His Black Wings

by Astrid Yrigollen

[Angie]

His Black Wings is another Steampunk retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and I really enjoyed it at the beginning. The set up was definitely different with Claren being attacked by a delusional suitor and being taken in by Frederick Lowood who wants a companion for his "deformed" son, Etrigan. However, once Etrigan appears, things started to fall apart for me. I didn't like him at all, or his "you belong to me" attitude toward Claren.

I really liked the setting. It's a Steampunk, futuristic type setting with some fun retro elements (like TV trays!). The world has reverted to a simpler time, where natural remedies take the place of toxic chemicals, and the skies are free from pollution. Horses seem to be the main form of local transportation, both real ones and steam powered metal horses. It's definitely one of the better Steampunk setups that I've read.

This book is another case of switching between first and third person narratives. At first I was relieved that Etrigan's parts were short and far between, since those are the ones that are in third person. Then at some point the entire rest of the book became third person, even when it was clearly back to Claren's POV. There are also a few instances where Claren's chapters will start out in third person and randomly switch back to first, then back to third again. Although I'd say the last third of the book is in third person, the very last paragraph is in first. It's just very poor editing and definitely hurt my enjoyment of a promising story.

I really wanted to love this one, and it started out good, but then the story started dragging and the narrative got confusing. There was no tension and the big climax appeared as an info-dump. Aside from the amazing setting, I also enjoyed the banter between Horace and Bekker. Unfortunately, as a whole this one just did not work for me.