Sedition by E. M. Wright: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

 

Sedition by E. M. Wright

Sedition is a debut novel by E. M. Wright and it starts Children of Erikkson series. I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sedition is steampunk fantasy set in alternate Victorian England of airships and biomatons, humans that have been altered with clockwork parts and mind modifiers. Because of these changes, they’re no longer considered human and are treated as slaves.

Taryn is a young student of biomechanics with a secret: she is a biomaton too. She’s been pretending to be human for several years now, after she was discovered from the streets by a son of an aristocrat. Then her secret is discovered, and she’s taken to a lair of a cruel lordship who collects biomatons. Taryn is put through examinations and torture that nearly breaks her. Only, her mind-control doesn’t quite work like others’.

This started as a four-star book. The language was smooth, and the first third progressed in a good pace. Then Taryn was taken captive, and everything changed. The rest of the book lacked a proper plot with a clear goal that the protagonist would try to work towards. Taryn was passed along in a progression of scenes where she was submitted to humiliation and/or torture over and over again, with no recourse. The sadistic cruelty of the other characters soon became tiresome, especially since Taryn had no agency and no way to influence her situation. The story happened to her, not the other way around. The ending was abrupt and came across like a deus ex machina, especially since the build-up was for a different solution entirely.

Taryn was an interesting character, but not someone I could identify with. I sympathised with her at first, but even that became difficult when she had no influence on her situation or any initiative. The idea that her emotions were dampened was fairly repulsive, especially in how it made her regard her only friend.

The side characters were odd, to say the least. Ace was probably meant to be a love interest of a sort, since he was given his own POV chapters, but he was cowardly and useless. Emmet was mawkish and then pitiful, through no fault of his own. The rest of the characters were merely a collection of sadistic torturers that would make Marquis de Sade envious. At least there was no sexual violence, which was probably due to this being marketed as YA fiction.

Things could be said about the idea of slaves as non-human (or vice versa), especially since the book is set at the time when America was fighting the Civil War over slavery, but since the author chose not to make the comparison, I’ll leave be. All in all, nothing else kept me reading than the obligation to review the book. I won’t be following Taryn’s path longer than this.