The Aeronaut's Windlass

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader, where I'm usually more coherent than I am below.
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Frequently, it's really hard for me to talk about a new Jim Butcher book without it just being, Aaaaaah! Fanboy! Gush, gush, squee! Drool! Squee! and More Squee!, and I really wanted to do more with this book, so I wanted a little distance. Alas, almost three months later, I'm still not going to be able to do much more than that – I think it'll take another entry or two in this series for me to start to evaluate it well. But, I'd best get something up, so I'll try to rein in the fanboy.

Let's start off with the genre – it's marketed as Steampunk. What a dreadful idea. This is only sort of Steampunk. It's more of a Fantasy with elements inspired by Steampunk. I've seen some fans – and perhaps Butcher himself – say that it should be considered “Steam Opera.” That's not bad. (I saw one online advertisement calling it “Urban Fantasy,” I trust whoever wrote/approved that advertisement was chastised soundly).

I don't know how to describe the world or the plot without taking a few large paragraphs, and probably not doing a good job of it. Butcher's website says:

It's jam-packed with airships, crazy sorcerers, privateers, warrior monks, and intelligent cats. An ancient evil has reawakened, and the entire world is plunged into a sinister mist, filled with terrible creatures.