Book Jacket:
The service of Britannia is not for the faint of heart – or conscience…
Emma Bannon, Sorceress Prime in service to Queen Victrix, has a mission: to find the doctor who has created a powerful new weapon. Her friend, the mentath Archibald Clare, is only too happy to help. It will distract him from pursuing his nemesis, and besides, Clare is not as young as he used to be. A spot of Miss Bannon’s excellent hospitality and her diverting company may be just what he needs.
Unfortunately, their quarry is a fanatic, and his poisonous discovery is just as dangerous to Britannia as to Her enemies. Now a single man has set Londinium ablaze, and Clare finds himself in the middle of distressing excitement, racing against time and theory to find a cure. Miss Bannon, of course, has troubles of her own, for the Queen’s Consort Alberich is ill, and Her Majesty unhappy with Bannon’s loyal service. And there is still no reliable way to find a hansom when one needs it most…
The game is afoot. And the Red Plague rises.
You can read an excerpt here.
Review:
Much as I enjoyed the chance to spend more time with Bannon and Clare, as they once again team up to solve a dastardly case in a fantastical alt-Victorian London, I also couldn’t help but be somewhat dissatisfied by the discombobulated nature of this story. There were pieces I enjoyed, but all in all it failed to coalesce into a coherent whole.
But first off, I do so enjoy the Holmes-ian style friendship (which I find myself wanting to call a bromance, for lack of a better term), between Clare and Bannon, Mentath and Prime, brain and magical brawn. I always enjoy the dance of manners and mannerisms between these two, who are both so correct and yet so very improper, but I particularly love how Saintcrow has chosen to entirely avoid ye old chestnut of crime-solving duos, i.e. the will they/won’t they dance, and instead has settled firmly upon a partnership of equals, a friendship that is rapidly growing into a sense of family. These two people care about each other very much, no sexual tension required, and it makes for a very refreshing change of pace – because let’s face it, nearly every other crime solving duo, either on television or in an alt-alt-Victorian London, is already doing that classic two-step.
But much as I enjoy this dynamic duo, I still found myself stumbling in the wake of this book’s plot, because a large portion of the story just felt kind of…random, to be honest. There was a whole lot going on that had absolutely no relevance to the main thrust of the affair (i.e. the mystery of the plague) at all: the inclusion of a “nemesis” for Clare never seemed to have any true purpose; the random Prime that starts tailing Emma for some unknown reason is never truly a factor in the larger story; a supposedly significant magic artifact exchange comes completely out of nowhere, and even Emma’s Shield’s tantalizingly mysterious past, hinted at but never explored, seems to be a throwaway rather than an integral part of the plot. And so instead of a coherent mystery, this book delivers a plague story that seems almost like an afterthought while all the while throwing out jigsaw puzzle pieces that don’t actually fit together – which is frustrating, to say the least.
And yet despite all that, there was one part of this book that really, really worked for me and that was the evolving dynamic between Bannon and the Queen. The previous book (The Iron Wyrm Affair) firmly established Bannon’s unwavering loyalty to Britannia, but this story quietly gets beneath that absolute fealty, exploring just how personal it is for Bannon, what that loyalty truly means, and how painfully high a price such service can demand. And I downright loved it – particularly one climactic scene where civility goes out the window and things that should be left unsaid get spoken aloud – for how it all left Bannon questioning her very foundation. For me, without question, this small personal arc was the redeeming heart of this book, and even better it sets up a wonderful conflict for the series going forward.
So in the end, this book was something of a mixed bag for me – Bannon and Clare make a wonderful team, and I massively enjoyed the scenes between Bannon and the Queen, but as for the rest, it was a bit…mushy. However, I will still be back for the next Bannon and Clare adventure.
Byrt Grade: B+
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
While Saintcrow is an ace at bringing her magic-laced world to life and exploring its nooks and crannies, the plot starts off slow and doesn’t pick up until late in the game…Copious amounts of intrigue and action don’t quite disguise the fact that little happens and less is explained or resolved
All Things Urban Fantasy says:
The Red Plague Affair was a a slower read than its predecessor, though as long as the friendship at the core of this story is intact, so too is my interest.
i love holmes/watson type relationships, too. i haven’t read this series yet though i have the first book somewhere. sorry to hear that the sequel was a bit all over the place. hopefully the next one will be better.
I agree that the red plague plotline was disappointingly thin – more of a simple motivation for a set of adventures than a real mystery. That said, it doesn’t have to be a Christie mystery to be good fun. Saintcrow’s Bannon and Clare stories are character driven, a good mix of the fresh and familiar (these novels don’t groan with steampunk/gaslamp cliches), and ultimately I think all of the hints and backstory details will coalesce into a great serial read.