Book Review : The Affinity Bridge by George Mann

[redfiona99]

So, some time ago, the marvellous S and N visited me and we wandered into Waterstones. And I saw the prettiest book cover you ever did see, all gilded King Tut's death-mask and Edwardian Egyptology-mania. I wanted the book at first sight, I craved it's presence on my bookshelves ... it was part 2 in a series. While me reading a series in the wrong order is not unheard of, I thought, no, this seems to be a new author, I'll add to his coffers and get the first one and, if it's not terrible, I'll get the second one later.

This is how easily I am swayed by pretty book art.



The author is far better at writing places than characters, and, rather jarringly, the opening scene in India is undoubtedly the best part of the book (and suitably horrific). The settings are well drawn, and there's something pleasingly eerie in the Queen and her coterie and the Revenants.

The plot doesn't cheat and hide information from the reader so it's possible to work up who/how/why-done-it at the same time or before the protagonists. It's also unconvoluted and well-thought out.

The problem is the characters and the dialogue. It just doesn't quite work, there's a few anachronisms too many, I think, and Sir Maurice Newby is a textbook Marty Stu, and not in a nod-and-a-wink way. People take improbable amounts of damage towards the end of the book, and it totally threw out my ability to suspend my disbelief.

That being said, I'm buying the next one, because of the cover, because of the setting and because of the thing at the end (that I shall say no more about).


This was also the book that had the printer's error I mentioned before. My original copy had pages 289 - 320 replaced by a duplication of pages 257 - 288, but Snow Books were really helpful and sent a replacement, so I'd just like to big them up.

The LibraryThing Suggestions are all other steampunk books,

Night by Elie Wiesel (expected 2.3, found 0)
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (expected 2.2, found 0)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (expected 2.2, found 0)
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (expected 2, found 0)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (expected 2, found 0)
America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart (expected 1.7, found 0)
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls (expected 1.7, found 0)
Confessions by Saint Augustine (expected 1.6, found 0)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (expected 1.5, found 0)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (expected 1.5, found 0)

Comments

[nwhyte]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I have found George Mann really not my kind of author, and bounced hard off several of his earlier books, both fiction and non-fiction, so was a bit bemused to find The Affinity Bridge being promoted as vigorously as it has been. But I am open-minded, and perhaps he is starting to find his sub-genre.

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

I can see why you bounced off his writing if it's the same general style and standard as in this. There was one review on Amazon, which described my feelings very well, said "The novel read flat. Yet, this is where it becomes murky, would I recommend this novel to someone else, no I wouldn't, but will I buy the sequel, probably." It's like Pringles in book form.

I think the promotion, or at least a lot of the attention, is because of the covers which really are works of art.