Romulus Buckle & the Engines of War

The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin, Book 2

By: Richard Ellis Preston Jr.

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

The frozen wasteland of Snow World - known as Southern California before an alien invasion decimated civilization - is home to warring steampunk clans. Crankshafts, Imperials, Tinskins, Brineboilers, and many more all battle one another for precious supplies, against ravenous mutant beasts for basic survival, and with the mysterious Founders for their very freedom.

Through this ruined world soars the Pneumatic Zeppelin, captained by the daring Romulus Buckle. In the wake of a nearly suicidal assault on the Founders' prison city to rescue key military leaders, both the steam-powered airship and its crew are bruised and battered. Yet there's little time for rest or repairs: Founders raids threaten to shatter the fragile alliance Buckle has risked everything to forge among the clans.

Even as he musters what seems a futile defense in the face of inevitable war, Buckle learns that the most mysterious clan of all is holding his long-lost sister in a secret base - and that she holds the ultimate key to victory over the Founders. But rescuing her means abandoning his allies and praying they survive long enough for there to be an alliance to return to.

©2013 Richard Ellis Preston, Jr. (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Swashbuckling Tale

This story was hampered by the flash backs. In a print version they may be easier to detect, but in the audio version they seemed to occur without warning and several times had me checking my player because I thought I missed something. The narrator's normal reading voice was nice but the voices of some of the characters made them seem oddly feminine not a good fit for an adventure tale.

I want so bad for this book to be good.

The concept for this series is brilliant. Although the writing is lacking and immature. I truly wish this wasn’t the case.

Outrageous SteamPunk fun!

Would you listen to Romulus Buckle & the Engines of War again? Why?

I would listen to this again, as the story is quite well done and the characters are just that touch of over the top in some of their actions that makes this fun to listen to. Plus Luke Daniels does an outstanding job with accents and voices to keep everyone straight in your mind.

What about Luke Daniels’s performance did you like?

Everything, from his excellent use of accents for different characters to deeper or higher voices. He has a fantastic ability to make you believe in the character by doing a perfect job of enacting their lines as he reads them.

Any additional comments?

Preston likes to use what some would call $50 words when doing his descriptions of characters and scenery. I can understand where this might throw some people off, but it is nice to hear some of the words in the English language that aren't used as much any more, without (in my opinion) over doing it too much and making you wish he would get on with it. I'm not a fan of using 100 words when 30 will paint the same picture, but I think Preston does a good job of walking the line. If you like SteamPunk and larger than life characters brought to life by a talented voice artist, then I highly recommend this series.

Steam power away

A great read, and an even better listen. Steam punk is not my normal preference, but I have enjoyed the first two in the series and am headed for the third. I'm Headed For Atlantis!

Still waiting for book 3!

Great story, great VO! I see there is a third book....when do we get that on audible? I'm sure Luke Daniels would do the third book! More please!!