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The Aeronaut's Windlass
- The Cinder Spires, Book 1
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
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Publisher's summary
Jim Butcher, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors....
Since time immemorial the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.
Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy's shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion - to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.
And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake....
Critic reviews
"Obie Award winner and Scottish-born Euan Morton narrates this sprawling opening volume of The Cinder Spires with the spirit of a buccaneer and an ear for a couple of dozen different vocal rhythms and dialects from the British Isles. Morton is especially adept at naturally carrying on the conversations between the growling shipmates and the highborn Gwen. Morton keeps the action moving and speaks 'cat' perfectly." (AudioFile)
“This is Jim Butcher at his best, drawing a fully realized, richly detailed, and downright fun literary world where fearless aeronauts ride the aether, brilliant wizards struggle with doorknobs, and a thirty-pound feline warrior keeps a pet human named Little Mouse. It’s steampunk meets magic with a dose of sci-fi for seasoning. Buy it and read it. You’ll be glad you did.” (New York Times best-selling author David Weber)
"Butcher, the best-selling author of the Dresden Files, now launches the Cinder Spires, a new epic fantasy, steampunk hybrid series that has shades of both Naomi Novik and Cherie Priest.... With shifting points of view, short chapters, fast-paced action, and awesome battle scenes, the large cast of characters, elaborate world building, and intricate plot are revealed quickly and realized fully. It all reminds readers of when they first fell for Harry Dresden.” (Booklist, starred review)
“Butcher opens the imaginative Cinder Spires series with this sweeping fantastical epic.... [It's] a fascinating, adventurous, and intricate story. Butcher brings a fresh and exciting perspective to secondary-world steampunk, giving the reader a thrilling ride.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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Ever wanted visuals while audio book listening?
- By Amazon Customer on 02-11-13
By: Phil Foglio, and others
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Storm Front
- The Dresden Files, Book 1
- By: Jim Butcher
- Narrated by: James Marsters
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires....
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Excellent Story, Distracting Sound Engineering
- By Tom on 05-20-10
By: Jim Butcher
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At the Sign of the Crow and Moon
- A Sorcery Ascendant Prequel Novella
- By: Mitchell Hogan
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In the bustling capital city of the Mahruse Empire, Felicienne Shyrise spends her days as a talented investigator, taking on stolen goods and missing person cases and the occasional murder the city guard are too incompetent - or too lazy - to resolve. During the nights she hones her skills playing Dominion, a board game almost as complicated as life itself. She dreams of making a name for herself and becoming the richest woman in the Empire.
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Worth It
- By Gaia on 09-23-19
By: Mitchell Hogan
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The Grim Company
- By: Luke Scull
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The Gods are dead. The Magelord Salazar and his magically enhanced troops, the Augmentors, crush any dissent they find in the minds of the populace. On the other side of the Broken Sea, the White Lady plots the liberation of Dorminia, with her spymistresses, the Pale Women. Demons and abominations plague the Highlands. The world is desperately in need of heroes. But what they get instead are a ragtag band of old warriors, a crippled Halfmage, two orphans and an oddly capable manservant: the Grim Company.
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Pretty bad, but not actively terrible
- By Travis Lamkin on 09-13-15
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Ink and Bone
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- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
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Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly - but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market.
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don't give up too soon.
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By: Rachel Caine
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The Palace Job
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- By: Patrick Weekes
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Loch is seeking revenge. It would help if she wasn’t in jail. The plan: To steal a priceless elven manuscript that once belonged to her family, but is now in the hands of the most powerful man in the Republic. To do so, Loch - former soldier, former prisoner, and current fugitive - must assemble a crack team of magical misfits that includes a cynical illusionist, a shape shifting unicorn, a repentant death priestess, a talking magical war hammer, and a lad with seemingly no skills.
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Awful narration
- By 9littlebees on 12-18-15
By: Patrick Weekes
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Madrenga
- By: Alan Dean Foster
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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He is plainly too young and too inexperienced for the mission, but on the advice of her aged adviser Natoum, and with her husband off at war, the queen reluctantly assigns the task of delivery to...Madrenga. Accompanied only by a runt of a pony and a scrap of a pup, he sets off to transport the royal message to its destination. No matter what it might take. But things are not always what they seem. Heroes are sometimes made of the strangest stuff, and love is to be found in the most unexpected places...if one doesn’t die while treading the lethal path.
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Unique and captivating!
- By Julie Moran on 02-05-21
By: Alan Dean Foster
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The Inventor's Secret
- By: Andrea Cremer
- Narrated by: Leslie Bellair
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
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In this world, sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees have scraped out an existence on the edge of Britain’s industrial empire. Though they live by the skin of their teeth, they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks.
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Devolved into a 16 year old girls' love triangle
- By Amazon Customer on 06-17-21
By: Andrea Cremer
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Into the Storm
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Pressed into service when World War II breaks out in the Pacific, the USS Walker---a Great-War vintage "four-stacker" destroyer---finds itself in full retreat from pursuit by Japanese battleships. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Patrick Reddy, knows that he and his crew are in dire straits. In desperation, he heads Walker into a squall, hoping it will give them cover---and emerges somewhere else.
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It just never grabbed me.
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The Way of Caine
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Allister Caine has always been an enigma and an outsider among the warcasters of Cygnar, but few are privy to his true motivations or his complicated past.… Born into poverty, Allister Caine did what he must to survive, and the choices he made have followed him like a vengeful specter throughout his life. Now, just months after the Lion’s Coup and his full commission as a warcaster, he has been secretly assigned by Scout General Rebald to investigate plots against King Leto in lands just north of the Bloodsmeath Marsh.
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Deeper than I thought it might be
- By Teacher on 08-30-14
By: Miles Holmes
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Dragonvein, Book One
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- Unabridged
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Carentan, France, 1944 - Ethan Martin, a soldier in the 101st Airborne, is fighting for his life. But soon he will learn what peril truly is when he is ripped from his world and transported to a land of magic, swords, and dragons. And though the Nazis are now far, far away, danger is closer than ever.
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Interesting Story but very light on in details.
- By Kindle Customer on 07-16-15
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The Iron Duke
- By: Meljean Brook
- Narrated by: Faye Adele
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power-and fear-of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession. But when Mina uncovers the victim's identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England.
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Great for Some but Not for Everyone
- By Kjda on 06-27-17
By: Meljean Brook
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The Sellsword
- Dragonlance: Tracy Hickman Presents: The Anvil of Time, Book 1
- By: Cam Banks
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Strike the Anvil of Time! Vanderjack is a mercenary with a troubled past and a sword haunted by ghosts. Hired to rescue a nobleman's daughter from behind enemy lines, the sellsword finds himself a pivotal player in the liberation of Nordmaar from the Red Dragon army. The Chronicler is charged to use the ancient Anvil of Time to travel back along the river of time and find the lost stories that fell between the pages of the history books of Krynn in this new series created and guided by the creative mind of Tracy Hickman.
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Interesting story, alittle different at the end
- By Dennis on 04-16-13
By: Cam Banks
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The Red Wolf Conspiracy
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- Narrated by: Michael Page
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The Imperial Merchant Ship Chathrand is the last of her kind. Six hundred years old, the secrets of her construction long forgotten, the massive vessel dwarfs every other sailing craft in the world. It is a palace with sails, a floating outpost of the Empire of Arqual. And it is on its most vital mission yet: to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace between Arqual and its mortal enemy, the secretive Mzithrin Empire.
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Not Bad, not great.
- By Aerindel on 10-15-09
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What listeners say about The Aeronaut's Windlass
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Don Gilbert
- 10-02-15
A Brave New World
From the creator of such works of art as the “Furies of Calderon” and “The Dresden Files” Jim Butcher has now focused his immense talent onto, what is being called, the steampunk genre in his latest series, ”The Cinder Spires.”
Steampunk seems to be the latest trending term devising the name from a blending of sci-fi and fantasy with technology and aesthetic design inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery and the cyber punk genre.
The first book, “The Aeronaut’s Windlass,” is rich in Old World aristocratic political structures known as Spires, vintage clothing,” blended with magnificent airships, (reminding me of the airships in the “Grimm Noir” trilogy by Larry Correa) contesting in aerial naval battles, and other typical noir references usually associated with steampunk.
The plot moves quickly and Mr. Butcher introduces many characters and multiple action scenes that, at first seem distracting but soon become distinguishable and fit the story well. Bridget, scion of a once-prominent noble house on the verge of ruin and her cat, Rowl, Highborn Gwendolyn Lancaster, her “warrior born” cousin, Benedict; the grizzled Captain Grimm; and master etherealist Ferus and his assistant, Folly are a motley group of disgraced veterans and novices that are sent off to stop the mysterious force behind a very coordinated and deadly series of attacks on Spire Albion by its rival, Spire Aurora.
There is plenty of action and the society is open for some political backstabbing. I always think that it is a good book when you wonder what is going to happen next.
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130 people found this helpful
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- omnireader
- 10-14-15
Jim Butcher Hits it out of the Park
Jim Butcher's long awaited foray into steampunk lives up to every possible expectation, and they were high. I'm a big fan of the Dresden Files and if possible, enjoyed Codex Alera even more. The world of The Aeronaut's Windlass is entirely different; mankind lives in tall spire cities, away from the dangerous surface of the earth. Peopled by monsters, the surface is to be avoided at all cost. The Spire Cities, Albion and Aurora, are fiercely competitive with a history of warfare. A new round of warfare, initiated by Aurora, is the focus of The Aeronaut's Windlass. Aurora is clearly willing to use whatever means necessary to destroy Albion.
Captain Francis Grimm is loyal to Spire Albion, despite having been treated badly by the Admiralty; drummed out for cowardice unjustly. After his privateer airship, HMS Predator, is badly damaged in an Auroran ambush he must limp home for major repairs. He is recruited for a mission by the Spirearch with the promise of repairs and new crystals for The Predator.
He will be aided in his mission by a motley crew of characters ranging from the admirable to the just plain strange. He is also up against a female adversary who rivals Queen Mab of The Dresden Files and the Vord Queen of Codex Alera for sheer evil. The action of the book is relentless with the characters jumping from frying pan to fire nonstop.
I waffled about the rating on The Aeronaut's Windlass. The world building was almost too organic in that you are thrown into the action with no foundation. I don't mind saying that I had difficulty forming a mental picture of the Spires and airships, at least at the beginning. Euan Morton's narration pushed it from a 4.5 to a 5 for me. I was glued to my device until I realized there is actually no good stopping point in the action. His portrayal of Rowl, Prince of the Silent Paws is spot-on. I highly recommend The Aeronaut's Windlass.
RATING- 5 Stars
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84 people found this helpful
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- Richard
- 09-30-15
The Aeronauts
If this were not such a trusted author, I am not sure I would have continued after the first few chapters. We are begin with a character who is brilliant, but bored and in order to get what she wants, which is to join the Guard, she is willing to blast her way out of her mother's drawing room. Her Mother tells her house guards that her opposition to her daughter's leaving is really manipulative. Because the daughter only does things she thinks other people do not want her to do, the Mother is only pretending to oppose her. HUH? So what military unit would accept a spoiled brat, where is the wind ship Captain?
But this is Jim Butcher and yes, his characters grow and learn. And the reader is delighted to be with them. The characters and their story lines are woven together so skillfully that by the end of the book, which by the way is non stop action, we not only know them well, but are invested in them. When the book ends we miss them. Jim Butcher just gets better.
I am not sure why the narrator read this book as if he were quietly teaching a course in Victorian literature at one of the British Universities. I think the publishers, really should rethink the direction given to this reader. The choice of voice used here would be great for Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, even Bram Stoker. But the people in this book are warriors.
Euan Morton is a skilled narrator. I listened to his early work, in which he did a credible American soldier's accent, and seamlessly went into an SAS operative, along with family members of these two men. So in spite of the skills he brought to this book, the Publishers chose the most low key academic voice, even during a deadly battle of wind ships, hand to hand combat, and Pub brawls.
And still this is a great book. It is well worth the time spent listening to it.
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60 people found this helpful
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- james
- 09-29-15
great book!
great author, great narrator! Somehow this had 4 star rating when it was launched. not sure how someone could have read it in less time then the book is long. I'm about halfway in and I'm totally engrossed!
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39 people found this helpful
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- Mike Morrow
- 10-01-15
Not up to Jim Butcher's usual excellence
Jim Butcher's books usually have a great depth of characters. Caring about the characters was very difficult in this novel. Too many perspectives made it difficult to really relate to the characters. While I understand this is the start of a series the ending left me quite unsatisfied.
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25 people found this helpful
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- Steve N
- 10-23-15
Classic Butcher
What made the experience of listening to The Aeronaut's Windlass the most enjoyable?
I really enjoy Jim Butcher's writing style, he can actually make me laugh out loud and the performance by Euan Morton was incredible, hope he has the gig for the next instalment.
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23 people found this helpful
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- Diane M.
- 10-19-15
Best Butcher Ever! Best sci-fi fantasy of 2015!
What made the experience of listening to The Aeronaut's Windlass the most enjoyable?
Great ensemble cast with strong warrior women and men, wonderful ethereal beings, and evolved cats personalities.
What did you like best about this story?
I liked the fast pace. I very much enjoyed the strong characters any one of whom could be their own book. And one just has to love the cats.
What about Euan Morton’s performance did you like?
His performance was absolutely amazing and spot on. He made it easy to distinguish between characters. Mr. Morton is very easy on the ears.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I didn't want any of my favorite characters to die. I absolutely did not want the story to end and I think Jim Butcher should be sequestered and not allowed to rest his pen until the sequel is in the hands of his publishers.
Any additional comments?
I am excited about this new series. However, I hope we haven't heard the last of Senior Dresden.
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- Jake Hartwell
- 10-03-15
Not what I was expecting.. but well worth a credit
Mr. Butcher is an extraordinarily gifted writer. I was instantly hooked on both the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera series. That didn't happen for me with The Cinder Spires. There were a few times during the first half of the book where I just thought "seriously?"... especially when the talking cats came around. It distracted me from an interesting world and made me think of Meow Mix commercials or Milo and Otis. However, as the story progressed I became more and more interested, and by the end, even the talking cats didn't bother me.
If Mr. Butcher evolves this story with as much talent as he did with Dresden Files, then readers will be in for a real treat. I'll definitely be picking up the next in the series.
I was unfamiliar with Euan Morton as a narrator, but I was thoroughly impressed and commend him for his performance. I have no complaints on the narration at all.
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- InnerVoice
- 10-13-15
A lot to digest for a first book in a series
I realize there is a lot to establish in a first book when you're planning a series, but this was a LOT to keep in my head. Two things made it difficult for me, personally: The first person point of view kept changing which required mental adjustment while still attempting to follow a new storyline; The cast of characters are just a few too numerous. I can begin to understand the reasons for all of these choices, and I can see as the series unfolds it will become easier to follow these characters within the larger story arch. It just makes this a bit of a slog for book 1 in the series. I've had to re-listen or re-read a number of passages because I lost the thread. I hope books to come make this first book pay off.
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- Kristine
- 10-22-15
First Jim Butcher but not my last...
What made the experience of listening to The Aeronaut's Windlass the most enjoyable?
The narrator is excellent. I look forward to listening to other books he has done.
What other book might you compare The Aeronaut's Windlass to and why?
It's definitely an adventure with lots of battles. There wasn't much time to catch one's breath. I would say it's a lot like Star Wars in comparison.
What does Euan Morton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Like other wonderful audio books, a great narration brings the book to life in ways that are different from just reading the words. Characters personality and traits are expressed and become almost tangible.
Any additional comments?
I haven't read much Steampunk so it's hard to compare it to anything in that genre, but I will look forward to readying the the sequels. And I LOVED the cats! I have 4 myself and I believe Jim's characterization of them was spot on!
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