Title: Lofty Dreams of Earthbound Men
Series: Isleshire Chronicles #1
Author: Susan Laine
Genre: Steampunk – Fantasy
ISBN: 978-1-62798-371-6
Length: Novella (76 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (January 29th, 2014)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: On the night of the summer solstice, Obadai Bashim encounters Jules Sterling, a young engineering sage. Jules is on the run from a ripper, an assassin of the Theocracy who has already killed his master. Open atrocities by rippers are unusual in County Isleshire, where freedom and acceptance reign over prejudice.
However, political instability between the Five Kingdoms and the Divine Theocracy has set the theocrats on a mission to crown religious doctrine over science, and the Sage’s Guild is number one on their eradication list. If Obadai helps, he’ll have a price on his head too, but he can’t abandon Jules.
Escaping the ripper’s clutches is not enough. Jules has a mission of his own: to repair a faulty airship inn about to crash into the fortified township of Dunbruth. Luckily, Obadai has a few magickal secrets up his sleeve.
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4660
Review: A druid and an engineer. You think they have anything common with each other? Nope. Nothing at all. Yet they seem to balance each other well.
In a world where evolution is fought heavily by religion and science is being slowly killed, every magical being not blessed by the Church along with every scientist and inventor are being hunted and sentenced to die on the spot. His master already dead, Jules tries to run from his ripper while continuing to offer his services and repairing/preventing terrible accidents. He cannot do it by himself and he seeks help from the one person he feels he can trust with his life.
Obadai is not a warrior and his magick is not aggressive, yet he cannot refuse to help the young sage. He has the seed of Earth in him – a reason for the Church to hunt him down – and even that doesn’t kill the seed of love sparking to life once he get to know the young man. Together the run from the evil chasing them, they try to run from the ugly clutches of war.
A Steampunk marrying fantasy is the best description I can give this novella, and while it was fast and had a tension riding it, I found it also a bit too complex for its length and disorienting, as the entire world is built from scratch with not much to relate, names are a bit heavy in the eyes and even the days had different names, making it a real work trying to understand the world while simultaneously following the plot. However, the plot is quite simple once you get the handle of the name, places, society structure, and politics. Young man needs help. The rebel strives to give it to him. Together they attempt to get shelter away from the oppressive clutches of the Church.
There is a bit of action, there is a bit of romance (tame in its sweetness), and there is quite the new world opening right in front of your eyes. It ended too fast for the complexity of the background, but the fact that this is a series gives hope that we’ll see the structure of this world and the possibilities hidden with unveil in future installments.
Overall, I liked it and recommend it to fans of the genre.