Review of 'Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
4.5 A tour de force as usual, the Foglio's newest Girl Genius novel is a little hard to get into if you haven't read the books or the comics in a while, but the rest of the book more than makes up for the first 10 percent. The scheming is multi-layered to the point of byzantine absurdity, the characters weird and fun, the humour is top-notch and made me laugh more times than I can tell and the footnotes are well on their way to approaching Pratchett's (only these are numbered as is proper for a "scientific" work as this).
The only complaint I have is that the scenery, especially inside Castle Heterodyne, is often described in rather broad strokes. Makes you want to go back to read the comics, but not so great if you want to read the novels on your own. But that's a rather minor quibble …
4.5 A tour de force as usual, the Foglio's newest Girl Genius novel is a little hard to get into if you haven't read the books or the comics in a while, but the rest of the book more than makes up for the first 10 percent. The scheming is multi-layered to the point of byzantine absurdity, the characters weird and fun, the humour is top-notch and made me laugh more times than I can tell and the footnotes are well on their way to approaching Pratchett's (only these are numbered as is proper for a "scientific" work as this).
The only complaint I have is that the scenery, especially inside Castle Heterodyne, is often described in rather broad strokes. Makes you want to go back to read the comics, but not so great if you want to read the novels on your own. But that's a rather minor quibble and gets better as the narrative progresses.
Now I can't wait for GURPS Girl Genius to come out!
