The Iron Wyrm Affair - Lilith Saintcrow

The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I did not like the writing style of this at all. It was choppy and jumped all over the place. The changing POVs were confusing because I couldn't always tell at first that they had changed, and the world-building was basically non-existent. I feel like I missed an entire book that actually explained the world, the magic, and all the terms that were randomly thrown at me throughout.

There were many scenes that I had to go back and re-read because I realized that I had no idea what I had just read. They were garbled and confused, and re-reading didn't always help. That's when I started to skim. I skimmed until I found explanations and scenes that I could actually understand. And I skimmed until I had enough of a sense of the story that I was half-way interested in what was going to happen, and then I managed to care enough to finish the book (while still skimming the confusing parts!).

The thing is, I think there's a good story in there somewhere. I had to dig really hard to find it, and it was obscured by choppy and chaotic scenes. But it was enough in the end for me to give this two stars instead of one, if only because I'm a sucker for historical fantasy / steampunk settings like this.