bardiphouka | Undiscovered Countries

I have a habit, which can be dangerous, of buying books on impulse based on a title or a cover. Dangerous in that I can get stubborn about finishing a book even I want that time back. And sometimes it leads to delightful originals. This is how I discovered deLint and LeGuin, Gibson and (going back years) Bradbury. We sha't go into the ones best forgotten, at least not this morning.

Because this morning is about S.M.Peters a Canadian author with what I believe is a debut novel..The Whitechapel GODS. In Victorian England the Whitechapel district (yes, that Whitechapel) has been walled off by two mechanical gods Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock. It has been a few years since the Uprising, when humans tried to free themselves by...ah but that would start giving things away. Like the best of Steampunk one is never quite sure if this is fantasy or science fiction. And like the best of fiction, Peters does not give you all the answers. What he does do is give you a frightening, textured world peopled by 3 dimensional characters.