A Complement of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

A Complement of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood

A Complement of Scoundrels is set in a secondary world with steampunk-ish elements (no steam) and magic, magic-based technology and technology-based magic. It has an early 20th century feel to it, but it’s not an alt-earth. It’s the author’s debut novel and a very good one at that.

Myria, a young criminal, has been given a chance to lead a team for the first time to break into an unbreakable vault. Against all odds, they succeed, only to be betrayed by their crime boss. Three years later, when she’s released from a prison, she’s ready for her revenge. All she needs to do is to find her old crew and give a slip to the government official who’s supervising her. It’s all easy—until it isn’t. The nice young man watching over her wasn’t as gullible as she believed, and now they’re working for a new boss.

Felix used to be one of the strongest magic users in the military, until pulling off an impossible feat in a battle burned out all his magic, permanently crippling his abilities. The army won’t follow a leader who’s unable to repeat the feat, so he gave the credit to his general in exchange for a cushy government job. But he’s bored out of his mind, so when he’s given the mystery that is Myria, he decides to investigate. What he learns makes him involve his old general.

The task is to take down a popular politician right before the election. Myria and her team know he’s their old crime boss using their stolen magic to fool the country. Felix and the general simply see him as an opponent to the general’s brother, the current leader. But nothing is simple in this story where a conman is against a conman and double-crossing is the name of the game.

This was a great stand-alone fantasy caper. It’s exactly and solely about the con. There are no side-stories or quests, there are no backstories, and no romance. The buildup to the start of the job takes half the book, and while it feels slow at times, the story flows constantly forward. The actual con had so many twists and turns, that it was impossible to guess where it was going or if the team could pull it off.

Myria was a great character, single-minded in her focus on revenge, but not consumed by it. She believed that the original betrayal was her fault and worked to make things right. She was clever and funny at times, and while she operated from the handicap of never having had magic—it had been stolen when she was a child—she never let that slow her down. Felix was a good complement to her and the team with his moral core that got slightly compromised along the way, but never veered completely off.

All characters existed only here and now. We don’t learn anything about their past, Myria the exception and only a small one. It worked fairly well, the characters coming to life through their abilities. Felix was maybe the most sympathetic in his struggle to come to terms with losing his magic. But while I rooted for the characters and liked all of them, I was never terribly emotionally invested in them.

The strength and weakness of the book lay on its worldbuilding. It’s amazingly complicated and complex, and very opaque to the reader. We never really learn all there is to it, as nothing is explained. There’s all sort of technology, magic operating cars and airships, heavy reliance on magic in everything, whether inherent or tech assisted, and criminals stealing peoples’ magic to operate it all. But what really works is that the con itself is completely based on the special features of the world and could only exist within the context of it, making it unique and entertaining.

All in all, this was a great debut that delivered exactly what it set out to deliver, an entertaining story with a light emotional impact. The ending was good and tied all the lose ends, leaving the reader confident that the characters continue their lives after it’s ended—and maybe return for a different job. I’d read it.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hell’s Acre by Lilith Saintcrow: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

Hell's Acre by Lilith Saintcrow

Hell’s Acre was a really different book from what I presumed by the description, cover, and previous books by the author I’ve read. I expected a fast-paced alt-world urban fantasy told in first person narrative. But it’s an alt-Victorian gaslamp fantasy told in third person by multiple point of view characters, with an overly florid narrative style that is incredibly slow to read, as every sentence is packed full in a convoluted fashion that forces the reader to go back several times.

The world isn’t what I thought either, based on the description: a country that has refused to accept Christianity and where Rome never fell. I presumed it would be based on Roman gods and traditions, or since this takes place in England, Anglo-Saxon ones, or a combination of both. Mithraism, for example, in the temple of which the book starts, would’ve had rich, distinct rituals and interesting underground architecture that would’ve immediately made this world unique.

What we have is a very traditional Christian setting, like convents structured like Christian ones and organised by gender, and Priories and Abbeys, with a few token words of other religions and cultures in the mix to make it seem something else. Character names are based on Bible. Even the name of the book directs thoughts to Christianity, even if the concept of hell isn’t solely Christian. The world feels half thought out and is a great disappointment.

It took a long time to get a hang of the characters too, as the narrative doesn’t really dwell on their inner thoughts, and reader is more observing them from the outside. Yet, for all the floridity, characters are very sparsely described, and long after the reader has already formed their own image of them.

The story emerges slowly and in a roundabout way, with every character’s POV chapter opening mid-action with little or nothing to orient the reader. Beth, going by Gemma Dove, an orphan, has been living in this world’s version of France to hide her from powers who want her for something that isn’t specified. But her guardian has died and she’s returned to England (Albion) to revenge her parents’ death. She’s well trained in self-defence and believes in her abilities, but it isn’t easy to go after her prey even with powerful backers.

She takes a job as a teacher of boys in an orphanage near the bad part of town, Hell’s Acre, and that fills most of her days, with some adventures in the mix. She catches the attention of Avery Black, who leads a group of vigilantes (or something, I never quite figured out) in Hell’s Acre. Reader doesn’t learn much about him, or Hellions, the organisation he belongs to (but not the vigilantes?), but he’s after the same man as Gemma.

The book description gives to understand that the two team up. However, while their paths cross from time to time, the two don’t realise their mutual goal before the book ends. The ending is a cliffhanger. There’s a hint of interest, but no romance. I’m not sure I need to read more to find out what happens next. The story wasn’t interesting enough, and it was too much work to read, with too little given in return. I’m giving it three stars though, because I did finish it and it doesn’t quite feel like a two-star book despite everything I found lacking.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.