Review: Promising (presumable) first entry
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 22, 2014
Note: I was given an ARC of this book in return for an impartial review, which I believe I have delivered.Dangerous Science is a good blend of a modern steampunk work, a throwback to Victorian times and the fantastic machinery imagined by authors of the era. In particular I found the setting evocative of H. G. Wells; the underlying tension between wealth and science and the social struggles that emerge from it (not to mention the theme of scientific development and physical refinement, in the form of the automatons, also represent the elevation from humanity and human emotions) are fairly torn from his fiction and nonfiction works alike. The latter parts of the book, however, clearly resemble the Extraordinary Voyages of Jules Verne, particularly 20,000 Leagues.In terms of the interaction between the characters, there is a slow build taking up the first half of the book. Additionally, much of the dominance and submission aspect is not in the traditional physical form (although that does emerge), but in the method of an emancipated female scientist forced to return to the tutelage of her former professor, consigned by the Council of Science to have her position of scientist reduced to that of Intellectual Ward. While this may not be to everyone's taste, I thought this was a novel approach to the subject, and quite suitable for the Victorian mindset (where propriety and social standing are everything) and the steampunk setting (where menial tasks instead of scientific advancement would clearly be seen as punishment of the highest degree).While this story is self-contained, it clearly has set up a world and relationship that continue, and the end hints that this may be so. I would certainly read the next in the series. My personal wish, since Verne's submarine trope has been explored here, maybe his Moon voyage could serve as inspiration next?