Rise of the Darklings by Paul Crilley

Emily Snow is old beyond her years. Only 12 and supporting herself and her younger brother by selling watercress on the streets of Victorian England, Emily is lucky if she makes enough in one day to buy one meal to keep herself and her brother alive for one more day. Her parents having both mysteriously disappeared, Emily is not in a great mood when she pulls herself out of bed one cold winter morning to drag herself to work. On the way however, Emily comes across something she should not have seen. In a dark alley there is a battle going on. Tiny piskies are engaged in combat with real weapons and when Emily selflessly rescues one of the injured, she is thrown into a world she had no idea existed right in front of her face. After rescuing the piskie she unknowingly becomes involved in a war between the Seelie and the Unseelie, two opposing factions of fairies that have been battling each other throughout ce... Read More

The Lazarus Machine by Paul Crilley

The Lazarus Machine hooked me at first because I really like the title. I mean, come on, that’s just a cool title. The Lazarus Machineis a young adult steampunk set in the late 1800’s in an alternative Earth. Paul Crilley, for the most part, pulls this time period off well, despite the Sherlock Holmes feel (which is starting to feel a little been-there-done-that for my taste). The book starts out with interesting steampunk inventions. There are steam powered computers, automatons powered by captured souls, steam carriages and the like. Many readers will be absolutely captivated by all that Crilley has created in his steampunk alternative earth.

However, once the story gets going, small problems arise. For example, in this Victorian-esque setting, many of the characters’ dialogue is a bit too modern for the time. Secondly, Crilley doesn’t present much history behind ... Read More

The Osiris Curse by Paul Crilley

The Osiris Curse is the second book in Paul Crilley’s YA steampunk series TWEED AND NIGHTINGALE. While much of this fast-paced adventure seemed obviously borrowed from works like the Librarian movies, Doctor Who and even China Mieville’s book The Scar, the two protagonists are charming and the story moves along at a good clip. Crilley raises some moral questions that should make early-high-school aged readers think.

Sebastian Tweed and Octavia Nightingale are two young people who have been taken under the wing of Queen Victoria’s mysterious Ministry. Tweed’s father was a con-artist who taught his son the trade, but there was a secret to Sebastian’s identity, and its revelation (in the first book) has left young Tweed questioning his purpose and his existence. Octavia, who works for the London Times as a researcher and cub reporter is searching f... Read More

Department Zero by Paul Crilley

Department Zero by Paul Crilley is a neat mashup of humor and horror, of interdimensional fantasy and Lovecraft. First person narrator Harry Priest has a lively voice and a lot to learn when his life gets turned upside down after one really bad day at work. If you like acerbic British humor and the Old Ones of H.P. Lovecraft, this is a book for you.

Priest is a crime-scene cleaner in Los Angeles. He is separated from his wife and daughter, and bitter about it. Priest hates everything about his life and takes no responsibility for anything that has gone wrong in it. Then he and the boss’s son go to a scene of carnage at a motel. Soon Priest is encountering wizened, Shakespeare-spouting monkeys, fleeing from monster... Read More