Sad about Steamed: A Steampunk Romance

At one point last year, I went on a Katie MacAlister binge and read most of her books about Dark Ones, Dragons, and the Goth Books (YA, penned as Katie Maxwell). They were enjoyable enough to keep me reading. Then, I tried reading her latest Silver Dragons book, Me and My Shadow, last Nov. but couldn’t get far enough in to bother telling y’all I disliked it (or mention its existence on here). Something about her writing in it was just off. But, I thought I’d give her another try with Steamed: A Steampunk Romance, because, I mean, it’s Steampunk! and a new subject for her. Good sign: I made it all the way through it…

…But it’s not getting a “suggested reading” stamp of approval from me, sorry.

The Plot

The premise seemed promising, as far as paranormal romances go: nano-technologist Dr. Jack Fletcher and his sister Hallelujah (Hal or Hallie for short) get blown into an alternate reality due to a mishap in his lab. This alternate reality is de rigueur Steampunk for the most part, complete with airships (a central theme), although rather than being set in Victorian times, it’s set in the present—they just never moved beyond Victorian aesthetic sensibilities.

On the other side, Captain Octavia Pye is a newly appointed airship captain, dealing with being one of few women in such a position with a new crew, and balancing her (super-secret) work for revolutionaries with her appointed post as part of the Emperor’s fleet (the political climate is a bit different than our world).

When her bosun (boatswain) finds Jack and Hallie passed out in the cargo hold, things start to get interesting—especially when Jack, a Steampunk fan, seems convinced that it’s all a very good movie set. But Octavia, who is hiding a secret of her own from the world, starts to believe his ludacris claims that he’s from another reality. Although maybe that’s just her hormones talking, because what’s a romance novel without romance between the two major characters? And as soon as the romance starts, all worldly concerns (like her mission and entire career, getting back to his own time, etc.) go out the window, sadly.

The Good

It’s a pretty quick read. MacAlister’s writing style flows well enough, sort of. At least, well enough to make a quick read. It’s not a super lengthy book to begin with. She also does a good job of changing styles slightly when she bounces back and forth between Jack and Octavia as narrator. Their patterns of speech and topics vary well enough to make it quite clear who is narrating the story for us. I do rather like the description of clothing, and Octavia’s insistence that a corset goes under the dress not on the outside for all and sundry to see.

The Bad

While MacAlister’s writing does flow ok, it is the writing that I have the most complaints about. Her writing style in this novel doesn’t change much from her YA writing, except when you get to the more adult-themed bits. The sudden R-rated passages are jarring and don’t mesh with the rest of the book. In some of her other adult novels, this isn’t an issue; the different scenes flow pretty seamlessly. But it was very noticeable to me in Steamed.

There are also too many characters introduced that are nothing more than thin personalities used to move the plot along. They’re introduced too quickly and in too shallow a manner for us to even understand their motivations. In some cases, like Mr. Llama, they’re little more than something that allows MacAlister to put words on the page to get it from short-story to novella length. And to leave the reader steaming about lack of resolution or explanation of reasoning and why (or if) Mr. Llama does disappear or if Octavia is just imagining it all.

Further jarring is had from changing points of view. Yes, I already praised that above, but it’s not the different characters that is an issue, it’s her delivery of the Octavia sections. The Octavia sections are prefaced with a little “Captain’s Log” motive, which works ok right up to the point where Octavia discusses her attraction to the Jack. And it gets worse once they start getting to the intimate scenes. It’s pretty implausible that she’d be writing this all down in the log. And it continues further once they’ve landed at their destination, and the real action ensues. Yes, motives like this are good for distinguishing between characters, but they also have to work within the confines of the story, and in this case it does not.

Beyond that, the transition from chapter to chapter is very abrupt—I would start a new chapter, and think that I somehow missed a few pages; it always seemed like the reader was missing some action that occurred between the two that MacAlister doesn’t let us in on. It was particularly bothersome to me, and seemed to get worse as the book continued (and it’s only seven chapters!). It all culminated in an extremely short final chapter that wasn’t a very satisfying déneumont at all.

All in all—and here I’m probably the last person that should call someone’s writing garrulous—her editor could have chopped the “novel” down by about half by simply, you know, editing, and have had her publish as a short(ish) story in an anthology. The storyline really could benefit by tightening, removing superfluous characters, and overall revision. But hey, I’m sure there are plenty of readers out there saying that I’m full of it and that it’s an awesome book. Not on Amazon though.

So, no, I can’t give anyone the suggestion of reading this. In general, Katie MacAlister is not an author I recommend to anyone, unless you’re looking for a quick romantic tale and don’t want to think about the whole writing thing too much. Although, I did find her YA books a little more palatable. I will follow up with her if she ends up publishing the adult-targeted sequel to the Goth Books, but until then, I think I’m going to steer clear from now on. Two substandard books in a row is enough for me.