Lost Future of Pepperharrow
Ratings9
Average rating4
15
Ratings9
Average rating4
"Natasha Pulley's Watchmaker of Filigree Street captivated readers with its charming blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and steampunk. Now, Pulley revisits her beloved characters in a sequel that sweeps readers off to Japan in the 1880s, where nationalism is on the rise and ghosts roam the streets. 1888. Five years after they met in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Thaniel Steepleton, an unassuming translator, and Keita Mori, the watchmaker who remembers the future, are traveling to Japan. Thaniel has received an unexpected posting to the British legation in Tokyo, and Mori has business that is taking him to Yokohama. Thaniel's brief is odd: the legation staff have been seeing ghosts, and Thaniel's first task is to find out what's really going on. But while staying with Mori, he starts to experience ghostly happenings himself. For reasons Mori won't--or can't--share, he is frightened. Then he vanishes. Meanwhile, something strange is happening in a frozen labor camp in Northern Japan. Takiko Pepperharrow, an old friend of Mori's, must investigate. As the weather turns bizarrely electrical and ghosts haunt the country from Tokyo to Aokigahara forest, Thaniel grows convinced that it all has something to do with Mori's disappearance--and that Mori may be in serious danger"--FantasticFiction.com.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is very good and a great follow up to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. That book and The Bedlam Stacks are both favorites of mine. My enjoyment did not quite reach that level with this one, but I did really like it.
The audiobook is especially good. If you like audio, I recommend it for her books, because the narrator makes a lot of insightful (and plot-related) choices with the accents. Most of the characters in this book are Japanese, and he did different British and American accents for all of them, I think to try to capture aspects of their characters. I felt this worked really well.
Mild spoiler I had some trouble identifying with Thaniel, overall. The depth of Mori's love for him seemed obvious to me, but he doubts it for most of the book. The structure of the story makes me think I was supposed to be a little frustrated with him. But I don't know.
The author really has fun with all the SFF concepts here, and this one feels more science-fiction-y than her other books. I don't know if she will return to this world again, but I hope she does. Either way, I look forward to reading her future books.
