Tidhar, Lavie -- Camera Obscura
Second book in what-the-hell-is-going-on Victorian-punk series. Milady
de Winter is investigating a murder in Paris. It turns out there are
zombies involved, and a jade Buddha statue, and Milady is a
six-foot-tall African gunslinger, in case you thought you were on
familiar ground. We cycle rapidly through Tom Thumb, Mycroft Holmes,
H. H. Holmes, Captain Nemo, and a bunch of other references before
getting down to the alien invasion plot which is somewhere at the
bottom of this mess.
The sci-fi puzzle-pieces here signally fail to fit in with what we
know from the previous book, which is either an invitation to finish
the trilogy or a warning not to. I will, because I have no idea what
the author is leading up to and I rather enjoy the sensation.
This book, taken by itself, is just good old weird-tales adventure,
which turns nasty halfway through. I don't mean it's bad, but it winds
up as horror-adventure; Milady is put through some pretty traumatic
crap, so be prepared for that.
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