by Tim Pratt
Ehh... this book was okay. There was a lot to like with the gender bending, some social commentary, the steampunk setting, the mysteries... but the story as a whole needed more depth, cohesion, and originality and less borrowing from other authors and villainous monologue. The romantic subplot was u...
I could not get into it. The story is extremely confusing, and it got me bored. I might give it another try one day.
Lord Pembroke, Pimm to his friends, is a dissolute, alcoholic younger son of a Marquess. And to be a real embarrassment, he had a hobby as a detective, how scandalous. Despite his familial disapproval, he will keep involving himself in criminal cases where his surprisingly able mind has lead him to ...
Two stars? Two and a half? Maybe three? I don't even know. There were some quite inventive parts (The Affliction, the various creative uses of steampunk), and a few engaging characters (WiniFred, Ellie, Pimm), but so much of this was flat, dry, or just uninvolving. The aspects of The Constantine Af...
Utterly charming.
Offering up an interesting mix of genres (with an abrupt change of course in the last act), The Constantine Affliction is a fun, engaging, imaginative read that manages to succeed despite the relative blandness of its main character. That's not to say Pimm isn't an interesting character on his own, ...
In practical terms, this book is a delightful, witty detective story set in neo-Victorian, quasi-Lovecraftian London. But what is really fabulous about it is the exploration and inversion of gender roles, not just as a result of the Affliction but in a world turned around because of it, and of the c...
Log in with Facebook 
