Who Doesn't Fall in Love with Agatha H?

Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil Foglio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed every page. A steampunk novel (clockwork, really, I suppose) with a comic-pulp-action sensibility and a hint of mystery and romance, it has a plot that just rolls along. There is so much inventiveness here that I wonder if the authors ever run out of ideas.

Agatha H is a clever girl, a "madboy" wannabe, in a retro-futuristic Europe where geniuses called sparks invent contraptions and creatures of all types, using them to forge empires. When she is captured by Klaus Wulfenbach, tyrant and inventor, and dragged to his immense airship, she begins to show signs of true genius that even she didn't know she was capable of. Most of the action takes place on the airship, with a big cast of characters. Agatha herself is a great character--interesting, sympathetic, flawed, fun--and I definitely want to read more stories about her.

In fact, characters come at the reader at a Dickens-like pace at times, but most of them are so distinct (Dickens-like there, too) that you can generally keep them straight, though I'll admit I wasn't 100% here.

For inventiveness, which I value, I have to give this book an A+. The creativity in this novel is so pronounced that I almost imagine events and objects in the novel in kaleidoscopic colors. (The Jägers are my favorites. Constructed soldiers serving Wulfenbach, they are both comic and impressive, capable of both witty, sarcastic banter and amazing physical feats.) Stylistically, I'm sure this novel won't work for everyone, but I can't see any way steampunk fans don't love this. For such folks, I give this a big recommendation.

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