Sir Dennis Darby has been murdered, the
Automaton has been destroyed, and Sarah Stanton has turned her back on a life
of privilege and comfort to try and find her way in the unforgiving streets of
New York. But Lord Eschaton, the villain behind all these events, isn't
finished with her yet. His plans to bring his apocalyptic vision of the future
to the world are moving forward, but to complete his scheme he needs the
clockwork heart that Sarah still holds.
But she has her own plans for the
Automaton's clockwork heart—Sarah is trying rebuild her mechanical friend, and
when she is attacked by The Children of Eschaton, the man comes to her rescue
may be the one to make her dreams come true. Emelio Armando is a genius
inventor who had hoped to leave his troubles behind when he and his sister left
Italy for a life of anonymity in the New World. Now he finds himself falling in
love with the fallen society girl, but he is rapidly discovering just how
powerful the forces of villainy aligned against her are, and that fulfilling
her desires means opening the door to a world of danger that could destroy
everything he has built.
Hearts
of Smoke and Steam is the second book in the Society of Steam series written by
Andrew P. Mayer. Lets begin with two words and they deserve to be bold, italic
and capitalized: STEAMPUNK SUPERHEROES. Yes, this is what makes the Society
of Steam unique. Forget The Hulk and Spider Man. Instead choose for you
favorite steampowered superhero like the Industrialist! It, excuse my language,
just friggin’ awesome! Like I mentioned this is already the second book in the
series and the Society of Steam was kicked of with The Falling Machine which I
reviewed late last year.
There
is a nice change of scenery in The Society of Steam series compared to other
steampunk themed books, where most of the steampunk setting are placed in
Victorian London, the events surrounding the The Society of Steam all take
place in Victorian New York. I do think that there is a different highlighting
taking place of several characters, they feel more or less a bit rougher
compared to the more typical, classical characters that you see when steampunk
takes place in London. The characters are Americanized, taken together with the
classic portraying of superhero in cape kind of definitely made the setting of
the story right up front. In the first book there was a lot going on and even
though it was a fairly short read it did manage to flesh out most of the important
parts of the storyline. Explaining a lot about the characters going into a nice
detail with Darby’s creation the Automaton. But also showing our heroine Sarah
Stanton in a bright spotlight. With all the events that transpired in the
ending of The Falling Machine, the Paragons (our superhero squad) is without
leader and down a few members.
Hearts
of Smoke and Steam picks up more or less a few weeks after The Falling Machine,
and it shows a great building up of the storyline. And it did remind me directly
again of the first book in the series where you also got to learn a lot about
the world itself and the characters. The Paragons now down a few members have
started recruiting new members to fill op the vacancies and in these short
paragraphs there is again enough action that makes the steam come out of the
spine of the book. I really like how the recruiting was told, the different
styles that each recruit had, very lively and inventive. All the designs felt
fresh and weren’t relatable to the more common comic heroes, so a definite plus. On
this part there is however a bit of too much naivity in the remaining
Paragons, they do find some new members but what goes on next happens in a
flash and is over in a heart beat. It is quite a turn around of events that I wasting
expecting. But from this intervention at the Paragon HQ this whole book goes
into a rapid race towards the last page!
Like
I mentioned in The Falling Machine Sarah Stanton is an important character in
the series and can be considered the main protagonist. She was shown in a great
manner already in the first book, she lives in a society where women should
live the life of luxury instead of being the working class, she however want
nothing to do with it wants to be free and go her own way. This struggle was
going on from the first book and is continuing in this second book. It is quite
cool to see her development from the beginning of the series until now. Dennis
Darby had plans for her and she intends to uphold them. Firstly by rebuilding
the Automation and secondly, what is she doing with mask in her handbag!? That
is for you to find out! There
is also a new introduction in Hearts of Smoke and Steam and that is for Emilio,
an Italian engineer, I really like how his sudden introduction in the story led
to a cascade of events, him helping Sarah and a bit a romancing thrown in there
as well. I cannot not say this enough but in this book nothing feels rushed and
all the introduction and events are carefully plotted.
Where
you find superheroes, there ought to be bad guys right? Here the nefarious
organization called the Children of Eschaton come into play, led by none other
Lord Eschaton. I was already stoked about how they were shown in the first book
especially with the Fortified Steam (the steam that powers the extraordinary
abilities of our superheroes) variant, Fortified Smoke that Lord Eschaton
created. And on top of it also the narration that follows the Children of
Eschaton. Now in Hearts of Smoke and Steam, Andrew P. Mayer allows the Children
to take more lead in the story. When I was reading a chapter from the book it
first struck me as confusing and didn’t really know what to make of it until it
struck a certain sentence and then it all collided. Andrew P. Mayer doesn’t
allow you to make an assumption what so ever about the Children of Eschaton, he
keep this organization on an unpredictable level and I’m really eager to find
out how their plotting will continue in the sequel, Power under Pressure.
Just
lastly what I want to emphasize is the pacing of this book, just as I mentioned
earlier, the pace of this book is quite steady though the book goes into a
rapid of events surrounding the Paragons and Lord Eschaton. It does not feel
rushed at all and actually creates a very nice an enjoyable read. No skipping
of important events but instead taking time and consideration to write up a
solid story. And even though a lot is being told, the story is full of
surprises!
Where
The Falling Machine was great, Hearts of Smoke and Steam was amazing! Not only does
the story become more interesting it somehow also feels that the writing style
becomes just a tad more confident and that Andrew P. Mayer is trying out new
stuff by introducing enough twists and turn here and there to keep the story
going forward. Similarly like it The Falling Machine, Hearts of Smoke and Steam leaves
you gasping for more. and just one more time STEAMPUNK
SUPERHEROES (I
love it!)