Review: A little bit of a lot of things
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 22, 2010
Steamside Chronicles was a little bit of a lot of things: a bit of 'time travel', a bit of steampunk, and a bit of romance.Police officer Emily (Fen) Fenwick suddenly finds herself part of a group of individuals who have been pulled from the modern world and who now split their time between 1890's New York and the otherworldly dimension of Steamside where they must guard their fortress from physical manifestations of Nightmares. A relationship develops between Emily and Jack, who is 'the Man' in charge of the ragtag group of displaced-in-time 'punks' who make Steamside their home.  But since both leads are somewhat of a mess due to their circumstances - the heroine being weepy as a result of the trauma of being torn from her normal life and the hero, suffering from insecurity as a leader who has no hope of bringing his people back home - there are moments when the relationship seems more suited to a YA story, despite some more adult intimacy that occurs between the pair.Adding to my occasional confusion, the story is told from the first person point of view but switches back and forth between two narrators: Fen, and Jack.  I don't have problems with first person narrations per say, but the switches weren't always obvious and it often took a sentence or two to determine whose head we were in. My favorite part of the book though were the supporting characters, Petti the hero's sister, Screw the inventor and Sweet Pea who is in charge of guarding Steamside were all intriguing.Over all I liked Steamside Chronicles, it is a bit off-beat and surreal at times but I found that interesting.