Romanticism Lost

by Jon Hartless

Who solved the mystery of the Night-Terror Ghoul? Who saved the country from Doctor Kraken’s Death Ray? Who retrieved Mr Tibbles from a tall tree for Mrs Cloverdale?Enter Count Gilber’ Xavier de scholar, adventurer, and poet. Now the count faces his greatest challenge, yet the challenge is not the insane phantom lurking beneath the old opera house, or the master of crime, Professor John Meyrane, or even the mysterious Count Drakuvac, who attacks only at night and drains his victims of blood.Who is the mysterious, powerful bureaucrat pursuing the count on his every adventure, forcing official procedure onto every facet of life? Can the count stop the seemingly irresistible rise of conformity, regimentation, and standardisation? Or is the grey bureaucrat right, and only statistics are forever?Romanticism a thrilling, bleakly comical steampunk adventure of derring-do and totalitarian paperwork.

90 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2010

Reviews

[Steven Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is silly. And fun. And just a little bit bleak. And for the gothic or Romantic readers out there, there are added heaving bosoms. Taking itself none too seriously, this is a patch of light relief in a how-may-tropes-can-you-spot fun little outing. If you're a fan of Bram Stoker, Conan Doyle or countless others, this will poke fun at their endless copyists.

[Estott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started out fun, and then became increasingly bleak- each section ends with a calculated anticlimax until in the final coda the whole book turns on itself in a particularly sour way. Three out of Five stars because it was well written and stayed true to it's convictions (such as they were). I might check out the author's other writings

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a full review, check the Bitten by Books website: http://bittenbybooks.com