Illusionarium

by Heather Dixon

As apprentice to his father, the second-best medical scientist in the empire, Jonathan leads a quiet life in a remote aerial city until the king arrives, calling on them to find the cure to a plague that has struck the capital city and put the queen's life at risk, but the newly discovered chemical, fantillium, that may help will also put at risk all that Jonathan holds dear.

• ISBN10: 0062001051
• ISBN13: 9780062001054
• Publish Date: 19 May 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

eh. First of all, this book is gross. I glazed over so many descriptions of Rivening because, ew and double ew.

I don't read a lot of steampunk so it's an interesting change. The theme was good and served the plot well, and there's not a lot of young adult books with so clear of a theme.

The characters were good, particularly Anna and Lockwood, though Jonathan worked well as a focal point.

The plot was mostly very good, twisting and turning nicely, especially through the middle. By the end, though, after the second round, it was one chase scene too many. I was rather bored of the masked guard and ready for a nice conclusion. But there was still like two more chase scenes.

Once those were all over, however, I didn't feel short changed by the conclusion. Everything wrapped up rather nicely, which was particularly well done in so few pages.

[Katie King]

**I received my copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

**2.5 Stars**

I'm a little confused about Illusionarium, mostly because I was supposed to like it. I really enjoyed Heather Dixon's debut novel, Entwined, based on the story of the 12 Dancing Princesses. In fact, I was caught completely off-guard by how much I enjoyed it. It was beautiful, magical, and mysterious all at once. When I heard about Illusionarium and read the description, I figured I would enjoy it as well. It's simple logic. Dixon wrote Entwined. Entwined was really good. Dixon wrote Illusionarium. Why would Illusionarium not be really good? I fell into the classic trap.

Don't get me wrong, Illusionarium was interesting at first. The opening scene drew me in by painting some kind of arctic, steampunk society in the future. It was really cool (haha, puns). Jonathan and his family, especially his quirky mad scientist father, seemed like they would be a solid, engaging cast of characters. Unfortunately, after that first scene it all just fell apart, because the main problem is that the plot moves way too fast.

The plot moved at lightspeed, easily breaking the sound barrier. Every time I had just begun to understand what had happened in a scene, something new and important was happening. This left me feeling like I'm always trying to catch up, partly because scene transitions were non-existent. The whole book felt like someone made a Powerpoint and didn't include any slide transitions; just made you click and all of the sudden it's a completely different slide. Where are the appropriate breaks? Tying the scenes together? Making sure your audience knows what's going on??

Scene jumps (there has to be a more technical term for this), named after the abrupt manner in which new scenes were presented, were constant. I have no idea what kind of timeframe the book took place in. I'm not even exactly sure what period in time the book was set in, now that I think about it. The world is certainly complex, which I would have enjoyed, but it was only hashed out where necessary. If it didn't explicitly pertain to the plot, it wasn't explained or even mentioned. I was missing a lot of pieces of information, often confused, and was left with a very weak picture of the world. It didn't even need to be this way, either. At one point we learn so much about "Rivening" and Jonathan describes it in such detail that I could clearly picture it to the point of being disgusted. Throughout the whole book, that would have made for a much richer experience.

There was also quite a bit of what I called in my notes "Florel-ex-machina," Florel being both the antagonist and not (parallel worlds, yay!). I felt like there were quite a few times when developments were very convenient for the plot, with a lot of them having to do with Florel. For example, Jonathan learns about illusioning for the first time but is already some kind of natural and exceeds everyone else's power within a few days (weeks? months? who knows??). This tied a lot into being info-dumped on a lot for the purposes of getting all the information out, regardless of understanding. Maybe the thought process is if they throw so much at you at one time while speeding through the plot, you won't have time to notice the plot holes.

Finally, the characters really fell flat for me. Like I said, I thought things would be good based off of the first scene. But as the story progressed I realized I really had no idea who anyone was, just what role they played in the plot. The romance was the classic we-spent-time-together-so-of-course-were-in-love. Lockwood was purely the aggressive, relentless soldier with a soft side, kind of like Maximus the horse from Tangled. But who is he beyond that? I have no idea. Actually, I'm not even sure what most of the characters looked like either. For instance, I pictured Lockwood as some older, 40-year-old but then he fell in love with like a 15-year-old. Was she not like 15? Is Lockwood not in his 40s? Is that kind of thing just acceptable in this world or am I just wrong about their ages?

I loved Entwined and I really hope Dixon moves back towards that type of writing. I WANT to enjoy her books! Frankly, this just seemed like sloppy work to me. Something that was a fantastic idea, but got rushed to print.

[lizarodz]

As I mentioned above, one of the reasons that made me pick up Illusionarium was its beautiful cover.  There are a few other reasons though. I didn’t read Entwined but I know it’s one of Alyssa’s favorite books and that was reason enough to make me look at it twice.  Also, I adore steampunk, and Illusionarium certainly has a big steampunk streak.

Where to start?  Jonathan Gouden is an apprentice to his father who is a surgeon.  Shortly, he wil be leaving to go to the Institute and take formal classes.  His plans are interrupted by an awful virus called Venen that seems to attack only women and quickly end their lives.  As his mother and sister Hannah catch Venen, Jonathan fights furiously to find a cure in time to save them.  Jonathan grows a lot within the six days that form the bulk of the story.  He’s very smart, a mathematical and physics genius, but makes some very dumb mistakes.  Understandably, he has led a very sheltered life and he’s very naïve.  It’s in his nature to want to believe the best of people and in his situation this is a determent.

Jonathan “falls” into an alternate reality in the city of Nod’ol where illusionists are very valuable.  So it happens that Jonathan is a very good illusionist and he’s blackmailed into staying there in exchange for the cure to the Venen.  This ensues a fast paced series of events and challenges in order for Jonathan and his companions to make it back to Arthurise in time.

“My father had this…belief.

It was that everyone had a sort of compass inside of him. One that you could feel. And if you were doing everything good and right, it pointed to a northernmost light, and if you did ill, it turned and twisted and caused of sort of southerly darkness inside your soul.”

Lockwood is so funny!  He’s a handsome young lieutenant and he’s a great fighter.  I really liked his interaction with Jonathan, I think at the end they became very good friends.  Constantine, and Divinity and two other illusionists that are sort of like famous rock stars in Nod’ol.  They are a nasty piece of work, backstabbing and ruthless.   Anna/Hannah is awesome!  She’s smart, loyal, courageous, a risk taker and true gem.  Queen Honoria was such an awful person. SO, SO bad.

“You little maggot!” he snarled.  “You disgusting flap of cut-off flesh, you murky chunk of filth!  Thanks to you I’ve been stripped of my rank!”

The setting deserves its own paragraph for sure.  At the beginning, Jonathan lives in Fata Morgana, an Aerial City over the Netherlands. It is cold and isolated, but it is a cozy existence where everyone knows and cares for each other.  Arthurise is the world in which they live, which – as is typical of steampunk- is based on London, England.  This world has embraced the culture of the times of Arthur and his knights, thus the name.  Nod’ol is where most of the story takes place and it is a “London” gone bad.  It’s in a downright spiral towards extinction, the city is in a state of ruins and decay, and its inhabitants are very difficult to like.  Such an imagination!

I love the writing, it was easy to understand, even with the new terms and technology presented.  I found the story to be fast paced and enthralling.  The plot was unique, interesting, and exceptional! I wish that we could have seen more of what happed with Lockwood and Hannah and that the romance between Alice and Jonathan was more present in the story.  Also, I’m curious to know what happened with Nod’ol after the story ended. I kept thinking on why didn’t Jonathan turned back time and to undo the start of the Venen…

Note:  I’m a bit bummed that it was really hard to follow up the ‘footnotes’ in the eARC.  Also, there are certain illustrations that didn’t made it.  No worries, it just means that I have to get my very own finished copy sooner :)

Overall, I really liked Illusionarium.  It was a mix of steampunk and an alternate worlds that I enjoyed.  I’m glad that it’s not part of a series and I’m more than happy with the ending, although there is certainly more that can happen to this world and to the characters.  This review was originally posted on Reading With ABC