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Horatio Lyle #1
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle
In Victorian London at the height of the industrial revolution, Horatio Lyle is a former Special Constable with a passion for science and invention. He's also an occasional, but reluctant, sleuth. The truth is that he'd rather be in his lab tinkering with dangerous chemicals and odd machinery than running around the cobbled streets of London trying to track down stolen goods. But when Her Majesty's Government calls, Horatio swaps his microscope for a magnifying glass, fills his pockets with things that explode and sallies forth to unravel a mystery of a singularly extraordinary nature.
Thrown together with a reformed (i.e. 'caught') pickpocket called Tess, and a rebellious (within reason) young gentleman called Thomas, Lyle and his faithful hound, Tate, find themselves pursuing an ancient Chinese plate, a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of polite society and a dangerous enemy who may not even be human. Solving the crime will be hard enough - surviving would be a bonus...
Thrown together with a reformed (i.e. 'caught') pickpocket called Tess, and a rebellious (within reason) young gentleman called Thomas, Lyle and his faithful hound, Tate, find themselves pursuing an ancient Chinese plate, a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of polite society and a dangerous enemy who may not even be human. Solving the crime will be hard enough - surviving would be a bonus...
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 2, 2006
24 people are currently reading
1913 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Webb
19 books346 followersAn English science fiction author, she is best known for her Carnegie Medal-nominated books, Timekeepers (2005) and The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle (2006). She wrote her first novel, Mirror Dreams, when she was only fourteen years old.
She began writing mostly in the young adult genre and has since begun authoring books for adults. Also a performing arts enthusiast, she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2010. She also attended the London School of Economics.
She helped pioneer a new genre of writing called Urban Magic, which combines fantasy elements with modern-day city environments.
She grew up in London, England. Her father, Nick Webb, also had a career as a writer.
Catherine Webb also writes adult fiction under the pen names Kate Griffin and Claire North
She began writing mostly in the young adult genre and has since begun authoring books for adults. Also a performing arts enthusiast, she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2010. She also attended the London School of Economics.
She helped pioneer a new genre of writing called Urban Magic, which combines fantasy elements with modern-day city environments.
She grew up in London, England. Her father, Nick Webb, also had a career as a writer.
Catherine Webb also writes adult fiction under the pen names Kate Griffin and Claire North
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
June 5, 2017
Definitely my kind of book! Set in Victorian London with a main character who must be related in some way to Sherlock Holmes and a little bit of magic on the side to make things interesting.
The main characters are delightful. Horatio Lyle is a self designed scientist and part time sleuth. He is super smart and (nearly) always one step ahead of everyone else. Tess is a street urchin and thief who discovers that becoming Lyle's assistant means she gets a warm bed and three meals a day. Thomas is the son of a Lord who is tired of being cossetted and is looking for adventure.
I love the way the author sets a scene for example:
"1864, London. In the west the sun is setting. It is orange and yellow fire, the sky sooty grey and brown smudge. The sky is full of chimneys and asthmatic birds. The fog is rising off the river, all the way from Greenwich to Chiswick, crawling up past Westminster and hiding the ravens sitting on the walls of the Tower, who blink beadily, waiting for something interesting and edible to happen in their lives. The fog is grey-green, grey from the water suspended in it, green from the things floating in the water.
In the west, the sun has set. "
You can easily guess that something is about to happen - probably involving murder:)
A delightful book from an excellent author, all the better because it is the first in a series so I have more to look forward to!
The main characters are delightful. Horatio Lyle is a self designed scientist and part time sleuth. He is super smart and (nearly) always one step ahead of everyone else. Tess is a street urchin and thief who discovers that becoming Lyle's assistant means she gets a warm bed and three meals a day. Thomas is the son of a Lord who is tired of being cossetted and is looking for adventure.
I love the way the author sets a scene for example:
"1864, London. In the west the sun is setting. It is orange and yellow fire, the sky sooty grey and brown smudge. The sky is full of chimneys and asthmatic birds. The fog is rising off the river, all the way from Greenwich to Chiswick, crawling up past Westminster and hiding the ravens sitting on the walls of the Tower, who blink beadily, waiting for something interesting and edible to happen in their lives. The fog is grey-green, grey from the water suspended in it, green from the things floating in the water.
In the west, the sun has set. "
You can easily guess that something is about to happen - probably involving murder:)
A delightful book from an excellent author, all the better because it is the first in a series so I have more to look forward to!
March 6, 2011
This would make a good action film in the tradition of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft -- death-defying action scenes on roofs, elaborate machines, dramatic shots like the baddie's empty shoes smoking in a scorch mark after he's struck by lightning. It's got that filmic pacing, too, with the quips coming at just the right moment as if scripted. Although it is cleaner and has more jokes, the movie it reminds me most of is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, because it has that same facade of Victorianism: the dark, dirty, wet streets of London, the fog, the long black coats -- but no authenticity. Many of the details are anachronistic, and more importantly so are the attitudes and speech. The characters introduce each other by first names, take the Lord's name in vain, have little ingrained sense of class difference. Insofar as one can tell, that is, since we don't get much of what's going on in their heads. They're a bit stock and underdeveloped.
Aside from these criticisms and some plotting weaknesses, it was an entertaining read, imaginative and fast-paced. This was interesting to see in light of the slowness of her adult fiction, which is heavy on description and interior experience. But there are many passages where the sentences ring familiar and her fascination with the urban environment is consistent.
Aside from these criticisms and some plotting weaknesses, it was an entertaining read, imaginative and fast-paced. This was interesting to see in light of the slowness of her adult fiction, which is heavy on description and interior experience. But there are many passages where the sentences ring familiar and her fascination with the urban environment is consistent.
October 13, 2020
So i have read this a million times;but I read it again. One of my all time favourite desert-island books
read this and the rest of the series :-)
RE-READING FOREVER
read this and the rest of the series :-)
RE-READING FOREVER
November 17, 2017
I'm not much use at science, so most of the stuff about magnets and electricity went completely over my head. BUT, the action was almost non-stop and dashed exciting and the story was great fun to read. I can imagine Benedict Cumberbatch playing the hero, Horatio Lyle, but what happened to Miss Chaste at the end?!?!? I do hope she's alright.
June 13, 2015
Overall, I liked reading this book. It has some small faults, though. The story itself is good, it's nice to read and quite exciting towards the end. When I read the last 50 or 60 pages, I could barely stop or put the book down. However, I think you can tell the author was very young when she wrote this novel. It could have done with less descriptions and also less similes and metaphors.
There was another thing I noticed that didn't really annoy me... but bug me a little. Horatio Lyle is supposed to be the main character. But then at some point I noticed I don't really know much about him. Not about his character at least. I knew about his appearance, his house, his dog, his mother. But what does he think and feel? It's not really in the story. And then there are other (great, I must say) supporting character whom I know a lot more about, like Tess (who is awesome) and Thomas (who's also awesome in his own way). So I don't know, not knowing much about the main character sort of surprised me.
There was another thing I noticed that didn't really annoy me... but bug me a little. Horatio Lyle is supposed to be the main character. But then at some point I noticed I don't really know much about him. Not about his character at least. I knew about his appearance, his house, his dog, his mother. But what does he think and feel? It's not really in the story. And then there are other (great, I must say) supporting character whom I know a lot more about, like Tess (who is awesome) and Thomas (who's also awesome in his own way). So I don't know, not knowing much about the main character sort of surprised me.
October 8, 2013
2.5
Mystery, magic and mayhem... Science, secrets, and spirits...
I liked the story. Or, well, I liked the idea of the story. A detective type person, who is also an inventor and scholar, gets pulled in on a case after some royal artefacts are stolen from a secure vault. (Sort of Holmesian, at least according to some reviews, though I found the detective style more typical and less deductive, at least for the most part.)
Anyway -
Lyle is joined by Tess, a thief with a heart of gold, and Thomas, a do-gooder nob, and Tate, his loyal and put-upon dog. The case ends up being a bit more than Lyle bargained for, when his scientific mind is caught up in a case of otherworldy creatures and magic.
Really, it's the sort of thing I should love.
But I had a hard time with the writing style. A third person omniscient thing, where things seem to be described from their own perspectives. Like, a character doesn't perceive boats in a harbor - the boats sort of seem to perceive themselves.
I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, and I don't have the book in front of me to pull an example from, but, anyway, my mind had a hard time focusing on the descriptions and my eyes kept sliding off the page.
I liked it better when the narration was more focused/limited - i.e. when we saw things from a certain characters perspective.
Of course, this was problematic at times, too, because whose perspective it was could change from one page to another. I mean, it wasn't like a lot of perspective shifts where it happens at the chapter - it could sort of happen at any time. I'm pretty sure that, in one paragraph, we slipped into at least three different perspectives.
Action sequences were very difficult to follow.
I remember one where we were seeing thing from Thomas' perspective, and it said something like, "Thomas saw a man come out of the door, and he saw that he had a knife," and while I know that it was the man coming through the door that had the knife, for a second my brain wanted to read it as Thomas wielding the knife.
This happened a lot.
And I thought maybe it was just me, so I read a passage to my husband - who's cleverer than little ole' me - and he had a hard time following, too, what with the proliferation of pronouns. I mean, in a paragraph talking about three different men, it kept saying he, and the he would change depending.
So, anyway -
I don't know if I'll read the next book or not. I had planned to, when I first finished, to see if maybe the style got a bit better... but after just a few days, I can't say this book left any great impression on me, so maybe I'll give it a pass.
Mystery, magic and mayhem... Science, secrets, and spirits...
I liked the story. Or, well, I liked the idea of the story. A detective type person, who is also an inventor and scholar, gets pulled in on a case after some royal artefacts are stolen from a secure vault. (Sort of Holmesian, at least according to some reviews, though I found the detective style more typical and less deductive, at least for the most part.)
Anyway -
Lyle is joined by Tess, a thief with a heart of gold, and Thomas, a do-gooder nob, and Tate, his loyal and put-upon dog. The case ends up being a bit more than Lyle bargained for, when his scientific mind is caught up in a case of otherworldy creatures and magic.
Really, it's the sort of thing I should love.
But I had a hard time with the writing style. A third person omniscient thing, where things seem to be described from their own perspectives. Like, a character doesn't perceive boats in a harbor - the boats sort of seem to perceive themselves.
I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, and I don't have the book in front of me to pull an example from, but, anyway, my mind had a hard time focusing on the descriptions and my eyes kept sliding off the page.
I liked it better when the narration was more focused/limited - i.e. when we saw things from a certain characters perspective.
Of course, this was problematic at times, too, because whose perspective it was could change from one page to another. I mean, it wasn't like a lot of perspective shifts where it happens at the chapter - it could sort of happen at any time. I'm pretty sure that, in one paragraph, we slipped into at least three different perspectives.
Action sequences were very difficult to follow.
I remember one where we were seeing thing from Thomas' perspective, and it said something like, "Thomas saw a man come out of the door, and he saw that he had a knife," and while I know that it was the man coming through the door that had the knife, for a second my brain wanted to read it as Thomas wielding the knife.
This happened a lot.
And I thought maybe it was just me, so I read a passage to my husband - who's cleverer than little ole' me - and he had a hard time following, too, what with the proliferation of pronouns. I mean, in a paragraph talking about three different men, it kept saying he, and the he would change depending.
So, anyway -
I don't know if I'll read the next book or not. I had planned to, when I first finished, to see if maybe the style got a bit better... but after just a few days, I can't say this book left any great impression on me, so maybe I'll give it a pass.
June 1, 2014
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle is the first book in the Horatio Lyle series by British author, Catherine Webb. The scene is London, 1864. Horatio Lyle, son of Harry and Milly Lyle, is an enthusiastic inventor and occasional sleuth. Shortly after he catches young pick-pocket and thief, Teresa Hatch leaving the scene of her latest break-in (his house), he is called to the Palace by Lord Lincoln to temporarily resume his position as Special Constable. He is needed to investigate the theft from the Bank of England of, among other valuables, the Fuyun Plate, a Tibetan artefact made by a powerful race of angel-demons. He decides to take Tess along with him, as well as, of course, his faithful and very useful hound, Tate. At the Bank they encounter Master Thomas Edward Elwick, heir to the Third Baron of Elwick; Thomas is keen to be useful in the investigation, and this team of four soon find themselves involved in all sorts of escapades as they try to solve the robbery and find the Fuyun Plate before it falls into the wrong hands. While the details of the character backgrounds are sparse, their dialogue, their resourcefulness and their sense of adventure will certainly appeal to young readers, as will the myriad of inventions (dynamos, flash bombs, tasers, chemical explosives) and the non-stop action (abseiling down buildings, zip-lining, roof-top chases, sliding down bannisters, fights with evil beings wielding crossbows). Webb has fun with character names (Tate and Lyle, Inspector Vellum, Miss Mercy Chaste, the vicar’s daughter, Mr Dew) in this fight between inventive, scientific Londoners and a decidedly malevolent army of a quite different sort of greenie. Young fans will look forward to the second book in the series, The Obsidian Dagger. A fun read.
January 17, 2010
The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle started off well, and offered a fun and intriguing combination of a vividly painted Victorian London setting, murder and mystery, and supernatural elements. Lyle was an interesting character, and the insane situations that he finds himself in is amusing.
Where it failed was the execution of the final confrontation when everything came to a head; the action scenes were often confusing, and the ending was abrupt and rather anticlimating considering the build-up. The characters of Tess and Thomas, technically so integral to the plot, are severely underdeveloped, particularly in the case of Thomas. We're left with a barest sketch of their personalities which lacks depth. The character of Tess had so much more promise, but was unfortunately reduced to the stereotype of the clever young thief. Thomas was nothing more than a plot device to bridge the gap between Lyle and the upper-class society which he needed to infiltrate in order to discover what the Tseiqin were up to.
As a huge fan of steampunk, I absolutely loved the elements of Victoriann London, but personally did not enjoy the supernatural elements. There was very little lore for the Tseiqin, and I think I would have preferred it if the mystery and murders weren't explained away using "evil creatures intent upon destroying mankind." It's a little too cliche.
Despite the criticisms, though, I liked it enough for its setting and tone to pick up the next book in the series. Younger readers might enjoy it more.
Where it failed was the execution of the final confrontation when everything came to a head; the action scenes were often confusing, and the ending was abrupt and rather anticlimating considering the build-up. The characters of Tess and Thomas, technically so integral to the plot, are severely underdeveloped, particularly in the case of Thomas. We're left with a barest sketch of their personalities which lacks depth. The character of Tess had so much more promise, but was unfortunately reduced to the stereotype of the clever young thief. Thomas was nothing more than a plot device to bridge the gap between Lyle and the upper-class society which he needed to infiltrate in order to discover what the Tseiqin were up to.
As a huge fan of steampunk, I absolutely loved the elements of Victoriann London, but personally did not enjoy the supernatural elements. There was very little lore for the Tseiqin, and I think I would have preferred it if the mystery and murders weren't explained away using "evil creatures intent upon destroying mankind." It's a little too cliche.
Despite the criticisms, though, I liked it enough for its setting and tone to pick up the next book in the series. Younger readers might enjoy it more.
February 6, 2020
Well, this was a disappointing re-read. I still enjoyed the authors sense of humour
but the ending was a confusing mess. I also remembered the villains to be Lovecraftian rather than the evil fairies they actually were.
More importantly, I was shocked at how a book that rather progressively alludes to the evils of imperialism, just casually throws around slurs against the Chinese. Like, not once, not twice, but three times does the author have lower class characters refer to a Chinese character as a cslur. Two of these instances are by a main character that we are supposed to like and I guess we're just supposed to shrug it off as a "oh isn't she a lovable guttersnipe". The second time she does it she calls the character "Mister cslur" because I guess that's supposed to be more respectful?!?!?!
but the ending was a confusing mess. I also remembered the villains to be Lovecraftian rather than the evil fairies they actually were.
More importantly, I was shocked at how a book that rather progressively alludes to the evils of imperialism, just casually throws around slurs against the Chinese. Like, not once, not twice, but three times does the author have lower class characters refer to a Chinese character as a cslur. Two of these instances are by a main character that we are supposed to like and I guess we're just supposed to shrug it off as a "oh isn't she a lovable guttersnipe". The second time she does it she calls the character "Mister cslur" because I guess that's supposed to be more respectful?!?!?!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 30, 2017
For me the story has the vibe of William Ritter's "Jackaby" which I loved immensely. I rather enjoyed this book too. A few spots in the plot where explaining further could have been nice (for me some objects and people were appearing a bit randomly) but all in all not a bad story :)
October 11, 2021
I read this book as I liked other books by the same author: she has a really good writing style. This series of children's books is more aimed at slightly older children, ( 10 to 12 years or so), and the writing is quite detailed with a good level of vocabulary in, which not all children's book have.
The use of Lyle explaining words to one of the younger characters as a way to show what words mean works well.
The characters are well drawn and witty, and their contrasting personalities work well together: you can really imagine the action and scenes in your head, as well as the characters' voices, and the overall plot was good as well.
The writing style takes a little getting into, especially the way that each chapter starts, but once you're into it, it flows really well. I read this in about four sittings, and the illustrations at the start of each chapter and on the cover are also excellent.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
This is also the type of story that would make a great TV series if it was well adapated: I could imagine a BBC adaptation of this!
The use of Lyle explaining words to one of the younger characters as a way to show what words mean works well.
The characters are well drawn and witty, and their contrasting personalities work well together: you can really imagine the action and scenes in your head, as well as the characters' voices, and the overall plot was good as well.
The writing style takes a little getting into, especially the way that each chapter starts, but once you're into it, it flows really well. I read this in about four sittings, and the illustrations at the start of each chapter and on the cover are also excellent.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
This is also the type of story that would make a great TV series if it was well adapated: I could imagine a BBC adaptation of this!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 31, 2008
Victorian London has always been appealing to me, not exactly because it's dark and gloomy, but because it was one of the most interesting period in the history of science. And it is from this setting our hero, Horatio Lyle, emerges. He's a special constable, or you can say a detective. What's more, he's a science enthusiast, and the second generation of a family that has made some fortune by building machines. In his first adventure, Horatio meets Tess, a young pickpocket, and Thomas Elwick, a young aristocrat interested in science. They - along with Horatio's dog, Tate - have to face a beautiful but dangerous race emerging from the forests of Tibet, swearing to destroy the technology and machines that human builds.
A very promising first book, with lively and interesting characters.
Favourite quote:
'repressed vestal virgin'.
That just makes me laugh.
The following is a review in Indonesian that I wrote a couple of years ago in another site:
Catherine Webb, penulis buku ini, tahun ini [2006] baru berusia 19 tahun. Meski demikian, jangan anggap dia remeh. Novel debutnya dirilis saat ia baru berusia 14 tahun, dan meski usianya masih muda-belia, kemampuannya menulis dan kelincahannya berbahasa patut dipuji. Tak salah jika ada yang menganggapnya dapat menjadi penerus Philip Pullman suatu hari nanti.
‘The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle’ adalah sebuah cerita detektif Zaman Victoria yang cukup unik. Kisahnya berlangsung tahun 1864, hanya beberapa tahun setelah Charles Darwin merilis bukunya yang sangat berpengaruh, ‘The Origin of Species’. Inggris di Zaman Victoria memang menelurkan banyak pemikir dan saintis yang cemerlang serta sangat memengaruhi dunia. Sebuah dunia baru sedang bergerak; dunia yang didorong oleh teknologi dan dibahanbakari oleh sains. Tidak heran jika tokoh utama novel ini, Horatio Lyle, juga seorang saintis. Namun selain itu, Horatio Lyle juga menjabat sebagai seorang special constable – polisi yang hanya dipanggil untuk menangani kasus-kasus khusus.
Penokohan Horatio Lyle sebagai seorang saintis mungkin sudah sering Anda dengar. Skeptis, senang menghabiskan waktu di laboratorium sambil mengutak-atik ini-itu (rumahnya seperti benteng kecil yang sulit ditembus pencuri), tidak percaya Tuhan, gagap dalam hubungan dengan lawan jenis. (Horatio menggunakan frasa ‘repressed vestal virgin’ untuk mendeskripsikan dirinya sendiri.) Namun Webb cukup berhasil mewujudkan Lyle menjadi seorang karakter yang menarik, terutama berkat interaksinya dengan berbagai karakter yang ada dalam novel ini, terutama Tess. Tess adalah seorang gadis remaja yang awalnya hendak merampok rumah Lyle, namun keburu tertangkap oleh salah satu dari sekian banyak jebakan yang dipasang Lyle. Usahanya memfitnah Lyle sebagai pemerkosa gagal, dan Lyle malah berhasil memerasnya untuk mau bekerja sebagai asistennya.
Lyle—dan secara otomatis Tess, serta anjing Lyle, Tate—diminta Lord Lincoln, salah seorang bangsawan tinggi Inggris, mengungkap misteri pencurian simpanan harta berharga kerajaan. Hal yang sepertinya sepele dan dapat diungkapkan dengan mudah oleh Lyle itu ternyata membimbingnya pada petualangan yang misterius dan mistis, meskipun Lyle dan pemikiran skeptisnya berulang-ulang meyakinkan bahwa tidak ada yang namanya sihir dan lain sebagainya.
Pada akhirnya, Lyle memang tidak begitu salah. Segala misteri dalam novel ini disangkutpautkan dengan apik dengan teori-teori listrik, terutama Faraday (salah satu saintis terkemuka di masa itu). Namun lawannya, para Tseiqin, jelas sulit untuk diterangkan dengan sains yang begitu dipegang teguh oleh Lyle. Para Tseiqin adalah makhluk-makhluk indah dalam kepercayaan Tibet, yang muncul dari hutan-hutan dan begitu anti pada besi dan mesin. Mereka hendak memusnahkan ‘peradaban besi’ dan mengembalikan kemurnian dunia. Wujud manusia para Tseiqin tampan dan cantik, dengan mata hijau yang begitu indah. ‘Kecantikan’ mereka ini bahkan sedikit menambahkan bumbu-bumbu homoerotisisme dalam novel tersebut.
Plot ceritanya memang linear dan tidak berlapis, namun asyik untuk diikuti, terutama berkat kelancaran Webb bertutur dan pilihan kata-katanya yang mengena. Meski saya mendeteksi kalau Webb sedikit terpeleset—ataukah memang disengaja?—ketika ia menggunakan kata ‘genetically’. Kata itu belum ada di Zaman Victoria.
Oya, ada cameo usil dalam novel ini: Thomas Hardy. Ketika bertemu dengan Tess di salah satu klub, Hardy menanyakan nama gadis itu, yang dengan polos dijawab dengan ‘Tess’. Namun ketika ditanyai asalnya, Tess sembarangan berbohong, ‘Darbyville’.
Namun, setelah segala misteri terungkap sekali pun, novel ini masih membuat saya berpikir. Kala cerita ini berlangsung, tidaklah sulit untuk menempatkan diri kita sebagai pendukung Lyle, yang mencoba menyelamatkan peradaban dan teknologi. Saat itu, teknologi adalah penyelamat manusia—setidaknya, sesuatu yang diharapkan dapat membuat kehidupan manusia menjadi lebih baik. Akan tetapi, kini, ketika dunia terancam kerusakan dan kehancuran, mungkin lebih mudah bagi kita untuk beralih ke sisi para Tseiqin, dan mempertanyakan apakah harga yang kita bayar demi kemajuan teknologi kita sebanding dengan kerusakan alam yang menggila saat ini.
A very promising first book, with lively and interesting characters.
Favourite quote:
'repressed vestal virgin'.
That just makes me laugh.
The following is a review in Indonesian that I wrote a couple of years ago in another site:
Catherine Webb, penulis buku ini, tahun ini [2006] baru berusia 19 tahun. Meski demikian, jangan anggap dia remeh. Novel debutnya dirilis saat ia baru berusia 14 tahun, dan meski usianya masih muda-belia, kemampuannya menulis dan kelincahannya berbahasa patut dipuji. Tak salah jika ada yang menganggapnya dapat menjadi penerus Philip Pullman suatu hari nanti.
‘The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle’ adalah sebuah cerita detektif Zaman Victoria yang cukup unik. Kisahnya berlangsung tahun 1864, hanya beberapa tahun setelah Charles Darwin merilis bukunya yang sangat berpengaruh, ‘The Origin of Species’. Inggris di Zaman Victoria memang menelurkan banyak pemikir dan saintis yang cemerlang serta sangat memengaruhi dunia. Sebuah dunia baru sedang bergerak; dunia yang didorong oleh teknologi dan dibahanbakari oleh sains. Tidak heran jika tokoh utama novel ini, Horatio Lyle, juga seorang saintis. Namun selain itu, Horatio Lyle juga menjabat sebagai seorang special constable – polisi yang hanya dipanggil untuk menangani kasus-kasus khusus.
Penokohan Horatio Lyle sebagai seorang saintis mungkin sudah sering Anda dengar. Skeptis, senang menghabiskan waktu di laboratorium sambil mengutak-atik ini-itu (rumahnya seperti benteng kecil yang sulit ditembus pencuri), tidak percaya Tuhan, gagap dalam hubungan dengan lawan jenis. (Horatio menggunakan frasa ‘repressed vestal virgin’ untuk mendeskripsikan dirinya sendiri.) Namun Webb cukup berhasil mewujudkan Lyle menjadi seorang karakter yang menarik, terutama berkat interaksinya dengan berbagai karakter yang ada dalam novel ini, terutama Tess. Tess adalah seorang gadis remaja yang awalnya hendak merampok rumah Lyle, namun keburu tertangkap oleh salah satu dari sekian banyak jebakan yang dipasang Lyle. Usahanya memfitnah Lyle sebagai pemerkosa gagal, dan Lyle malah berhasil memerasnya untuk mau bekerja sebagai asistennya.
Lyle—dan secara otomatis Tess, serta anjing Lyle, Tate—diminta Lord Lincoln, salah seorang bangsawan tinggi Inggris, mengungkap misteri pencurian simpanan harta berharga kerajaan. Hal yang sepertinya sepele dan dapat diungkapkan dengan mudah oleh Lyle itu ternyata membimbingnya pada petualangan yang misterius dan mistis, meskipun Lyle dan pemikiran skeptisnya berulang-ulang meyakinkan bahwa tidak ada yang namanya sihir dan lain sebagainya.
Pada akhirnya, Lyle memang tidak begitu salah. Segala misteri dalam novel ini disangkutpautkan dengan apik dengan teori-teori listrik, terutama Faraday (salah satu saintis terkemuka di masa itu). Namun lawannya, para Tseiqin, jelas sulit untuk diterangkan dengan sains yang begitu dipegang teguh oleh Lyle. Para Tseiqin adalah makhluk-makhluk indah dalam kepercayaan Tibet, yang muncul dari hutan-hutan dan begitu anti pada besi dan mesin. Mereka hendak memusnahkan ‘peradaban besi’ dan mengembalikan kemurnian dunia. Wujud manusia para Tseiqin tampan dan cantik, dengan mata hijau yang begitu indah. ‘Kecantikan’ mereka ini bahkan sedikit menambahkan bumbu-bumbu homoerotisisme dalam novel tersebut.
Plot ceritanya memang linear dan tidak berlapis, namun asyik untuk diikuti, terutama berkat kelancaran Webb bertutur dan pilihan kata-katanya yang mengena. Meski saya mendeteksi kalau Webb sedikit terpeleset—ataukah memang disengaja?—ketika ia menggunakan kata ‘genetically’. Kata itu belum ada di Zaman Victoria.
Oya, ada cameo usil dalam novel ini: Thomas Hardy. Ketika bertemu dengan Tess di salah satu klub, Hardy menanyakan nama gadis itu, yang dengan polos dijawab dengan ‘Tess’. Namun ketika ditanyai asalnya, Tess sembarangan berbohong, ‘Darbyville’.
Namun, setelah segala misteri terungkap sekali pun, novel ini masih membuat saya berpikir. Kala cerita ini berlangsung, tidaklah sulit untuk menempatkan diri kita sebagai pendukung Lyle, yang mencoba menyelamatkan peradaban dan teknologi. Saat itu, teknologi adalah penyelamat manusia—setidaknya, sesuatu yang diharapkan dapat membuat kehidupan manusia menjadi lebih baik. Akan tetapi, kini, ketika dunia terancam kerusakan dan kehancuran, mungkin lebih mudah bagi kita untuk beralih ke sisi para Tseiqin, dan mempertanyakan apakah harga yang kita bayar demi kemajuan teknologi kita sebanding dengan kerusakan alam yang menggila saat ini.
September 20, 2017
One day and I’ve finished the first in the Horatio Lyle series. It was an enjoyable read. Not as addictive as I hoped it would be. And I’m not entirely sure what one could call this book. A historical fantasy? No, that doesn’t make much sense. I’m just going to dump in into the fantasy section. I feel like I’m going to be doing that for a lot of the books I’ll read–just dump them into general genres and go from there.
Apart from the genre confusion, The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle sets our main character, Horatio, on a mission to recover an ancient Chinese plate that was taken during the robbery at the Bank of England. The blurb on the back promises conspiracy, non-human entities and things that explode. Things that explode are always good.
The book has a slow start but, once all the players are introduced, the plot picks up and was enough to get me to finish the book in one sitting.
Overall, it’s a good book. Not as good as I hoped for it to be. It was a great distraction and it has it’s funny moments. Tess and Horatio are a great team. It would be nice if Tate wasn’t the cliched useless guard-dog though–I think that it’s a bit overdone. He should be somewhat useful. Otherwise, why would Horatio keep him around?
Apart from the genre confusion, The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle sets our main character, Horatio, on a mission to recover an ancient Chinese plate that was taken during the robbery at the Bank of England. The blurb on the back promises conspiracy, non-human entities and things that explode. Things that explode are always good.
The book has a slow start but, once all the players are introduced, the plot picks up and was enough to get me to finish the book in one sitting.
Overall, it’s a good book. Not as good as I hoped for it to be. It was a great distraction and it has it’s funny moments. Tess and Horatio are a great team. It would be nice if Tate wasn’t the cliched useless guard-dog though–I think that it’s a bit overdone. He should be somewhat useful. Otherwise, why would Horatio keep him around?
January 17, 2016
This book popped upin my Goodread as a recommendation based on other books that I have read. It looked quirky and cute so I added it to my 'to-read' shelf and finally managed to come round to reading it this weekend (as well as the sequel since Amazon had a 'buy all 4 books' type of deal). I liked them but there were a few things that bugged me. They are very much 'Young Adult', but that is not what bugged me, I often read Y A. I think that what bugged me is that the author can be very 'wordy' in some places. Look, she knows her London and she can paint a picture of it but sometimes the artist needs to know where to stop belabouring the paint...
An example:
"She had followed them up towards Cheapside with its bustling shops and shouting hawkers, joining the flow of people, ducking top hats and walking canes and leather boots and tweed elbows, keeping in sight as a guide Lyle’s sandy-red hair, brighter than the black top hats that moved through the streets, and when not searching for that, watching the people. Sailors, smelling of salt and tar and fish and sweat and grease, businessmen with white silk handkerchiefs and ivory-capped canes that they swung with a deadly ease, women with trays slung from their shoulders bearing steaming packets of nuts or fruit or vegetables or biscuits or tins of mushy peas or soup or flowers, or girls selling handfuls of ribbon, or burly men setting up their coffee cauldrons under the nearest bedraggled and blackened tree, or the priest scurrying to the service at St Paul’s or at the Guild Church with the gold dragon sitting on top of it, facing perpetually north despite the wind, or the man with the music box and the money, or the Dutch singers, or the bobbies in their blue top hats and capes, who she strained to avoid out of habit, or . ."
I am sorry, but my eyes just glaze over when trying to follow that. The descriptions just become a blur after a while. And ALL the descriptive passages are like that.
And then, yes, I know this is fantasy, and for heaven's sake there are elvish type people and magic, but the science just grates. In the second book there is a flying machine that the Horatio Lyle team has designed. And that flies first time that they try it... Somehow that just bugs the hell out of me, I don't know why! Maybe it is the mix of fantasy and 'hard science'?
Apart from that, the books are quite enjoyable.. but not really in my 'top' of anything...
An example:
"She had followed them up towards Cheapside with its bustling shops and shouting hawkers, joining the flow of people, ducking top hats and walking canes and leather boots and tweed elbows, keeping in sight as a guide Lyle’s sandy-red hair, brighter than the black top hats that moved through the streets, and when not searching for that, watching the people. Sailors, smelling of salt and tar and fish and sweat and grease, businessmen with white silk handkerchiefs and ivory-capped canes that they swung with a deadly ease, women with trays slung from their shoulders bearing steaming packets of nuts or fruit or vegetables or biscuits or tins of mushy peas or soup or flowers, or girls selling handfuls of ribbon, or burly men setting up their coffee cauldrons under the nearest bedraggled and blackened tree, or the priest scurrying to the service at St Paul’s or at the Guild Church with the gold dragon sitting on top of it, facing perpetually north despite the wind, or the man with the music box and the money, or the Dutch singers, or the bobbies in their blue top hats and capes, who she strained to avoid out of habit, or . ."
I am sorry, but my eyes just glaze over when trying to follow that. The descriptions just become a blur after a while. And ALL the descriptive passages are like that.
And then, yes, I know this is fantasy, and for heaven's sake there are elvish type people and magic, but the science just grates. In the second book there is a flying machine that the Horatio Lyle team has designed. And that flies first time that they try it... Somehow that just bugs the hell out of me, I don't know why! Maybe it is the mix of fantasy and 'hard science'?
Apart from that, the books are quite enjoyable.. but not really in my 'top' of anything...
April 4, 2021
This was so much fun! A fast-paced adventure with lots of great dialogue and fun characters. I loved the mystery angle and the magic! CW for racism against the Chinese that never really gets challenged though. I think I would still recommend it, since the comments come from a character who is young enough and uneducated enough that she would not be expected to know better, but it was pretty shocking.
March 22, 2020
Horatio Lyle is a former special constable who now spends his time in his lab working with chemicals and machines. Unwittingly thrown together with Tess, a thief, and Thomas, son of the well to do Lord Elwick, Horatio is called upon to find the missing Fuyun Plate. Facing the mysterious Tsequin who have infiltrated the highest levels of society, our three adventurers have a difficult and dangerous task at hand.
A book full of mystery, mystical creatures, magical items and ancient lore – sounds like something I should love right? Unfortunately not this time. I’ll keep my review fairly brief as the main reason I didn’t enjoy the book was the writing style, and that is something that a lot of other people won’t have an issue with.
I found this overly descriptive in the wrong areas. We got a lot of descriptions of places in London, and things the characters were seeing, that didn’t really impact the story. What we didn’t get was an in depth look at the lore behind the Fuyun Plate, which was the backbone of the entire plot.
Another thing we didn’t get was any real character development. Horatio Lyle was our main character, but even at the end of the book I knew very little about him. The same can be said for Tess and Thomas, our other two characters. Tess some how miraculously goes from a thief who can’t read and struggles with long words, to a girl who can read and understand a book about Faraday cages, with no real development in the interim stages. Thomas we know little about other than that he has defied his family to go on this adventure with Lyle.
Overall I found a lot of holes in this and the things I was looking forward to weren’t really there either. Not a series I’ll be continuing.
A book full of mystery, mystical creatures, magical items and ancient lore – sounds like something I should love right? Unfortunately not this time. I’ll keep my review fairly brief as the main reason I didn’t enjoy the book was the writing style, and that is something that a lot of other people won’t have an issue with.
I found this overly descriptive in the wrong areas. We got a lot of descriptions of places in London, and things the characters were seeing, that didn’t really impact the story. What we didn’t get was an in depth look at the lore behind the Fuyun Plate, which was the backbone of the entire plot.
Another thing we didn’t get was any real character development. Horatio Lyle was our main character, but even at the end of the book I knew very little about him. The same can be said for Tess and Thomas, our other two characters. Tess some how miraculously goes from a thief who can’t read and struggles with long words, to a girl who can read and understand a book about Faraday cages, with no real development in the interim stages. Thomas we know little about other than that he has defied his family to go on this adventure with Lyle.
Overall I found a lot of holes in this and the things I was looking forward to weren’t really there either. Not a series I’ll be continuing.
October 24, 2011
Well, it was a little bit steam-punky at times, but not enough for me to shelve it as that sadly. Though still very enjoyable and I loved the setting! Kind of reminded me a little of a sort of poor man's Sally Lockhart novel... the idea was similar but just not quite as awesome. I ripped through the first 100-odd pages and was loving it, but then putting it down for a night seemed to make the momentum stop a little. Not sure what was with that. I suppose it just wasn't as clearly explained as it could have been - you know those books where you can SEE all the action? Yeah, this wasn't one of them. The climax was more confusing than exciting and then the end was just... odd.
I really liked Tess but Thomas just didn't seem to be all that much described, he just kind of appeared. Also, I would have loved some more historical backstory, more about the Fuyun plate and especially more about the Tseiqin! It seemed a bit much to add in the fantasy element there when it just wasn't explained all that much.
Also, they were hunting for a Chinese artefact in Victorian London, and that artefact DID things... totally Warehouse 12!! Hee. If only Horatio Lyle had called on H.G. Wells for assistance :P /fangirl
Loved it, would read the rest in the series, but it wasn't as five-starly awesome as I initially thought.
I really liked Tess but Thomas just didn't seem to be all that much described, he just kind of appeared. Also, I would have loved some more historical backstory, more about the Fuyun plate and especially more about the Tseiqin! It seemed a bit much to add in the fantasy element there when it just wasn't explained all that much.
Also, they were hunting for a Chinese artefact in Victorian London, and that artefact DID things... totally Warehouse 12!! Hee. If only Horatio Lyle had called on H.G. Wells for assistance :P /fangirl
Loved it, would read the rest in the series, but it wasn't as five-starly awesome as I initially thought.
March 26, 2019
When Tess burgles Horatio Lyle's house, she is ill-prepared for the array of innovative anti-theft devices created by the inventor and sleuth. Still, she gets far enough that Horatio hires her as an assistant. He'll be needing all her help, and that of the inquisitive young gentleman Thomas Elwick, to track down the stolen Fuyun Plate. That unprepossessing bit of stoneware is avidly sought by multiple governments and more murderous parties with piercing green eyes. Though Lyle's genius for chemistry and physics, plus excellent reflexes, take him far, eventually he begrudgingly admits that something otherworldly is at play. A fast-paced adventure. Hopefully later books will flesh out the characters better.
October 29, 2019
Industrial magnetism
For the love of God, they had green eyes!
A diamond in the rough
I like this book. Horatio seems to buck the mold of the emotionally challenged Victorian/Sherlockian detective. While he's eccentric, I love the relationship between him and first then second of his charges. He's smart but charming in a way that Sherlock never seems to be. The banter between him and Theresa is really fun. There a good mystery element and some made-for-movie action set pieces. I didn't really get what the Tseiqin were exactly (or why one of them seemed to have razor fish teeth) and what motivated them other than standard kind secret evil trying to gain an object of power. Still, an enjoyable and fast-paced book.
For the love of God, they had green eyes!
A diamond in the rough
I like this book. Horatio seems to buck the mold of the emotionally challenged Victorian/Sherlockian detective. While he's eccentric, I love the relationship between him and first then second of his charges. He's smart but charming in a way that Sherlock never seems to be. The banter between him and Theresa is really fun. There a good mystery element and some made-for-movie action set pieces. I didn't really get what the Tseiqin were exactly (or why one of them seemed to have razor fish teeth) and what motivated them other than standard kind secret evil trying to gain an object of power. Still, an enjoyable and fast-paced book.
April 19, 2020
This is a book so similar to so many books I love, and yet so different.
Horatio Lyle is like a combination between Sherlock Holmes and a mad scientist, with a heart of gold. Thomas is a boy trying so hard to be a man and is just delightful. And Tessa is a girl of wit and skill who keeps them all on track. These characters are so well developed that I felt like I was there with them. The story was well paced, with enough clues early on that you could start to try and guess what was happening, but enough twists that it still surprised you. I struggled to really get into it but an at s loss to explain why. This is a good book and well worth a read.
Horatio Lyle is like a combination between Sherlock Holmes and a mad scientist, with a heart of gold. Thomas is a boy trying so hard to be a man and is just delightful. And Tessa is a girl of wit and skill who keeps them all on track. These characters are so well developed that I felt like I was there with them. The story was well paced, with enough clues early on that you could start to try and guess what was happening, but enough twists that it still surprised you. I struggled to really get into it but an at s loss to explain why. This is a good book and well worth a read.
March 15, 2020
A sense of mystery and suspense from the opening page. This book moves quickly between scenes and settings, introducing multiple characters. The story unfolds gradually, offering small pieces a bit at a time to draw you into the plot. The narrative is rather unsophisticated at times and with a writing style that is in parts engaging, but in others stilted and uncertain. It's action packed with plenty going on, but the end is slightly anticlimatic. Science, magic and everyday life combine to create this tale of adventure in Victorian London.
January 15, 2018
This book is rated "Young adult" but i can assure you that it is rich in words, characters and action which makes it enjoyable even for the older readers. It combines 19th century detective mystery with supernatural motives which grabs the attention of the reader since the very first chapter. I would gladly read the next book about Special Constable Horatio Lyle and his companions Thomas, Tess and Tate.
July 24, 2020
Horatio Lyle is a special constable, an inventor extraordinaire and has a passion for science. Asked to investigate the theft of an ancient Chinese plate at Her Majesty’s request. He finds himself sleuthing with an expert thief and a member of high society. Very soon they’re on the tail is a group of strangers who may not even be human ...
Heaps of fun, lots of humour, bagfuls of suspense and a fantastic pace ... it’s like Sherlock Holmes with aliens ....! Can’t wait to read more!
Heaps of fun, lots of humour, bagfuls of suspense and a fantastic pace ... it’s like Sherlock Holmes with aliens ....! Can’t wait to read more!
January 3, 2022
THE EXTRAORDINARY AND UNUSUAL ADVENTURES OF HORATIO LYLE is a young adult novel set in 1864 London surrounding a trio of unlikely characters: the aforementioned Horatio Lyle, a former Special Constable and sleuth, the young Tess, a “reformed pickpocket”, and Thomas, a virtuous young gentleman with a passion for the sciences — and making a difference. The writing style and premise of the characters reminds me of novels such as the Sherlock Holmes series and the Mysterious Benedict Society, featuring mysteries, hijinks, and plenty of plucky young characters to pull the story along.
I entered the novel with low expectations and no small amount of trepidation, but found myself pleasantly surprised by Catherine Webb’s prose. There’s a heavy use of passive voice and description, which I personally enjoy, but if you’re someone who prefers brevity in your literature, this may not be the book for you. The characters’ dialogue is snappy, the setup of the plot easy to follow along with, every character that was meant to be likeable struck all the right chords for me, and every character that wasn’t meant to be likeable struck me wrong in all sorts of ways.
If I were to voice a complaint about the novel — of which I do have — I would mention the lack of depth given to the characters and the story. By the end of the book, you are given the feeling that you have learned the way that characters talk without understanding the person behind the words, and though you have just finished the story it would be difficult to say if the characters gained any significant development in the novel: the lessons that they have learned seem to primarily be intellectual rather than emotional. The characters are given the fate of the archetype: never truly assuming the depth that Webbs could have given them.
Many interesting plot points within the story are never touched upon again. There are many disucssions of how the evil in the story — the Tsequin — have infiltrated the government and several positions of power, but never any true political intrigue, though I will admit this is because the main characters don’t have much of an interest in politics. Many characters are introduced once and then never used again, perhaps truncated for the sake of brevity.
Though Webbs operates within the genre by understanding that a mystery is really only the sum of many other smaller mysteries — in order to find who killed someone, you must find out the dead man is, and then who knew him, and then who might’ve wanted to kill him, and then who might’ve helped them kill him, and how they might’ve helped kill him, and so on and so forth — this leaves behind a surplus of untapped potential, especially since her writing style reflects the way that a single mystery has an impact on many people my outlining their perspectives: the fruit vendor, the street thieves, the bank’s workers, only to not mention them again.
But then again, you may say, this is only the first book! And that’s a point I’ll have to concede: it is only the first book of four. But though I stumbled out of the end of the book with what I would confidently say was an understanding of how the next books would go and a firm grasp of Webbs’ writing style, nothing about the characters that I knew couldn’t be summarized by a page or two at the front of the book with such-and-such’s name and two bullet points for personality traits underneath, which I would say would be the more important goal of a first novel.
On the other hand, the novel does excellently introduce an almost steampunk-ish element to the novel: there’s a heavy discussion on magnetism and electricity that may appeal to more educational readers (or guardians hoping to swindle their charges into learning when they’re not aware of it) that’s entrenched in both the mystery and the main characters, and the central conflict of the story is heavily reliant on themes of environmentalism and industrialism that reminded me oddly of other media such as Princess Mononoke.
The novel does employ the usage of the slur ch*nk against Chinese characters by two characters insofar as I can remember, and there is something to be said about the tastefulness of the antagonists of the novel, a threat to the civilized England, being undoubtedly foreign — the Tsequin — though one could argue that the former can be explained by historical accuracy and a desire to remain faithful to the setting the novel was set in, which, in turn, could be countered by pointing out that there really isn’t anything historically accurate about elvenkind…at least to my knowledge.
Despite its flaws, I found myself enjoying The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle immensely, and ended up only wishing that I could have found the book when I was younger. It’s exactly the type of book that impresses its cleverness to a young reader, but also convinces that reader that they too are clever by association, and would have enraptured me with brilliance and inventiveness and thrown me into a tizzy about secret societies and sleuths, and convince me, in that strange moral way of a child’s conviction, to don my own hat and do my own sleuthing.
This review can also be found on my blog.
I entered the novel with low expectations and no small amount of trepidation, but found myself pleasantly surprised by Catherine Webb’s prose. There’s a heavy use of passive voice and description, which I personally enjoy, but if you’re someone who prefers brevity in your literature, this may not be the book for you. The characters’ dialogue is snappy, the setup of the plot easy to follow along with, every character that was meant to be likeable struck all the right chords for me, and every character that wasn’t meant to be likeable struck me wrong in all sorts of ways.
If I were to voice a complaint about the novel — of which I do have — I would mention the lack of depth given to the characters and the story. By the end of the book, you are given the feeling that you have learned the way that characters talk without understanding the person behind the words, and though you have just finished the story it would be difficult to say if the characters gained any significant development in the novel: the lessons that they have learned seem to primarily be intellectual rather than emotional. The characters are given the fate of the archetype: never truly assuming the depth that Webbs could have given them.
Many interesting plot points within the story are never touched upon again. There are many disucssions of how the evil in the story — the Tsequin — have infiltrated the government and several positions of power, but never any true political intrigue, though I will admit this is because the main characters don’t have much of an interest in politics. Many characters are introduced once and then never used again, perhaps truncated for the sake of brevity.
Though Webbs operates within the genre by understanding that a mystery is really only the sum of many other smaller mysteries — in order to find who killed someone, you must find out the dead man is, and then who knew him, and then who might’ve wanted to kill him, and then who might’ve helped them kill him, and how they might’ve helped kill him, and so on and so forth — this leaves behind a surplus of untapped potential, especially since her writing style reflects the way that a single mystery has an impact on many people my outlining their perspectives: the fruit vendor, the street thieves, the bank’s workers, only to not mention them again.
But then again, you may say, this is only the first book! And that’s a point I’ll have to concede: it is only the first book of four. But though I stumbled out of the end of the book with what I would confidently say was an understanding of how the next books would go and a firm grasp of Webbs’ writing style, nothing about the characters that I knew couldn’t be summarized by a page or two at the front of the book with such-and-such’s name and two bullet points for personality traits underneath, which I would say would be the more important goal of a first novel.
On the other hand, the novel does excellently introduce an almost steampunk-ish element to the novel: there’s a heavy discussion on magnetism and electricity that may appeal to more educational readers (or guardians hoping to swindle their charges into learning when they’re not aware of it) that’s entrenched in both the mystery and the main characters, and the central conflict of the story is heavily reliant on themes of environmentalism and industrialism that reminded me oddly of other media such as Princess Mononoke.
The novel does employ the usage of the slur ch*nk against Chinese characters by two characters insofar as I can remember, and there is something to be said about the tastefulness of the antagonists of the novel, a threat to the civilized England, being undoubtedly foreign — the Tsequin — though one could argue that the former can be explained by historical accuracy and a desire to remain faithful to the setting the novel was set in, which, in turn, could be countered by pointing out that there really isn’t anything historically accurate about elvenkind…at least to my knowledge.
Despite its flaws, I found myself enjoying The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle immensely, and ended up only wishing that I could have found the book when I was younger. It’s exactly the type of book that impresses its cleverness to a young reader, but also convinces that reader that they too are clever by association, and would have enraptured me with brilliance and inventiveness and thrown me into a tizzy about secret societies and sleuths, and convince me, in that strange moral way of a child’s conviction, to don my own hat and do my own sleuthing.
This review can also be found on my blog.
June 24, 2017
This was likeable, but it really is written by a teen for a teen. That said it was enormous fun.
However, I would rather recommend writers such as Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, who are the masters of this style, for adults.
However, I would rather recommend writers such as Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, who are the masters of this style, for adults.
December 22, 2017
Loved the interplay between the characters, particularly the well written dialogue.
Story is good, though the end scenes felt a little too drawn out. Liked the mash of sci-fi (almost steam punk) with a touch of fey...
Definitely an author I'll be reading more of.
Story is good, though the end scenes felt a little too drawn out. Liked the mash of sci-fi (almost steam punk) with a touch of fey...
Definitely an author I'll be reading more of.
April 27, 2020
I'm conflicted. I enjoyed it, it was mostly reasonably well written, with interesting characters. So I'm not quite sure why it fell slightly flat. Definitely read like teen fiction, so maybe it's that.
June 1, 2017
Intriguing Sherlock Holmes-ish take.
October 19, 2017
I love funny historical fantasy fiction. This one is like Jackaby, but packs more of a funny punch. Science!
May 6, 2019
Took itself much too seriously for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews