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Kate Porras kateporras — This is a colonialist novel written in the modern day, with post-colonialist concepts firmly in place. If that sounds a little confusing, it was. Godshalk writes in the voice of a 19th century explorer very convincingly. There are various gritty details that betray the modernity of the author. There is information about feminine hygiene and sexual relations that would not have been included in a true 1800’s novel. That is one of Godshalk’s goals, to allow the reader to delve deeper into a colonial trip than a primary source would allow. The beating heart of this novel has two chambers; the engulfing Caribbean atmosphere and the love that flourishes among the denizens of Kalimantaan, both European and native. Godshalk takes a compassionate but honest view of the romantic livers of her characters. The Victorian Europeans are in a land away from time, cut off from the repressive social strictures of their compatriots, but still feeling their sway. The native people have their own agendas, often hidden from the reader, but they are caught in the same cycles of love and death and the colonialists.

Humberto Gonzalez humbertoglz — I loved it, but I screamed at the ending...but is was the right ending--if that makes sense?

Michell Ed edmichell — I absolutely love re-tellings of fairy tales and myths and so this book was a natural pick for me. I liked how she combined modern story elements with original mythology, a great winter read

Tariq Shahrour shahroor — This is the fourth book in the Clockwork Century series. It is a well done steampunk novel, but I had some trouble connecting with the main characters and staying engaged in the story. The main character Wreck, is a sap-addicted orphan who's been thrown out of the orphanage after turning 19. He decides to head beyond the Wall to Seattle to try and find a job dealing sap. When he gets there he meets Zeke and Huey and ends up wrapped up in an adventure to save the city and discover what a strange creature haunting the night really is. This is very well written but just wasn't that engaging to me. Wreck is not a likable character; he is lazy and likes to take advantage of people...this made him hard to engage with. While it was nice to see Zeke in the story (he was in Boneshaker) I still had trouble engaging and relating with any of the characters in this story. The story moves slowly and it takes quite a while to get to the point of the story. I just had a lot of trouble staying engaged in the story up until the last fourth of the book or so. My mind kept wandering. The first part of the book is basically about Wreck getting past the Wall and finding his way around Seattle amidst the zombifying gas and different factions. This book is very steampunk; you have zombies, gas masks, steam driven power, and all things steampunkish. Priest is always spot on with the steampunk elements of her books. The story is fairly predictable and, as I mentioned, I had a tough time staying engaged in what was going on. When it came right down to it the mysterious zombie disappearances and the mysterious creature in the night just weren’t enough to really drive this story and keep it interesting. Overall an okay steampunk read. I thought earlier books in this series were better. Still, if you are a huge steampunk fan you might want to give this a read. The main character is just very hard to relate to. I’d recommend reading Boneshaker over this book, I would also recommend Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series as an excellent steampunk read.

Nuo Xu nokxu — this book was a refreshing look at how we deal with the not-so-good things in life, and what tools we have within ourselves to help navigate those times. one of the most important things i came to understand is that things like sadness, anger, frustration, feelings of instability, etc. are not inherently bad things. rather, they are challenging. they can present themselves as obstacles. but in reality, they are incredible teachers within our own personal experience that help us to grow. sometimes in the darkest of times, we achieve the greatest clarity. i let myself wrap my mind around this perspective that was so different from traditional western mores of achieving happiness and avoiding pain. in this way, i started to feel a new sense of peace and serenity about the difficult things faced in life. what i loved about this book was that she didn't write it to help readers solve their problems but rather to look at their "problems" as incredibly valuable, illuminating devices to open their minds and hearts to grow and deepen. a great book, i recommend it to anyone who is willing to open up to a change in thinking.