Hi all!
Now I'm writing books myself, I'm noticing more things about other authors' work. I've just finished reading Gareth Ward's latest book, and realised that one day I'd like my work to be compared (favourably) to his! So here you go, my take on 'Brasswitch and Bot'.
Gareth Ward
has already won acclaim for his work, and his third book is even more
accomplished than his previous ones. The
writing is tight and full of action, while also creating space for characters
to develop. Numerous witty rejoinders and puns (wait till you see his take on G-mail) pepper the
prose, and always in a way that doesn’t detract from the action.
It speeds
along at a cracking pace. Indeed, if I have any criticism, it’s that sometimes things
race along so fast that you might miss something. I imagine that Ward’s hands
had trouble keeping up with all the ideas spilling from his brain as he wrote.
The sheer
inventiveness is impressive. The story is set in an alternate version of York,
populated with “aberrations/remarkables” (people with supernatural powers),
mechanical beings, and eldritch horrors.
‘Regulators’
hunt down those with supernatural powers. People like Wrench, a young woman who
is falsely accused of creating an accident by using her Brasswitch power to
affect mechanical things. Wrench tries to convince the Regulators that Aberrations
are people too, and should be accepted rather than feared and shunned. In the
midst of this, someone is attempting to summon evil gods from another realm,
and Wrench is recruited to help stop them.
Marketed to
tween/teen readers, this book will have a lot of adult fans too.
Bottom
line: if you like fun, you’ll like this book.
