Oops

So my blog posts are not anything like the book recommendation that I'm making this week. If they were a clock, they'd be slowly losing time - the gears just slightly off - but still steadily, persistently ticking away.

This Week's Recommendation

A Parliament of Bodies ~ Marshall Ryan Maresca

I think it is a testament to Maresca's writing that I kept reading this series, in order, as they came out, without really realizing it WAS a series. Aventil - with its militia, its street gangs, its investigators, thieves, scholars, mages, journalists and knights (yes, holy order, sword and shield knights) - is an expert example of world-building. Each story and book that Maresca set here is populated with intriguingly flawed and motivated characters. And each book has just enough connection to the world of the last to keep you engaged, even when the players, or their place in the city has changed. 

A Parliament of Bodies brings the whole thing together, showing you how the pieces have all be built to fit together. The number of characters and how all their perspectives are handled throughout the story without breaking the pace or the thread is masterful, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. AND I am incredibly impatient for the next one!

Read for: Magic, constabulary, mystery, clockwork, spies, thievery, mayhem, suffragettes. A seedy and wonderful steampunk world with delightfully stubborn, snarky, noble and/or outright ridiculous characters. A good blend of male and female lead characters, both well-written. 

Warnings for: Death, very gruesome, well-orchestrated, serial-killer deaths. Suspense. Suspicion. Violence. Betrayals. Conspiracies. (wait, are these actually warnings?)