Review: Loved, loved, loved it
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 22, 2014
There was a lot, and I mean, a lot, of jumping up and down, squealing, Kermit-like flailing, and overwhelming giddiness when I discovered that Rhys Ford was releasing a steampunk short story. Having only recently found the steampunk genre within the past few years, the concept that one of my top five favorite authors wrote one, was almost more than my heart could handle. Trust me when I say that in my exuberance I scared a number of my four legged kids and they hid from me for a whole day. *grins* Even more than normal, I was very impressed with this author's willingness to stretch her wings and I found the writing, story, and characters of 'Clockwork Tangerine' to be sublime.Marcus is the third son of a duke, not a particularly relished or enviable position as it holds little real power, and only a title of viscount. Marcus teaches "fisticuffs", boxing, to those men who need it and one evening he rescues a man from a beating by four intoxicated young men, only to discover he rescued the Toymaker himself, Robin Harris. The very man who created the device which killed Marcus's father. The scourge of the Society, a group which created the Golems, horrific caricatures of humans, grown in labs to be the footsoldiers of the Society. Even though the Society was defeated by the British Empire almost twenty years before, its horrors still linger.Now Marcus is face-to-face with the alleged terror of the Society, the man whose genius created all the mechanical monstrosities combining the arcane and science, and all Marcus can see is a gentle man who uses his abilities to help those in need. For Robin's friend who lost her leg, he built her a completely functioning new one, he rescued a cat with two missing back limbs and Robin created new ones. This is the horror? No. Robin is simply a brilliant engineer whom the Society used and abused and left him to carry the blame and shame of their perversions of his inventions. What ensues is a friendship the likes which Robin has never known and a slow descent into love. Marcus and his family's acceptance of Robin helps to introduce him to some older gentlemen within the Ton with whom Robin can discuss the safe merging of science and the arcane to help the Empire.I absolutely adored this book but I wanted more. Literally that is my only complaint. The story was too short and I would have loved more of their romance, of Robin's work, and definitely of Marcus's grandmother, the Dowager Duchess. Ahhhhhh, Rhys, you've done it again, my friend. Excellent job!NOTE: This book was provided by the author for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews