This book was co-written by two authors of considerable repute in the webfiction world – MCM (of The Vector, Fission Chips, etc) and Andy Fanton (of Lord Likely) – so if you like either or both of them, you’re bound to like this book.
I am a big fan of MCM’s work, but I’ll admit I was a little hesitant about this particular book. I am not a reader of steampunk or comedy; I generally prefer things to be a little less light-hearted.
I’d actually avoided reading the Archimedes series because it looked too silly: the main character is a snobby duck who has a talking, telekinetic fish as a pet. For similar reasons, I hadn’t read much of Lord Likely’s Adventures, frightened away by the overtly sexual innuendos. In this book, those two characters meet.
The plot is a simple murder-mystery, a humorous adventure, and a very quick read. Despite some parts of the plot being a little predictable, I was actually surprised by the most important part, which was the killer’s identity.
I also liked the more bizarre elements, which really gave this story its voice: the ninjas (although I could quibble with how some of the accents are written), the Irish shouting midgets, the improbable leg, and so on. Despite my better judgement, I even found Lord Likely likeable.
As for the writing, the humour is just on the right side of offensive, and insults basically every stereotype you could think of. The sexual innuendos are so blatant that they come off as subtle. Somehow, it works. I find it impressive that the two authors have pulled off a book which flows so smoothly, because co-writing is no easy task.
What makes this story a strong webfiction all-rounder, though, is that the same attention to detail given to the writing was given to the design. The website is worth seeing for that alone, and something that added a lot to the story were the cheeky illustrations – my favourite was a sketch of Lord Likely wearing nothing but his top hat, and not on his head (well, not the head you’d think of).
In sum: when you need a laugh, or a quick read, or something a little different, you should read this. This is nothing less than professional webfiction.
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