Ann Walker
2/9/2014
Not my cup of tea.
The steampunk elements were forced, and did not flow organically from the setting or plot. The main character pairing was grating - if the authors were trying to channel Q and James Bond, with Wellington as the nerdy archivist and Eliza as the intrepid but slutty field agent, they fell far of the mark. The hints of Wellington's backstory came fast and furious to the point where we were being beaten over the head with them, whereas there was hardly any background to Eliza at all, which made her character even less comprehensible. A lot of the dialog made the book seem like it was a novelization of a movie of itself, attempting to be too clever by half. And though I like a good orgy scene, what on earth did that one have to do with anything?