Amanda

See my review on his first book for my overall thoughts on the series.

But, this book was also another great addition to the steampunk genre. Genius use of Characters and Dialogue. And the Narrator is officially another favorite of mine!

I still haven't even finished this. The Narration is distracting, kind of a Woody Allen feel to the character because of it, and I am not a Woody Allen fan. I loved the idea of the story, but the execution was a turn off.

I think even Mark Hodder could agree that these Characters and their steampunk adventure could have gone on for several more books. The only reason I gave this story four stars is because it was too much information in one book, it was hard to keep up! But, it needed an ending and he tied most everything together.

See my review on the first book for my overall thoughts of the series.

This is why I like history. These are real people. Richard Burton existed in real life. He was all the things that Mark Hodder wrote about his character and back story and then suddenly the story takes a turn and you are thrown into this fantastic steam-punk world filled with all your literary and historical heroes. I can't tell you how many times I consulted the internet, or even my college world history books, just to see if the latest bit he wrote was a true-to-life characteristic of this person, or if it was his own interpretation of who they might have become in this situation, and because of that I learned so much history it wasn't even funny. I took classes on some of these people and never had I once became so enthralled that I suddenly needed to know more about them. I am well read on Richard Burton, Algernon Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, and so many others now because of this book. So I have more than expanded my education over just picking up a single book.

Jim Dale is by far my favorite narrator. He brings each character to life with the magical tones of his voice, lending to great story telling! But, by far with this book, he had a great story to work with! I'm a huge Peter Pan fan, but was unsure about these stories since they are a reworking of the story and they are geared towards YA, but I loved it regardless. Something I'm keeping to share with my kids some day.