Jim Musgrave

SMARTARM by Jim Musgrave is a short novella about a struggling minor league pitcher who is offered the chance to become the successful pitcher he has always wanted to be.
I like the idea of the book before I read it, it felt like it could be a Twilight Zone type story. The story was clunky to me, though, with the political agenda of the engineering improvement given to Jake Golden, the pitcher, tripping over the personal challenges and ramifications of Jake, the new star of the Padres. I did like the character of Jake Golden, and I felt like in the short time of the story, Musgrave does do a good job of developing the main characters. The progression of Jake through the minor leagues up to the majors seemed implausible and therefore weakened the believability of the entire novella. I wanted to enjoy this short tale a lot more than I did, but I just didn't connect with it very much.
I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway.… (más)

This book being outside my usual genre which is Mystery, with sub categories of British mysteries and historical mysteries I was not sure how to review this book. As I started reading I thought it a little odd. I have only read one other Steampunk book. But the more I read it the more I enjoyed the book. The book had humans, mazikeens,rabbi's,robots, little people and all sorts of steam powered vehicles. I felt it had a good storyline and wonderfully created characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all readers of all genres.
Thanks to Net Galley.… (más)

Originally published on Tales to Tide You Over

Steam City Pirates is a nontraditional adventure narrative with rich characters that are very true to their time period and environment. It is also a philosophical exploration of society and religion, an odd combination, but one that makes up the strength of this novel.

I found the story compelling not because of the plot, which suffers a bit from external agency providing answers, but because of the characters and their interactions. I fear mystery readers will be disappointed. Though there is a mystery to be solved, the solution comes more from guesses and provided solutions than the direct cognition of O’Malley. He does have his moments, however. I am not a mystery reader in part because so few manage the combination of providing the clues and keeping me from piecing them together too early. In this case, the clues just weren’t there, and the detective spent most of his time flailing about with clues appearing at appropriate moments.

So why did I enjoy reading Steam City Pirates? Because it doesn’t read like a mystery. I don’t know if it’s the philosophical approach, the way the characters are presented, or just how rich the environment is, but the book held my interest up to the end.

Patrick O’Malley is a reluctant hero but an eager detective. These aspects of his nature mean he’s thrust into events both technologically and spiritually beyond his scope. Yet to solve the case, he will do whatever necessary, terrified the whole time not only by the simple risks to his physical form but also the implications against his soul.

Don’t let that make you think he’s a close-minded man, though. He is quite liberal in his thinking, a true patriot of the U.S. Civil War on the winning side, meaning he saw the conflict as one of civil liberties and the rejection of color as a measure of personhood. He is both aware of the dangers of anti-Semitism and has no difficulty accepting the intellectual abilities of women.

He’s joined by a complex cast, Seth who is half-angel, Seth’s mother Bessie, Patrick’s lover Becky who is a Vassar-educated madame, and McKenzie who commands a band of unofficial deputies. They, among others, help him navigate the complexities of working cases based on visions of the future from Seth.

I checked, and this is a continuation of a series of steampunk novels, something that doesn’t surprise me as there is a good bit of backstory referenced in the novel, but it comes at appropriate times with enough information to make the current events make sense.

This novel is clearly written for the steampunk fan. Between its extensive, and at times perhaps excessive, descriptions both of the locations and the contraptions invented by the World Scientific Advancement Society for Progress, among others, as well as its narrative voice, the novel very much conveys the steampunk alt-history period, and a sense of the world changing faster than a regular person can keep up combined with curiosity and need to understand.

P.S. I received this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.… (más)