Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Classic steampunk from an author who originated, not the steampunk style itself, but the term.

The naive narrator, George Dower, inherits a clock and watch shop from his genius father and tries to make a living with less skill than his father had. A mysterious customer comes into the shop and launches George into an adventure that has steampunk technology, time travel, Lovecraftian human hybrids, automatons, and lots of people trying to kill him for no fault of his own.

There's a lot of humor, especially in the narration, because of George's clueless, guileless nature and how he views the dangerous and weird people he’s gotten involved with, which includes con artists, evangelists, and one megalomaniac.

George is at the center of many storylines as a passive target. I would have liked him to have more drive of his own other than solving the mystery of his father’s life and work. Once he (view spoiler)[ discovered his father's ulterior motives in having a son, the story felt anticlimactic, and not much happened with the answer to that particular question. I expected more of a confrontation between him and his “brother.� (hide spoiler)]

The book was fun overall, action-oriented, and pure entertainment. I enjoyed reading it as an example classic steampunk genre stories. It’s a shame that it shares a title with a more recent and much more popular YA book. I think that makes it harder for new readers to discover this one.