Joshua K. Johnson

(Disclaimer: Received this ebook free through the LibraryThing Member Giveaway program)

I did like this book. It moved along just as expected and had a nice little ending obviously being the lead-in to the next in the series. I enjoyed it enough to know I'm going to look up book 2 when I'm done with my review pile.

The book is a steampunk novel, there's trains, repeating carbines, griffins and magic. Nice little mix. The fantasy side, such as Elves, griffins and magic aren't dominant at all, actually a bit understated. Technological things like carbines, trains and telegraphs have a much larger part, but that's fine, I wasn't looking for a particular balance or anything.

The book seems to center on 3 main characters. Eadric, the king of Ansgar, the nation where all the book really takes place. Raedan, a human baron who also has griffin blood-induced magical abilities, which seems unheard of for a human. Hadrian, baron and brother of Raedan, is a very politically minded climber of the intrigues of court and power struggles among the nobles.

The two main conflicts brought forth in the book relate to the western portion of Ansgar rebelling and attempting to secede and also the Kerberosi people, subjugated to Ansgar roughly a hundred years earlier, using the rebellion of the west to push up the timetable for their long-planned uprising to return to being a separate nation.

I think there were some clever subplots that were interesting and may be of a greater focus in the follow up novels. One I liked had to do with Raedan's magic ability and some of the effect it has on him and the seeming enjoyment he got out of a slightly darker use of it at one point in the novel. Another was the growing power of Hadrian and I wondered what he would do, what limits, to gain more power and increasing his family's influence and station.

Sometimes I felt that the book over-described minor things that probably could have been skipped over or shortened. Spending what felt like 2 pages or so breaking down the clothing of people at a meeting or stating each and every noble that was in attendance at a particular conclave was a bit much to me. If a book is only 268 or so pages, I'd think there might be more constructive uses for the pages you have.

The author does well in staying with the balance of mostly tech vs lighter fantasy elements throughout, so there were no sudden griffin squadrons or ultra powerful archmage standing before a 10,000 man army. As stated, the fantasy side was fairly muted overall, just enough to make it interesting and put a little bit of magic (no pun intended) into the book.

I just couldn't quite warm to the characters, they often seemed to have not a lot of depth, the exception being Raedan. The mix of action and behind the scenes struggles was well done, however. One strange item was that I believe the author has a bit of fondness for the ; (semicolon). I do not have an English degree and can't say exactly how often it may have been misused, but it seemed to pop up fairly often.

Something kept me reading right along and I think that it was that the book's author was able to juggle the few main characters along with just the right changing of viewpoints and the two major conflicts and people involved. I'd like to see how the next in the Griffins & Gunpowder line turns out. I get the feeling the author's a newer one and mastering the craft, so I do have some hope for more vivid character development and perhaps a bit more copy editing in the future.

My pet peeves are the usual typos, grammar misuse and glaring issues. This ebook (Nov 2012 epub edition) had it's share of them, sadly that's what kept me from a four star rating and only giving three and a half. It was just enough to be barely short of distracting. But, c'est la vie.

I'd definitely recommend this ebook to steampunk enthusiasts, fantasy readers and even those who love reading military action. If it hadn't been for the higher level of pet peeves, I'd give 4 stars.… (plus d'informations)

I don't normally read "war" novels. But the premise of this one with "griffins and gunpowder" intrigued me. I was pleasantly pleased with the book. It was fairly easy to read, although the descriptions of so many of the characters got a bit monotonous. I was highly amused of the coincidence of names of people I actually know. I'm guessing it's purely coincidental as I don't believe the author knows the same people I do. I have already recommended the book to others and plan to continue. Well done!… (plus d'informations)