The Court of the Air
Stephen HuntWhen streetwise Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has recently been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to run back to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was the real target of the attack. For Molly is a special little girl, and she carries a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state.
Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered existence in the backwater home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative’s murder he is forced to flee for his life, accompanied by an agent of the mysterious Court of the Air. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life.
Soon Molly and Oliver will find themselves battling a grave threat to civilization, an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago. Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but the two orphans are also aided by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue, and adventure.
The Court of the Air is a rollicking adventure set in a fantastical Dickensian clockwork universe that will appeal to fans of Susanna Clarke and Philip Pullman.
| status | Lost |
|---|---|
| genre | Adventure » Crime and Suspense |
| publisher | Tor |
| publish date | 2007 |
| popularity | checked out 2 time(s) |
This was one of the first books I encountered in my early exploration of the steampunk genre, so I really didn’t know what to expect. Other works in the genre tend to over-build the world where the story takes place before anything actually happens, but Steven Hunt throws the reader into a massive, bizarre world of his and unravels the details for us as they occur to the character. This creates a feeling of being pulled along through increasingly chaotic episodes of an epic adventure, the kind of read that feels like it may be moving to quickly in the first third of the book, but then maintains intensity beautifully and takes the characters farther and deeper through a fascinating post-apocalyptic multiverse than one would think possible. Any fans of fantasy and adventure will love this series. 5 stars