Flashes of brilliance but too many words and unsatisfactory ending. ( )

The Return of the Discontinued Man by Mark Hodder is possibly the concluding climax (but maybe not) of the fun steampunk series featuring Sir Richard Burton and the poet Swinburne. I am totally incapable of writing about the series. It is so complex and interwoven that it is difficult to take it apart and see one individual book.

If you are a person that wants everything realistic steampunk isn't for you, but if you are willing to let real life people take on an amazing adventure through time and back with creatures and machines that never will be then these books are great fun.

Hodder has given his characters such life and his concept of time truly is finally given its full scope in this book. While the book would make a logical conclusion to the series, the door is left open for other adventures, I can't image what else this loveable gang could do to top what they have already done. ( )