I like steampunk and then I came across this book and I thought what not to read.
In the world of this book, the teachings of Charles Darwin were not negatively accepted, and thanks to this, people learned how to create artificially new living organisms. And after that, the world was divided into lovers of mechanisms and bioengineering.
Lore is the best thing in this book. because he is interesting, and the author has a good imagination for all sorts of artificial animals. Moreover, this is a very good combination of steampunk and biopunk.
But there is a problem with the plot. Aleksandar Ferdinand, along with his subjects, escapes from the palace, because his parents are killed, and he will become the next victim, and meanwhile the girl Deryn passes the pilot exam.
If it was interesting at first, then it became more boring with each chapter, because the pace of reading the book slowed down. When I read 50% of the book, it seemed to me that I had just finished the 1st act. And there is no ending here, as if there should have been another chapter, but the author decided that it would do. It's like there are 200 more pages missing in this book.
There are two main characters here, Aleksandar and Deryn.
The first one causes more sympathy. He is growing as a character and personality. He is kind, even if he is arrogant in some moments. And he cares about others, even if it goes sideways for him.
But here's Deryn. This is a typical Mary Sue. She's so smart, and so knowledgeable about animals, and cheeky, and so cool. She was annoying most of the time.
I didn't like the way the author writes. His style is heavy, the descriptions are illegible, and the action scenes are described so boring that I almost fell asleep on them.
The book turned out to be boring. The tempo suffers in it, there is no normal ending, I liked only Aleksandar from the characters, and the text is bad.
by mystery5009