Robert Rees reviewed The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt
Review of 'The Court of the Air' on 'LibraryThing'
4 stars
This is a big, sprawling, ambitious book that starts off as a Victorian penny dreadful about a pair of orphans having their worlds upended by a sinister conspiracy, enters a phase of Steampunk espionage and ends up with huge heroic battles against ancients evils via a critique of Communism.returnreturnLike a Frakenstein Hunt has stiched together Dickens, The Difference Engine, The 39 Steps, Zorro, Wilkie Collins, Regency romances, American Pulp and the Penny Dreadful. And for the most part it really works. This whole complex alternative universe is imagined and its complex politics feeds into a conspiracy which gives the book the tone of a thriller.returnreturnThere are a few writing school moments where you get a chapter introducing you to something that you then see every chapter from that point forward. There are also few dangling references to things, everything has a way of being tidied up as soon as it …
This is a big, sprawling, ambitious book that starts off as a Victorian penny dreadful about a pair of orphans having their worlds upended by a sinister conspiracy, enters a phase of Steampunk espionage and ends up with huge heroic battles against ancients evils via a critique of Communism.returnreturnLike a Frakenstein Hunt has stiched together Dickens, The Difference Engine, The 39 Steps, Zorro, Wilkie Collins, Regency romances, American Pulp and the Penny Dreadful. And for the most part it really works. This whole complex alternative universe is imagined and its complex politics feeds into a conspiracy which gives the book the tone of a thriller.returnreturnThere are a few writing school moments where you get a chapter introducing you to something that you then see every chapter from that point forward. There are also few dangling references to things, everything has a way of being tidied up as soon as it is referenced. There are no threads that are left over once the narrative is wrapped up. There is not the sensation of being in a larger more complicated world that is hinted at as you get in Tolkien.returnreturnThe book also loses steam when the scene shifts from the low key hunters and hunted to the more epic battlefield sequences. It is probably a genre too far to also co-opt the Sharpe style of book!returnreturnBut overall I salute its ambition, richness and variety of subject, the pace of its narrative as well its measured and satisfying writing.returnreturnI also have to say that I am immensely glad that the lure of the trilogy has been avoided and instead you get a long but self-contained novel.
