Tin Swift

Today’s post is on ‘Tin Swift’ by Devon Monk. It is the second in her Age of Steam series. It is 369 pages long and is published by ROC. The cover has one of the main characters (I think that it is Cedar Hunt) with a Steampunk rifle in his hands, goggles on his head, and an airship behind him. No mistaking this one; it is Steampunk. The intended reader is someone who read the first one (you need to know what is going on), likes Steampunk, and things blowing up (good thing for me because I have read the first book and I like the other two things.). There is some language but not too bad, there is no sexuality, but the violence makes up for that. There is a torture scene with some detail; so the weak of stomach be warned. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of book- In Steam Age America, Men, Monsters, Machines, and Magic Battle To Claim The Same Scrap Of Earth And Sky. In This Chaos, One Man Fights To Hold On To His Humanity- And His Honor…
Life on the frontier is full of deceit and danger, but bounty hunter Cedar Hunt is a man whose word is his bond. Cursed with becoming a beast every full moon. Cedar once believed his destiny was to be alone. But now Cedar finds himself saddled with a group of refugees, including the brother he thought lost.
Keeping his companions alive is proving to be no easy task, in part because of a promise he made to the unpredictable Madder brothers- three miners who know the secret mechanisms of the Strange. To fulfill his pledge, Cedar must hunt for a powerful weapon known as the Holder- a search that takes him deep into the savage underbelly of the young country and high into the killing glim-field skies defended by desperate men and deadly ships.
But the battles he faces are just a hint of a growing war stirring the country. To keep his word, Cedar must navigate betrayal, lies, and treacherous alliances… and risk everything to save the lives of those he has come to hold dear.

Review- This is a very strong second novel in a series. Monk does not drop the ball; the only I wish I had done was reread the first one because it has been over year and so I have forgotten too much, I spent some time remembering details and so on, but it did not stop me from getting into the story quickly again. The story picks up a few weeks after the first novel with our heroes on the road to Kansas. Mae Lindson is going insane from the binding on her and that is important to the story. The details are important but they came back to me quickly as I continued reading. The characters are wonderful as before with brave heroes and I really loved the villains in this one. By that I mean they are very good villains. There are new characters introduced both heroes and villains. The best villain from the first book Mr. Shunt is back in this one and he makes the other villains even better. The magic is still really unknown but believable and wonderful. Honestly I can think of nothing that I did not like about this book. The dialogue is good, the characters grow well over time, the plot is fun and just the right amount of twisty. If you have not read Monk before or her Age of Steam series I do recommend highly.

I give this a Five Stars out of Five. I get nothing for my review and I bought this book with my own money.