Mann, George -- The Affinity Bridge
Victorian gonzo adventure with airships, automatons, zombies,
madhouses, and it's not putting in the care I need to sell it. I've
read plenty of Victorian this year, from Tidhar (gonzo) to the recent
Melissa Scott (realistic). You can go either way, but don't go sloppy.
The automata are absurd pre-modern tropes -- incapable of error and
require no energy source! -- and the story doesn't do anything with
that; it's just there to set up a constraint on the murder mystery.
Plus the tone has a fruity, unironic condescension which puts me right
off.
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