Reviewed by Pamela-Mae
TITLE: Prosperity
SERIES: Prosperity #1
AUTHOR: Alexis Hall
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 192 Pages
BLURB:
A breathtaking tale of passion and adventure in the untamed skies!
Prosperity, 1863: a lawless skytown where varlets, chancers, and ne’er-do-wells risk everything to chase a fortune in the clouds, and where a Gaslight guttersnipe named Piccadilly is about to cheat the wrong man. This mistake will endanger his life . . . and his heart.
Thrill! As our hero battles dreadful kraken above Prosperity. Gasp! As the miracles of clockwork engineering allow a dead man to wreak his vengeance upon the living. Marvel! At the aerial escapades of the aethership, Shadowless.
Beware! The licentious and unchristian example set by the opium-addled navigatress, Miss Grey. Disapprove Strongly! Of the utter moral iniquity of the dastardly crime prince, Milord. Swoon! At the dashing skycaptain, Byron Kae. Swoon Again! At the tormented clergyman, Ruben Crowe.
This volume (available in print, and for the first time on mechanical book-reading devices) contains the complete original text of Piccadilly’s memoirs as first serialised in All the Year Round. Some passages may prove unsettling to unmarried gentlemen of a sensitive disposition.
REVIEW:
I truly loved the premise of this story. How could I not? A lawless skycity, an aethership, a wide array of widely-differing characters, a clockwork zombie, and… krakens.
The story is written from the perspective of Dil (Piccadilly) the card sharp guttersnipe so nearly killed at the start by one of the Shadowless’ crew, the crime prince Milord. As Dil writes the story I’m not doing a spoiler by telling you he survives! To be honest I struggled at the beginning, which is such a shame as I really wanted to immerse myself quickly in the universe. This is where the book loses a half point for me. Dil speaks in his own slang. Wonderful once you’re into the story, very evocative for the setting, but a little jarring to make sense of at the outset.
Taken aboard the Shadowless, Dil becomes part of the crew. Although he attempts to seduce the defrocked priest Ruben, ultimately he fails because of the relationship between Ruben and Milord
My favourite character is the ship’s captain Byron Kae. Byron is genderfluid and an aethermancer which allows him to be so biologically linked to his ship that damage to her causes injury to him. The author doesn’t go into great detail about this, but Byron appears in another book Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies where more is promised. I have to confess that the biological link reminded me of Farscape and the spaceship Moya. All the characters have distinct personalities and fallibilities and the ladies are just as strong as the gentlemen in this regard. No delicate and fainting flowers here.
In addition to the lives of the characters themselves, we have a revenge-seeking clockwork zombie and attacks by krakens for our heroes to contend with. In addition to the action and adventure we also see Dil grow and mature, from zero to hero, a great transition for this character.
If you’re looking for a romantic happy ever after, then you will be somewhat disappointed. However, there is sexiness, action, drama, and adventure, which we know will lead to additional stories set in this universe. Those stories are available in the sequel to this book “Liberty & Other Stories: A Prosperity Collection” which further details the lives and stories of other members of the Shadowless’ crew. I personally have not read that one yet!
This would be a great book for those who love steampunk, convoluted relationships, and multifaceted characters.
RATING: 
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