Review : The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar

The punkgenre has a new term, BookPunk. The Bookman pokes at the fat and waddled body of steampunk with its walking cane and leaves it on the roadside with its fresh take on Victorian London without loosing any steam on its way.

The Bookman takes a little of Verne and a little more of Gaimen and wraps the story of Orphan into a tale of personal discovery , romance and action across London Hospitals, Pirate Ships and secret lost islands. Lizard Kings rule as a social elite and books explode in the face of their owners and The Bookman chases and is pursued by the Orphan. Orphan , his name as well as his status, is  Poet living in a London that feels like it may have been created in collaboration between Jasper Fforde and Neil Gaiman every character fills the page with their own vices and histories. The Bookman is a masked Terrorist whose actions motivate Orphan and take the adventure on sea bound adventures more reminiscent of Jules Verne. There  much in the story that reflects familiar concepts and characters which feel most natural as Orphan encounters them and the pacing of the adventure left me turning pages ( well pressing page turn ) and enjoying the voyage.

The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar is available from Amazon and is published by Angry Robot Books

Thanks for reading..