The Falconer | Review

Let me start this review with a small rant about steampunk.

Steampunk, or mechanical fantasy as I call it, is a genre of fiction featuring a historical setting with advanced, often whimsical, technology.  It is often set in the Victorian period, although there are exceptions.  Dirigibles, automatons, spider-like vehicles, and weapons masquerading as ladies' accessories are popular pieces of steampunk machinery.

I DO NOT LIKE IT!

I dislike how steampunk machinery makes no scientific sense whatsoever.  I also dislike how steampunk books are often choked with genre cliches and tropes.

That being said, I can tolerate it in small doses.  My favorite series of all time, Lindsay Buroker's The Emperor's Edge, has steampunk elements to it.  However, for the most part, the technology in Buroker's series make sense, and the characters are often slaving over hot boilers or wrangling awkward machinery gone awry.  I like that Buroker's machines are bulky and malfunctioning and hinder the heroes as often as they help them.

On the other hand, Elizabeth May's The Falconer has the kind of steampunk technology that I'm not overly fond of — mechanical hands that shoot out to pour tea and fold bustles.  There are implausible helicopters ornithopters and and little ornate devices that hold tremendous power.  Um, what kind of power and how does the device harness it?  Nevermind that! Tremendous power!!

I connect the star and the remaining knife. Power flows from the objects as they melt together to form the larger star. The metal is smooth in my palm again.

See what I mean?  It's nonsense, I tell you!

As for the rest of the book, it's good.  It's a fun read, with kick-ass heroine and lots of action and antics.  The Falconer follows a young Victorian lady of Edinburgh, Aileana Kameron, whose mother was brutally murdered by a faery.  In the days after her mother's death, Aileana learned that her country has a bit of a faery infestation and humans are being slaughtered because of it.  Shortly after, she met her... unique... tutor, Kiaran McKay, who instructs her in all things murderous and violent.  With his help she goes on a supernatural killing spree.  Her life of wreaking revenge is upended, however, when she learns that the faeries below ground,  imprisoned in their kingdom, are very close to breaking out.

My favorite part of the book, funnily enough, was a character called Derrick.  He plays the comical sidekick, which is usually a part that I care little for.  But Derrick was truly hilarious.  He's a pixie, a male Tinkerbell, and lives in Aileana's closet, mending her gowns for honey, which intoxicates him.  His scenes caused me to laugh quite often.  More than that, he also served to make the fae folk more accessible.  Athough Derrick doesn't kill humans like his larger kinfolk, he is still an uncanny creature.  I liked how May made the villains slightly more sympathetic by giving them a spectrum of behavior that we got to witness.

However, there were issues with the book besides the steampunk.  I found myself arguing with Aileana's logic and the behavior of other characters quite a bit.  The writing also seemed to be... manipulative, unkind, coy?  I felt strung along, as a reader, having things withheld that didn't have to be.  Did the romance really have to unfold that way?  It was strung out for so long that when something did happen it felt too little too late.  And the cliffhanger.  By god.  What a disservice to readers.

All in all, I give The Falconer three stars.  It had good elements and frustrations in equal measure.  However, I will surely be picking up the sequel, which comes out this November.