For The Iron Wyrm Affair, Lilith Saintcrow has created an alternative 19th-century England where Queen Victrix recently gained control of the throne--which carries with it the additional responsibility of being the living incarnation of Britannia, the empire's spirit. Emma Bannon is a sorceress of the highest rank, working in the queen's service; as the story begins, she has come to recruit (or to protect?) Archibald Clare, an unabashedly Holmesian master of deductive reasoning. The reasons why emerge with precisely calibrated narrative timing, but even as the sorceress and the "mentath" begin to work together, Emma's most important relationship is the one between her and her Shield, Mikal. Though Mikal is duty bound to protect her life, Emma cannot bring herself to fully trust him--even though she has taken profound steps to protect him from the consequences of the very crime that stirs her misgivings.
Saintcrow (The Hedgewitch Queen) shows rather than tells as she introduces readers to the supernatural parameters of her Londinium with a minimum of speechifying. As a result, her Victorian-era blend of urban fantasy and steampunk-ish technology is occasionally overwhelming, but narrative momentum carries the day--and Clare's intensively inquisitive nature helps put many of the pieces together along the way. In some ways, you might regard The Iron Wyrm Affair as a test run. Now that Saintcrow has established that Bannon & Clare function neatly as a team (with the help of their supporting cast), subsequent novels should reveal the full extent--or limitations--of their capabilities. --Ron Hogan, founder of Beatrice.com