Where the Sidekick Steals the Show

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okay, yes, I'm an easy touch when it comes to Sherlock Holmes stories. I like just about every incarnation. Hard for me not to pick up a new take on it. So I'm already leaning toward ranting about this book before I've even read it.

Read it--loved it--a couple quibbles--nah, loved it.

This is one of those blue-skies approaches to world-building in the sense that anything is possible here, and that is both a strength and weakness. The amount of crazy inventiveness in this novel is staggering, amazing, entertaining, and a little off-putting but ultimately super fun. The kaleidoscope of possibility was entertaining until somewhere near the end when it veered (for me) so far from reality toward the cartoonish that I couldn't connect with it very well (I mean, seriously, the setting is nuts), but then it pulled back and made sense to me once more. Still, even with that speed bump, it was enough fun overall and at the end that I couldn't give it less than all the stars.

This was also funnier than many supposedly funny books I've read lately. The sort-of Watson character (John Wyndham) is very proper and polite, and his narration of the story, filled as it is with improper behavior and language, is awkward and hilarious. (Reporting their client's statement: "Forgive the informality of my appearance,' she said with a sigh, 'but I appear to be utterly ruined.' She did not say 'ruined.'") I also enjoyed Shaharazad Haas, the sort-of Sherlock character, who is incorrigibly out of control and badly behaved but touchingly loyal to John no matter how much she disapproves of him and mocks him.

The Victorian-era language and tone is handled well here, consistent from beginning to end, and is another source of humor. John's narration is dry to the point of dead-pan, which works well: "Over the entire course of our acquaintance I can recall two and a half occasions on which Ms. Haas allowed another person to have the last word in an argument. This was not one of them and I conceded the point as gracefully as I was able."

The plot is strange but makes sense and is internally consistent, and the action does not flag at any point. This is an excellent book for short attention spans... in a good way...

So, lots of fun. Recommended for those who can mix their Sherlock with sorcery and humor. Works for me.

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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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