Heartless by Gail Carriger
Series: Parasol Protectorate #4
Published by Orbit
Published on: July 1st, 2011
Genres: Steampunk
Pages: 385
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
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Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.
Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?
No doubt Heartless would make the best movie of the series. Entry opens with vampire assassination attempts and town house purchases in London beside Lord Akeldama, the vampire fashion and flowery epithet lord. Due to this relocation of Lord and Lady Maccon, we can hear and see that much more of this eccentric and lovable bloodsipper.
In the werewolf world, Biffy, formerly one of Lord Akeldama’s most favored bloodsippers in training, adjusts to the hairier and mangier side of things. His conflict is well-handled, even in the midst of pyrotechnical payloads and ethereal enigmas. Thank Gail that we are finally restricted to Alexia’s POV.
Alexia, our centerpiece, proves that pregnant women get to have all the fun and food as she attempts to crack London’s latest apocalypse scenario. This will lead her to a treacle tart cart, situated in the very belly of the beast and not long after her presence suffered a trial by fire and acid.
As always the descriptions of clothing and tech are lively. Much about the characters and binds they get themselves caught in hits a fever pitch with this one. So what if the twist comes from a tremendous oversight on the part of an entire research organization and a pregnant but nonetheless driven mujhah? I am pretty sure we’re all here for the first, long overdue but well done, appearance of the Parasol Protectorate.
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| Recommended: | For those who like fancy hats |
| Like this, like that: | Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter, the Alex Craft series by Kalayna Price and the Season of the Moon series by S. M. Reine. |
