampunk book but it falls so flat. Also, the formatting was annoying. The margins are so wide that the paragraphs all have short lines, making the book unnecessarily thick and my eyes tired.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the world that Akers created, I liked the noir feel of the book, and how the plot kept moving forward relentlessly. I also appreciated that although it's part of a series, it's a self-contained novel, with no need to read the next one unless you want to. An engrossing read.

[Charles Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only people who do steampunk right are Tim Akers and China Mieville. Only they capture the mix of awe and horror that comes with combining industrial-age technology with information-age interest in AI and biological enhancement. So much fun, and a little gross.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admittedly didn't know what to expect with this book, as I'm not a huge fan of the steampunk genre. However, The Heart of Veridon turned out to be an entertaining enough read. I enjoyed the characters and the general flow of the story. It was a little lackluster in some areas, such as vague references to the main charterer's past or of the history of his city.

My only complaint was the abundance of grammatical errors. Good god, please get an editor, or if you have one, hire a new one. That was 400+ pages of improper punctuation and incomplete sentences.

[Stiltzkin Vanserine · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Very interesting world
2. Good action
3. Lacks character development
4. Steampunk thriller
5. Ending is abrupt, but makes you want to read more

[Bryce Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite on the same level as Perdido Street Station or The Library at Mount Char, but features a similarly crafted and unique setting, and a satisfyingly grim plot.

[Erik Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steampunk beach read. A hero who just can't sit always equals a book that just keeps giving in the action department. Decent world building and action but not too much depth of characters

[matthew kettelhut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantstic.

[Levi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really gory. Full of despair, decay, and betrayal. Not for me.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dieses Buch war ein reiner Coverkauf. Naja, und ein "Es ist Steampunk!"-Kauf. Da es noch immer eine eher kleine Gattung auf dem deutschsprachigen Literaturmarkt ist, darf man nicht wählerisch sein. "Das Herz von Veridon" ist der Auftakt einer Reihe um die Stadt Veridon und Held Jacob Burn.

Dem Buch selber stehe ich zweigeteilt gegenüber. Genauer gesagt, hat mich bisher selten ein Buch so sehr gespalten. Einerseits gefällt mir die Stadt Veridon sehr gut, ich habe mich in ihr verloren und mich treiben lassen. Wie gerne würde ich sie mal mit eigenen Augen sehen! Auch die Ideen, die Akers in seine Geschichte einbindet, sind einzigartig und richtig schön steampunkig. Die Spinnenwesen der Anansi haben mir neben der Stadt am besten gefallen.

Andererseits konnte mich weder Handlung, noch Figuren überzeugen. Währen die schönen Einfälle, die Beschreibungen der Stadt und Wilson, der Anansi, nicht gewesen, hätte ich, wenn nicht abgebrochen, so doch das Buch aussortiert und keinen Gedanken mehr an die Reihe verschwendet.

Akers Sprachstil war mir zu simpel, so glitscht einfach so runter, ohne Spuren zu hinterlassen. Es kam für mich keine Spannung auf und obwohl immer irgendetwas passiert, wie in einem Action-Film, so hatte ich doch selten das Gefühl, dass es mich interessiert, wie es nun weitergeht.

Die Charaktere selbst sind alle ziemlich farblos und gehen in der Masse an Buchfiguren unter. Sie stechen durch nichts hinaus und mir war es auch relativ gleichgültig, was nun mit ihnen geschehen würde. Wenn ich gefragt würde, wie ich Jacob und dessen Freundin Emily beschreiben würde, ich könnte nicht antworten. Weil sie keinen Charakter haben.

Deshalb sitze ich nun hier und überlege, wie es weitergehen soll. Ja, ich möchte nach Veridon zurück. Nein, ich möchte Jacob nicht noch durch ein weiteres Abenteuer folgen müssen. Eine Alternative wäre, die Bücher auf Englisch zu lesen; wir wissen ja alle, dass durch eine schlechte Übersetzung sehr viel verloren gehen kann.

Das Cover zu Band zwei sieht auf jeden Fall sehr spannend auf und würde mich auch grundsätzlich interessieren (Zombies, yeah!). Aber dieses Buch beweist wieder einmal, wie schwer es ist, wirklich gute Steampunk-Bücher auf dem deutschen Markt zu finden.

Irgendwie macht mich das grad ziemlich traurig…

[Linda Jaejoong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Endlich habe ich mich an das Steampunk Genre getraut und ich wurde nicht enttäuscht. "Das Herz von Veridon" ist eine spannende Erzählung die sich um den Gauner und Ex-Piloten Jacob Burn dreht. Er ist auf der Rückreise von einem Auftrag und freut sich schon wieder nach Veridon zu kommen, aber es kommt anders als er denkt. Die Reise mit dem Zepplin endet blutig und er ist der einzige Überlebende des Absturzes. Was hat es mit dem geheimen Mechagen auf sich das er an Bord erhält?? Warun wollen so viele Leute plötzlich seinen Tod?? Und vor allem wenn kann er noch trauen??

Ich muss sagen zum Anfang hatte ich ein paar Schwierigkeiten mich ins Buch einzulesen, aber es wurde besser und besser. Man kann nicht sagen das Jacob ein sympathischer Protagonist ist, er hat viele Ecken und Kanten, aber gerade die machen ihn zu dem was er ist. Ich mag ihn und seine etwas grobe, rücksichtslose Seite, sie macht ihn charmant. Er ist halt kein typischer Held, sondern ein spezieller!!

Er und Wilson sind einfach super zusammen und ich hoffe das sie im nächsten Band auch wieder zusammenarbeiten. Den einen Moment arbeiten sie wie zwei alte Hasen zusammen und im nächsten Moment halten sie sich gegenseitig die Messer an die Kehlen. Besonders der schwarze Humor zwischen den Beiden ist super witzig und lockert die Stimmung immer wieder etwas auf!!

Emily und Jacobs Vater waren einfach nur schrecklich. Was er seinem eigenen Sohn angetan hat ist einfach unverzeihbar und das Emily da mitgemacht hat, bei allem was Jacob für sie empfindet, ist einfach unverzeihlich. Sie hat verdient was sie bekommen hat. Camilla hat mir so leid getan und ich hoffe das jemand kommt und sie endlich erlöst und die dämliche Kirche vernichtet!!

Fazit: Trotz eines schweren anfangs hat sich das Buch gut lesen lassen, es ist sehr spannend, es hat viel Action und es gibt so viele Rätsel die gelöst werden wollen. Im Buch ist schwer zu sagen wer und gut oder böse ist, jeder hat eine Rechtfertigung für sein Handeln und man kann selber wählen auf welcher Seite man steht. Das Cover finde ich schick gemacht und gibt ein gutes Bild von der Handlung wieder. Der nächste Band kann kommen!!

[Staticblaq · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been on my To Read this for a long time and I finally took the plunge. I should mention that the Kindle version has numerous formatting issues that leads to abrupt paragraph breaks, run-on dialogue exchanges that confused perspective, as well as several incorrectly transposed words. It's one of the worst kindle conversions I've come across.

I was very impressed with the opening chapter and the story had me hooked early. This seemed like a story I wanted to read; there were echoes of the world-building of China Miéville and Felix Gilman that I so love. However, the story never caught on for me. I kept waiting for the real meat and it pretty much dissolved into one big chase sequence. Unusual for me, I got confused between the different factions, religious theology of the world, and the motivations of the various villains - "who was with who again?".
The motivation of the protagonist revolved around a seeming MacGuffin - it does develop eventually into more than this, but the exact point of it was elusive to me, especially the way it is eventually thrown away in the denouement. The fact that the society of Veridon is fundamentally built on the discarded and stolen technology of an advanced civilisation, and gets mightily whooped when one (one!) of said advanced people's comes to town made the resistance seem ultimately futile to me regardless. I constantly questioned what outcome the various factions and characters were hoping to achieve.

Overall, I didn't really have any issues with the writing, but the story seemed to move around without establishing a clear focus. The final confrontation was drawn out way too long - like an action film where the hero and villain engaged in the kind of hand to hand combat that should have seen both killed several times over.

When my main thought for a protagonist is to let it go and walk away, the story isn't going to work for me.

[James Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

from Ryan:

Burn Cycle Books by Tim Akers

“He was waiting at the broad stone path that snaked up to the balcony above. I had the pistol in my left hand, the hammer in my right. I thought about running, but his wings were clenching and unclenching above his shoulders, like a giant fist waiting to strike me down. He looked at the pistol and shrugged. I raised the hammer.”

Anyone who has a love for fantasy should look to Tim Akers, even if they're not a steampunk aficionado. The books in the Burn Cycle, which contains Dead of Veridon, Heart of Veridon and an ebook-only release entitled Bones of Veridon, manage to have a very delightful noir aspect to them.

Jacob Burn is the perfect anti­hero; privileged youth gone the wrong way with good intentions but bad methods. Veridon, the geographical focus of the Burn Cycle, is a very dingy, rough city that rose in part due to a discovery of an abundant geo­thermal source of power Jacob's ancestors discovered. Jacob wanted to be an airship pilot, which requires permanent physical modification so that the pilots can be hooked up and literally become one with the ship. He failed, was disgraced, and left his family to find employ in the Underworld, which is in a rough way where Heart of Veridon begins.

Tim Akers most excels at world building, but it can be a little hard to grasp vividly at times. There were several instances where I had to go back and reread portions of his books in order to get a clear picture, but the thing is, I wanted to... I didn't feel like it was a chore. The depth makes you want to go back to be sure you're soaking in all the details.

Akers is the son of a theologian, which might be why religion and spirituality tend to be a common theme in his books. You see this in the Burn Cycle with mysterious gods and goddesses that literally dwell in the landscape, mechanical “angels” and an obscure cult obsessed with finding the sacred algorithm through the continual construction of an impossibly complex machine.

[Psychophant · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I cannot review objectively, as I know the author and his work before he wrote the book. Also I tend to score much lower than the typical Goodreads reviewer.

Although it is formally steampunk, with an emphasis on body modification, it reminds me more than anything of the Victorian adventure novels, more Rider Haggard than Verne. Which for me is the right influence for steampunk. A down on his luck but honourable (and tougher than nails) protagonist. A plucky damsel that no matter her resourcefulness needs rescuing. A henchman that covers his back and gets most of the good phrases.

The beginning three chapters are gorgeous, polished till they shine. I missed ninety minutes of sleep because I could not put the book down the last hundred pages.

That is not to say it is perfect. The ending is much less polished, and considering the set up in Veridon's politics, the epilogue is forced, and even unlikely. It also gives the impression that there may be a continuation, but with no promises.

Then the main character seems impervious to deep change, besides some increase in cursing, no matter how dramatic the situation he goes through, or how world shattering. Once again something typical in Victorian yarns, but we have moved on a bit. That makes the supporting cast more interesting most of the time.

I look forward for Tim's next book.

[Michael Mammay · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I really, really enjoyed this. The sub-genre was new to me, so I didn't really know what to expect going in. What I got was a great read.

Let me say this up front -- if you like a nice, leisurely book, you should run. Run far. This book is not for you. Heart of Veridon reads like a rabbit that got into a bag of cocaine. It takes off at high speed and doesn't stop.

Jacob Burn is definitely an anti-hero, and that works here. It's got sort of a noir feel to it, and the character matches. Even though he was definitely an ass a lot of the time, there was only one scene where the character swung over the line for me and became a bit too unlikable. Overall his loyalties and his flaws kept him sympathetic, and the bad guys got worse and worse, keeping me rooting for him until the end.

The ending...not much I can say there without spoilers. The book does come to resolution (thought not in a way that I necessarily loved) while still leaving the clear opening for the sequel, which is of course already published. I'll be picking it up tonight.

[Edward III · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heart of Veridon started strong, but for a book that’s considered a seminal work in the steampunk/fantasy genre, I was a little disappointed. There are some very cool ideas in the book, but rather than explore them in any depth the author chose to insert action scene after action scene. When I finished the book I felt like I had been in one long knife fight. It’s a chase book, with a little mystery thrown in. Strong sf elements. The zeppelins…I don’t know. They can do all kinds of cool things with the pattern, cogs and wheels, intricate surgeries, and they have guns, but the zeppelin is the best aircraft technology they could master? Seems flawed. Still, it was a good read, but I won’t be continuing on with the series. In the authors defense, I wanted to love this book and perhaps I set the bar to high.

[Corey Frampton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A remarkable debut novel from an author that I would very much like to see more of.

Written in a sort of steampunk/cyborg city, similar in feel to the City of Deepgate from Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex. The concepts behind the book are very clear from the outset and it makes for a very enjoyable read.

My only complaint regarding the book, and the reason it's getting 3 stars instead of 4 or 5 is that the latter half of the book feels a bit rushed. The ending, while good, should have been done out more. I think the whole story might have been better served by a second book.

Regardless, the book was thoroughly enjoyable and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the steampunk genre of fantasy.