Rod DuncanRecensioni

59000

I really enjoyed this book. A little steampunk. A little mystery. A great alternate earth to dive into. I will be reading the next one for sure.

'Meh' is the feeling I'm left with after this book.

I've enjoyed the the books in this trilogy, andII think the last book is the best.
The originality of the plot and the characters involved make for a great reading experience.
I need to find more books by this author.

Feeling that she's been left without options, Elizabeth Barnabus takes matters into her own hands, first by confronting the Duke of Northampton and second by agreeing to assist her friend Fabulo in a heist on the International Patent Court in London. But of course things don't go to plan, and soon Elizabeth and her friends are running for their lives ...

While the previous two volumes in the Fall of the Gas-lit Empire sequence were pacey and original, this third volume certainly ups the ante. There are several moments in the book where the tension and suspense are downright nail-biting. The set-up of the heist is incredibly clever and can compete with any heist thriller seen at the cinema. A worthy conclusion of the trilogy, and I can look forward to seeing more of Elizabeth Barnabus in the Map of Unknown Things sequence.

A delight of a story well told. Supposedly of the steampunk genre, it seemed to me to be more of an alternative history. But the classification isn't important - the author has crafted an engaging lead character and an entertaining plot.
There are other books in the series. I'll be back to read more of Rod Duncan.

The story was interesting, and I definitely liked the protagonist and hope she's around in the next one. However, I have to admit that the pervasive typographical errors in the book were incredibly distracting. This is obviously not a comment on the story itself, but if Angry Robot (the publisher) expects to be taken seriously in the industry they really need to step up their editing game.

I really enjoyed this story. Perfectly narrated by Gemma Whelan. It is set in our time (2009), but back in the 19th Century, things had changed dramatically, and we now find ourselves in a Great Britain that is divided into a monarchy and a republic (the borders running similar to those of England/Scotland), with practically no technical advancements. The Patent Office is the global power watching over everything and everybody, eliminating every technology they deem unseemly or dangerous.

Elizabeth, our main protagonist, is the legal property of the Duke of Northampton, who had obtained this 'ownership' by illegal means.

She is constantly on the run, because the duke is very powerful and influential, so she has to stay in exile in the Republic.
When things in the Republic take a turn to the worse, Elizabeth sets out to regain her freedom once and for all.

I like steam punk stories, and this one is great. The characters are believable and -- most of them -- lovable.
I listened to all three books within just four days, which is telling how fascinated I was, cause it usually takes me much longer to finish a book. I listened during every free minute.

I'm sad it is over, but the ending was perfect.

With a treaty imminent between the Republic and the Kingdom that would see her deported and returned as property to the Duke of Northampton, Elizabeth is only too glad to take up the offer of an investigation into ice thefts from the founder of a charitable foundation in Derby. But what she uncovers there will shake her to the core ...

In the second volume of The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire much of the tension and pace comes from Elizabeth's attempt to stay one step ahead of the authorities and the bounty hunters on her trail, and the mystery of the ice thefts that uncovers a far larger crime is compelling. I agree with one reviewer that part of the attraction of this series is the fact that Elizabeth must use every ounce of her intelligence, ingenuity and resourcefulness to escape danger, whether that be deportation and the fate that will inevitably follow, or the danger to life and limb. She always has to be alert, and the feeling of being constantly kept on your toes transfers to the reader through the first-person narration. This is quickly shaping up to be one of my favourite series and Elizabeth one of my favourite
characters.½

Elizabeth Barnabus grew up in a travelling circus and now leads a double life: by day she is herself, living on a canal boat in the divided city of Leicester, by night she earns her living as a private intelligence gatherer while impersonating her fictitious twin brother, since women aren't allowed to run a business in the Anglo-Scottish Republic. Because money is scarce, she accepts the Duchess of Bletchley's request to search for her brother, who has joined the troupe of the famous impresario Harry Timpson. Little does she know that the investigation will not only bring her into conflict with an agent of the International Patent Office, but that she will also need to run for her life and fight to preserve her freedom.

I loved the highly original premise of an alternate Britain divided after a second civil war in the eighteenth century, with the International Patent Office acting as a supranational organisation that has limited invention and innovation. Though the story is set in the modern day, this limitation has resulted in a society more akin to the Victorian age – with women's emancipation and suffrage at a similar level.

There is much to admire in the novel's central character Elizabeth Barnabus, who acts as the story's narrator: a strong female character, she's independent, intelligent and resourceful. Contrary to one reviewer's opinion, I thought her voice with the (to our ears) dated expressions worked very well, and helped to set the tone.

The plot is relatively fast-paced and unpredictable for the most part, with unique and interesting characters. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel, Unseemly Science, which is luckily already on my shelf.½

I couldn't resist buying this one: great title, striking cover art, a steampunk setting and the first in a series. It had to be worth a read. Except that it wasn't. I gave up after ninety minutes of this ten hour audiobook.

There's a lot to like in "The Bullet Catcher's Daughter": a truly original take on an alternative nineteenth century England; a brave and tenacious heroine who has to pretend to be a man in order to do what needs doing (which not only allows gender issues to be highlighted but gives lots of opportunities for cross-dressing fun); a tongue-in-cheek attitude that salts the whole thing with dry humour and big, impressive Victorian machinery.

Normally, I'd have settled down to this with the same kind of smile I have on my face when I'm reading the one of the "Parasol Protectorate" books but my enjoyment was destroyed by the faux-Victorian language. It was distressingly inauthentic, producing the distracting dissonance that one experiences when listening to a non-native speaker trying to use the vernacular of one's own language. It may be amusing for a short time but it quickly becomes wearisome. I was expecting pastiche but what I got was clumsy parody that rendered the dialogue lifeless and crippled the attempts at humour.

I'm aware that this is a very popular series, so perhaps the fault lies with my expectations but this one was added to my Did Not Finish pile.

In this second book in the trilogy, Elizabeth Barnabus must evade the authorities as the Republic and the Kingdom work on a treaty that could force Elizabeth to return home where she'd be forced to be an indentured servant to a lecherous duke. Meanwhile, her best friend has gotten herself involved in a local charitable organization of women who are working to resolve a conflict between ice workers and the manufacturers. However, as Elizabeth begins to help in the investigation, they discover there is far more at risk than ice.

This second book in the trilogy continues the steampunk-ish mystery and adventure and while it had been over a year since I'd read the first book, I was able to jump back into the series with few issues (the glossary in the back of the book was pretty helpful for refreshing my memory on some details though). The mystery is well crafted, Elizabeth is a compelling character even though I felt like we didn't get as much of her emotional reactions to things as I think would have made her understandable. I'll definitely be finishing off the trilogy.

It is not necessary to read the first trilogy featuring Elizabeth Barnabus to appreciate this novel. It would add incalculably to your pleasure in the read, but it isn't necessary.

The plot picks up where The Custodian of Marvels leaves off. Julia has vanished after embarking for America, there to join her hard-won happiness with husband Richard in his law firm's Patent-law practice there. Julia will make herself a new life by studying Patent law at Columbia University. All of that struggle and fight is now gone for naught with her airship's disappearance. Her bestie and earliest supporter Elizabeth is on the hunt for her at great personal cost. It seems, as of now, that Elizabeth's main supporter and illicit lover, John Farthing, has lost her via her betrayal of his trust as well as her disappearance.

For someone who picked this book up because of its terrific cover art, this should be enough: the friendship between the women is explicitly made the stakes of the story within two chapters. Possibly the most intriguing idea in the series is the existence of the International Patent Office. Those who have read The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire may read the spoilers that follow.
Elizabeth's journey from Patent-Office battling terrorist to one of their own is a delightful part of that series's arc, and the basis for this series's stories. In these tales we will follow the intrepid, genderfluid Elizabeth as she resumes her part-time identity as her own brother in service of, not in fleeing from, her former enemy-turned-employer the Patent Office. That by itself would make this an astounding series to follow. But the stakes are far greater than merely serving those that Barnabus once despised. Mr. Barnabus is outed as Miss Barnabus memorably and completely for the duration of this book's search for Julia when we discover the truth of a tall tale of sea monsters eating ships.

The action of the story is set largely among the all-female pirate society, the Sargassans, operating in the North Atlantic Gyre. It's a world constructed around the Unicorn, which name made me snigger as I realized it was chosen to be the center of an all-female society. But I show my juvenile sense of humor. The novella-length time we're aboard the constructed world of the Sargassans is spent politicking and coping with human nature's ickier corners. Women, it turns out, do much as men do when left to rule themselves. I wonder if this is, in fact, true; I don't know how much of the world is based on women being women and how much on women reacting to the male-dominated world they hated enough to run away from. I suspect the truth is the latter by Author Duncan's design.

Now the design itself becomes an issue. This is the first book of a trilogy, whose second book has only recently appeared. The ending of this book's two-fold story is complete only on one strand, and that dangling second strand is going to itch and niggle the entire time we're embarked on a new quest in Elizabeth's emotionally battered and physically exhausted condition. The ending of The Queen of All Crows will not resolve the Barnabus case internal to the International Patent Office. It is clear that echoes of "O brave new world..." in the ending are not accidental. And with it, the opening of vast new vistas and fresh perspectives on the Gas-Lit Empire.

Because the action of this book, airship crashes and pirate republics and long sea voyages, all takes place in 2012.

3.5/5 stars. A bullet-catcher is, in the parlance of this time and place, a circus performer, a magician, a member of a traveling show. And Elizabeth is the daughter of one. After her family's show was stolen from them by a corrupt nobleman, Elizabeth fled the kingdom and, in order to live on her own as a woman, resurrected the fake twin brother she'd developed as part of her father's act. She--or rather, her brother--works as an intelligencer, a bit of a spy and a bit of an investigator. Her newest case will take her back to the kingdom of her birth and put her freedom in danger.

Here's a thing. You're going to be reading this book and thinking gas-lit, steampunk, yes, yes, and then the author is going to hit you with the date of a past event. That date is going to be in the 1970s and you are going to immediately start calculating what the date is and if this book takes place in the 21st century. At that point, the world this book takes place in becomes huge. I'm very interested to read the next book in the series so I can continue to figure out how everything fits together.

The other thing is: I liked Elizabeth. I liked Julia and her father. I liked the people Elizabeth lived near, and many of the people who helped her. And those I didn't like I at least found interesting.½

I won my copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
This is a fairly fast-paced, readable steampunk adventure novel, starring Elizabeth, a tough young woman who is on the run from agents of both the Kingdom and the Republic. At the same time she is also trying to be a PI for hire, tracking down answers to a suspected ice theft problem.
I had some issues getting into this book. It is very British, written by a Brit, for a British readership, so in the world of this novel, even though they are in a year comparable to our own, the Kingdom and the Republic are oddly isolated from Ireland and from the United States. In this alternate history, a civil war in the early 1800's splits Britain in half, with the area that we would know as Scotland as a sort of democracy (but with gender discrimination far worse than I would expect from the Scots) and a monarchy in England and southern Wales. The science is shaky, the history and sociopolitics feel cobbled together, and I was surprised that there is not a better developed underworld that the heroine can escape to when she is on the run. I also have my doubts that isolating Europe from the Americas and preventing WW1 and WW2 would really result in technological stagnation enough that the year 2000 in their world looks a lot like the late 1800's in ours.
Still, fiction readers are supposed to do their best to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the story, and the story is entertaining and well enough told to justify 4 stars on Goodreads.

Elizabeth Barnabus has almost always lived a double life as herself and her non-existent twin brother, an intelligence gatherer. When the Duchess of Bletchley hires Elizabeth to find the Duchess's brother, dire financial straits force Elizabeth to accept the job despite the risks it poses to her double identity. In a search that will put her up against the International Patent Office, a tight-knit group of circus folk, and force her to face her own past once more, Elizabeth will be lucky to escape this job alive.

This was a fun steampunk adventure with a solid mystery at its core and plenty of spy intrigue to go around. There's also some larger political issues happening in the background that have me intrigued enough to pick up the next entry in this series. This one sits further on the alternate history side of the fence than the steampunk side but should appeal to fans of both. A solid read that was few steps away from four stars but due to some clumsy plotting in a few spots didn't quite make it. Recommended if the summary strikes your fancy.

This was a fitting end to an excellent trilogy (except that now I know it's not a trilogy and not the end). I think it is the best book of the three by a considerable margin - not to say that the others weren't good, because they were. This one was just so good that I ended up not doing anything I had planned to do, in favour of carrying on reading.

This is essentially a heist book: Elizabeth Barnabus is persuaded to join a gang intending to break into, and steal from, the International Patent Office. It's known that the IPO keeps examples of "unseemly science" that it deems not conducive to the good of the common man. If some of those marvels could be stolen, the thieves might live very comfortably on the proceeds.

Or the IPO itself might be destroyed...

There is a great deal of action here; for the first time, Elizabeth is taking the initiative - and I think that's intentional on the part of the author. Elizabeth has spent two books running away - now she can't run any further, and she can't hide. The time has come to stand, and to fight back. Which she does.

This book includes many things that I enjoy: intellectual property law; clocks; locks; filing systems. But what I liked the most, I think, were the interactions between Elizabeth and the other gang members, each of whom had their own motivation for joining the heist. They are all real people, with lives outside the book, which have led them to take part such a dangerous plan.

The heist itself does not go as planned (obviously) but what is discovered, and what is left hidden, bring the story to a very interesting end. I find myself wondering whether Duncan intends to leave it there - which he could very well do - or continue it on (now I know he intends to carry it on - excellent!). There are certainly enough loose ends to support further books in the sequels - but to leave it there would also be satisfying, in a way. Life is not neat and tidy. Most people's real life stories do not end in such a way, to allow the book to be closed with the knowledge that nothing interesting ever happens to that person again.

But I wonder: what happens when you think that your choice is between death and victory, but you turn out to be wrong? And how do you define victory?

Unusually for a second book in the series, I think this one was even better than the first.

Elizabeth Barnabus is living a double life, both as herself and as her male twin. The events of Book 1 are still having an effect - although Elizabeth now owns her boat free and clear, she has also come to the negative attention of the authorities...

Unseemly Science follows Elizabeth as she attempts to solve a mystery relating to the ice farmers (an excellent concept!) and avoid legal threats to her liberty at the same time. And somebody seems to be following her...

And why is the Patent Office so interested in the Bullet Catcher's Handbook anyway?

One might also ask why the young Patent Office official from the previous book seems so interested in Elizabeth personally, but one would probably get a pitying look if one did. I look forward to seeing how that one plays out...

One thing I like about this trilogy is that Elizabeth is very much not in control of events. Even when she thinks she is, things have a habit of turning around on her. She is almost powerless in the face of her enemies, and much of the time, pretty much all she can do is dodge one bullet at a time. She knows she is in danger, and this gives the books what I think is a realistic feeling of threat: this is not the kind of book where the underdog suddenly develops amazing powers of strategy and a host of allies to take her from being at the bottom of the pile to being a series threat to the powers-that-be. Elizabeth is not a threat: she is continually one step away from getting squashed flat. However, she has something that powerful people want - but what is it?

I shall now go and acquire the next book in the series - [b:The Custodian of Marvels|25489100|The Custodian of Marvels (Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, #3)|Rod Duncan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1443099188s/25489100.jpg|45263398] - to see how the trilogy plays out.

I can never read a steampunk book without thinking of one of my favorite television shows, "Wild, Wild West", and even though this book is set in England and not in America it still embodies all the elements that make this genre enjoyable and fun to read, good writing and memorable characters.

I hope there will be more books in this series, because I can't wait to find out what happens next!

I’ve had a bit of a hit or miss history with steampunk, but The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter was certainly a hit. It’s a fast paced start to a series taking place in an alternate timeline where all new technology was outlawed by the all powerful Patent Office. With technology stagnant, societal mores stagnated as well. Thus to live independently, Elizabeth Barnabus has to pull of the greatest illusion of her life – by day she is herself, by night she is a fictional twin brother, who works as a private detective. When she takes a case involving a missing aristocrat, she suddenly finds herself in a world of trouble with the Patent Office on her tail.

If you’ve been following my reviews for a while, you’ll probably have gathered that I like rogue type characters. These tend to be some variant of con artists or thieves, but Elizabeth fits the bill in an unusual but satisfying manner. She grew up in a circus, learning illusions and slight of hand. These are the skills she uses in her information gathering. My favorite parts of the book involved Elizabeth using some form of deception to escape pursuers or gather intel.

Elizabeth lives in what in our world is Scotland. Her version of the Britain has been split in half between the Republic and the Kingdom (Republic in the north, Kingdom in the south). The two have varying cultures, although women don’t have it great in either of them. There’s some of the technology you’d expect from steampunk – say, airships – but there’s not a huge amount of steampowered gadgetry since the Patent Office keeps a tight lid on new inventions. The most impressive feat was that the world building never became info dumpy. You just sort of gently glide into the world and its rules.

While I loved seeing how Elizabeth used her stage magic training to get her way out of sticky situations, I never grew that attached to her as a character. The same can be said for the supporting cast. I don’t think it was to the point where it hampered my enjoyment of the story, but without a strong connection to the characters I doubt I’d ever give this one a reread.

I’d recommend The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter for anyone looking for a fun, fast paced steampunk story with a very canny female lead.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.½

Enjoyed this steampunk alt history, looking forward to the next in the series. The glossary at the end has a bit of foreshadowing for the Gas-Lit Empire.

I will start by saying this book was interesting. I loved the gaslight Victorian setting, I loved the strong female lead, and I loved all the circus aspects in this book. That being said I feel like the plot as a whole was a bit forced, it was a brilliant journey to set everything up, and for me i thought climax didn't really hold up to what came before. Still I think this is a world i would gladly visit again, I just hope the authors next plot holds up to the high hopes i had at the beginning of the book.

Elizabeth Barnabus is living a double life, at night as her "brother" who works as a detective, by day a respectable if eccentric young woman living on a boat and giving a friend lessons in law. When the Duchess of Bletchley offers her money to find the duchess's brother, Elizabeth agrees in order to get enough money to pay off the loan for her beloved boat, even if it means delving into a past she left behind for good years ago.

The Gas-Lit Empire, a group of what we might call European nations that look just a little bit different in their makeup and steam power than our universe, is the setting for this mystery-steampunk mashup. There was a lot of world-building as you might expect from the first in a series but it didn't completely overwhelm a fun adventure story. Elizabeth was a fun character, too, and I liked her ingenuity made believable by her background as the daughter of an illusionist (to say much more would be to give spoilers). Definitely a good set up to a series that I'm interested in exploring further.

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: You’d have to be mad to steal from the feared International Patent Office. But that’s what Elizabeth Barnabus is about to try. A one-time enemy from the circus has persuaded her to attempt a heist that will be the ultimate conjuring trick.

Hidden in the vaults of the Patent Court in London lie secrets that could shake the very pillars of the Gas-Lit Empire. All that stands in Elizabeth’s way are the agents of the Patent Office, a Duke’s private army and the mysterious Custodian of Marvels.

Rod Duncan returns with the climactic volume of the Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, the breathtaking alternate history series that began with the Philip K Dick Award-nominated The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter.

My Review: If I did not already have information to the effect that this volume merely concludes the first series of books about the Gas-Lit Empire, I would even now be stowing away on a container ship bound for the UK with murder in my heart and author Duncan in my sights.

As things stand, I am thrilled by the ending of the book...by the entire last third, in fact...and the justice meted out therein. It's no secret from my earlier reviews that this is a series I've completely given myself over to. I have a suspicion that this is due to the talents of Mr. Duncan in applying his professional knowledge of science and computing to create a plausible explanation for this amazing world and its terrific characters. In previous reviews, I've described the point of departure for the series as unlikely in the extreme. I only now, at the very end of the third book in the trilogy, understand why this particular point of departure from the world we inhabit was chosen. In fact, it couldn't have worked in any other way. I will not spoiler this for anyone else, but keep the origins of the Gas-Lit Empire in your mind throughout the book and you'll be given an even richer reading experience than you'd have any other way.

I've got quibbles, of course, I'm a reader with thousands of books under my belt so it would be improbable for me not to have. I wonder how Miss Elizabeth Barnabus came to the final conclusion she did during the heist at the end of the book in such a hurry. But honestly, any quibble I have is more akin to brushing my husband's coat on his way out the door than to yanking at cards in a house of cards. Specks, mere specks, nothing more.

If it isn't crystal-clear from the foregoing, I am urging with great certainty and compulsion that you go forth on the instant and order whichever of these books you haven't yet read. If you haven't read any, buy the series in bulk. I waited an agonizing year before getting my copy of THE CUSTODIAN OF MARVELS, and I don't want others to suffer as I have done.½

So, I just finished a well written steampunk novel that was really good - The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan. Strong, clever female heroine perfectly capable of rescuing herself, no love triangle (in fact no romance!), excellent pacing, and although it is the first in a series, it can stand on its own just fine - no cliffhanger. Highly recommended.

The main character is Elizabeth Barnabas, and she has made a life out of posing as two people - herself and her twin brother. The brother works as a private investigator, which would be impossible for a woman to do in Elizabeth's world. Set in an alternate history world where the United Kingdom has been divided into two realms - imagine if the Luddites had been successful, and the patent office became a very powerful entity with its own law officers. The world building here is lovely, and I like that Mr. Duncan doesn't try to cram it down the reader's throat, but reveals it bit by bit as the story goes along. Not only is Elizabeth's current case very interesting, her backstory has its own intrigue. This is a mystery with action and adventure that does not disappoint; I for one cannot wait to read the next one!½