Blazing Blunderbuss

If the title isn’t a giveaway, Blazing Blunderbuss is the first in a series of steampunk novels by Nix Whittaker.

Blazing Blunderbuss (Wyvern Chronicles Book 1) by [Whittaker, Nix]

I love steampunk. It’s always a little bit of what’s familiar, but it’s little different. I’ve read steampunk with werewolves, vampires, re-engineered creatures, mechanical creatures, genetically enhanced people, zombies . . . and I’ve enjoyed it all. But I’d not ever read a steampunk with dragons – the flying, shapeshifter, not-a-machine type of dragons. Until now.

Blazing Blunderbuss follows a girl, Hara, who has been working on airships (disguised as a boy) after being released from jail for helping her father do some less-than-legal activities. She’s a tinker and is pretty handy at making almost anything out of almost nothing, which comes in handy when she needs to protect herself. It’s taken her some time, but she knows it is time to head home. Meanwhile, Gideon has found himself captive of people who need him for his skills as a mathematician. He is quite good with numbers, and comes across as very happy-go-lucky. Hara can’t help herself and tries to help Gideon escape, thinking he is quite the fop. She doesn’t realize Gideon is actually a dragon with some pretty useful skills of his own, and they soon find themselves commandeering a pirate airship, the Blazing Blunderbuss.

Chaos ensues. Their airship comes under attack and sustains damage. They have no crew. The pirates who used to run the airship want their ship back. There are political parties interested in the ship for their own reasons, both for dragons and for humans. Hara’s father, who got her into trouble earlier in life, has returned and seems hell-bent on getting her in trouble again. And, throughout it all, Gideon and Hara must develop a relationship for both their survival and their sanity.

I enjoyed this book. It was fun to read, easy to read, and had different elements than other steampunk I’ve read. I thought some of the dragon-specific concepts were really interesting – the world they came from, how they manipulate time and space, the whole “collection” idea – and wish the author had spent more time to flush those out. There were a few grammar errors (mostly in the second half) but they did not detract from the story and, while I may have mentally noted I saw an error, it didn’t interrupt my reading.

Without giving too much away, I thought the story moved quickly. There was enough detail to show the reader the world and it’s elements, making it clear to see how what we knew of our world had been changed through the elements of steampunk. But it left enough to the imagination that you can fill in the details based on how you’d like to see things.

I am going to badly butcher a quote, so I’ll paraphrase something another author said once in a book: it’s nice when an author tells you the general shape of a house, but avoids the small details so that you can paint the walls whatever color you like, pick out your own curtains, and decide if the trim should be pink or grey. I, for one, like when I have the freedom to elaborate on an idea based on my own preferences; it makes it easier for me to visualize. But I still wish some of the dragon ideas had been more detailed.

Blazing Blunderbuss is the first of the “Wyvern Chronicles”, so maybe some of the additional details I want are in the next books. There’s really only one way to find out: I’ll just have to read them. It’s a tough job, but someone ought to do it. And, really, I don’t mind at all.

Book, wine, and fire (because it dropped below 60 degrees in Texas and I’m cold, damnit)!

Overall: 7 of 10.

Full Disclosure: I received a copy of Blazing Blunderbuss from the author in exchange for my honest review.

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