Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Release Date: June 11, 2019
Publisher: PYR
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Dark Fantasy
An apothecary clerk and her ex-mercenary allies travel across the world to discover a computing engine that leads to secrets she wasn’t meant to know—secrets that could destroy humanity.
Eight months ago, Rowena Downshire was a half-starved black market courier darting through the shadows of Corma’s underside. Today, she’s a (mostly) respectable clerk in the Alchemist’s infamous apothecary shop, the Stone Scales, and certainly the last girl one would think qualified to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders a second time. Looks can be deceiving.
When Anselm Meteron and the Alchemist receive an invitation to an old acquaintance’s ball—the Greatduke who financed their final, disastrous mercenary mission fourteen years earlier—they’re expecting blackmail, graft, or veiled threats related to the plot to steal the secrets of the Creator’s Grand Experiment. They aren’t expecting a job offer they can’t refuse or a trip halfway across the world to rendezvous with the scholar whose research threw their lives into tumult: the Reverend Doctor Phillip Chalmers.
Escorting Chalmers to the Grand Library of Nippon with her mismatched mercenary family is just a grand adventure to Rowena until she discovers a powerful algebraic engine called the Aggregator. The Aggregator leads Rowena to questions about the Grand Experiment she was never meant to ask and answers she cannot be allowed to possess. With her reunited friends, Rowena must find a way to use the truths hidden in the Grand Library to disarm those who would hunt down the nine subjects of the Creator’s Grand Experiment, threatening to close the book on this world.
Story Locale: A fantasy world where theology is a science, three sentient species live in an uneasy truce, and the fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of nine unsuspecting individuals.
The story kicks off months after the ending of The Nine with Beatrice being released from prison where she was supposed to be hanged. She finds herself working with a woman known as Resurrection Jane Ardai, her son, and former inspector Haadi. Haadi saved a Aigamuxa who was once the leader of his people, but was felled by the Alchemist in the first installment. What she wants with the Aigamuxa is not something I can spoil. Meanwhile, the Lanyani are scheming against humans while the Aigamuxa are caught between the humans and the trees.
Eight months ago, Rowena Downshire was a half-starved black market courier darting through the shadows of Corma’s underside. She has no idea who she really is to some very important people including the Layani who believe they are the people of God and therefore they need to find the nine. Rowena has come a long way since being accosted by an Aigamuxa, and falling into an alliance with the Alchemist and Anselm Meteron.
When Anselm Meteron and the Alchemist receive an invitation to an old acquaintance’s ball–the Greatduke who financed their final, disastrous mercenary mission fourteen years earlier–they’re expecting blackmail, graft, or veiled threats related to the plot to steal the secrets of the Creator’s Grand Experiment. They aren’t expecting a job offer they can’t refuse or a trip halfway across the world to rendezvous with the scholar whose research threw their lives into tumult: the Reverend Doctor Phillip Chalmers.
Escorting Chalmers to the Grand Library of Nippon with her mismatched mercenary family is just a grand adventure to Rowena until she discovers a powerful algebraic engine called the Aggregator. The Aggregator leads Rowena to questions about the Grand Experiment she was never meant to ask and answers she cannot be allowed to possess. With her reunited friends, Rowena must find a way to use the truths hidden in the Grand Library to disarm those who would hunt down the nine subjects of the Creator’s Grand Experiment, threatening to close the book on this world.
One of the more curious stops is a place that reminds me of a Steampunk driven Japan. The addition of so many Fabricated (clockwork animals and people) to do the everyday menial labor is a natural extension of the karakuri dolls found in the Edo period of Japan. One of the more curious plots is that of Bishop Meteron and Rowena's mother Clara, who has spent much of Rowena's life in what would be called a mental asylum due to her unique skill set.
There are so many plots and subplots in this story that you really need to pay attention to what is happening, and what happened in the previous novel. We finally get motivations and viewpoints from the Lanyani as well as some unique alliances between Haadi and the Aigamuxa. The world also becomes much clearer as the author sends three of her characters off on a wild adventure that will lead to more subplots and some pretty important twists that will have lasting implications as to what happens next to Rowena.
Note: I don't normally review books this far out, but thanks to the fact that the books release date was pushed back, and I had already read the book, I choose to post my review on the first day of February. No harm, no foul, I hope. I hope nothing in the book changes between now and the June release date.
Wonderfully creepy cover. :-)
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental