Gears of a Mad God A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure eBook Brent Nichols
Download As PDF : Gears of a Mad God A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure eBook Brent Nichols 
Proper young ladies in the 1920s don't get dirty, and they certainly don't get into fights. But Colleen's favorite uncle has died under mysterious circumstances, and she wants answers. When a sinister cult comes after her, she pushes back - hard.
Soon she's running for her life, hunted by the cult of Katharis and aided by a secret government agency. It will take all of her courage, all of her strength, and every steam-powered weapon she can devise to keep her alive long enough to unravel the mystery of her uncle's death.
The cult thinks she knows her uncle's secrets. They'll do anything, hurt anyone, to make her talk. But they've made a grave mistake. Colleen is going to take the fight to them, again and again, until the people she cares about are safe - or have been avenged.
Book 1 of the Gears of a Mad God series.
Gears of a Mad God A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure eBook Brent Nichols
I am currently reading the 5th of the 6 novellas in this series (so far). I have to admit I am enjoying it and that enjoyment started with this first volume. Set in the early 1920's, during Warren Harding's time as President, the author stays as true to things as they were but does make a few errors, but they don't really matter.The story involves a very atypical young woman who is very mechanically inclined, especially when it comes to steam powered devices. She prefers pants to dresses and the dirt of hard work on her hands rather than the spotless presentation expected of ladies of her time and age. She is from Canada and when her favorite uncle is murdered, she is off on an adventure to avenge his death. She is aided by members of a secret government (American) agency to which her uncle (unbeknownst to our heroine, Coleen) belonged. She finds herself deep in the pursuit of an ancient cult whose members will stop at nothing to attain their goals. They worship an ancient god named Katharis (we don't find this out until vol. 2). As it turns out, Katharis resembles, vaguely, some descriptions of Lovecraft's ancient god, Chthulu.
In this episode, the focus of attention is the whereabouts of a place called, "Tathanos." (Nichols couldn't be playing with Thanatos, could he?). It turns out it is an island.
This book contains a lot of action and introduction of characters, none of whom are very well rounded out other than Coleen, and the setting of the basic story arc.
What I liked about this book is that it moves quickly, has lots of twists and turns, lots of heroism and villainy and is just a fun read. If you are looking for something full of deeper hidden meaning, this is not a series for you. This is more like an old time Saturday afternoon at the theater serial. It's all just for fun.
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Gears of a Mad God A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure eBook Brent Nichols Reviews
The minions of Lovecraft's old ones appear to be trying again to bring them to our world. This time they are running around Canada. The official American investigations team with its Canadian liaison is pretty ineffectual, making the story hard to accept. The only character developed to any degree is the heroine of the piece who, despite being a somewhat sheltered clock maker/repairman, is much more effective at dealing with the cultist villains than are the government agents. By the end of the piece it appears that she is shedding her overbearing boyfriend and embarking on a new, exciting career. However that, and any appearance by Lovecraft's old ones, are for additional volumes of which, I believe, there are six at this time. I downloaded this story for free from . The additional volumes are not expensive. I feel that the story should be between 3 and 4 stars but as that is not possible, I am going with 4. Mr. Nichols is also a contributor to the very good horror/fantasy collection, Dirty Magick Los Angeles.
I would not classify this as a steampunk story. It is a bit too much in the modern era. The use of automobiles (instead of steam-driven carriages), telephones, and electricity all serve to destroy any steampunk atmosphere. That said, I did thoroughly enjoy this story for what it is an early-Twentieth Century action tale with a hint of the supernatural. This fast-paced story is full of action and suspense from the start, and the action, suspense, and danger continue to increase through to the very end.
To briefly summarize the plot, Colleen, our young heroine, receives word that her uncle, the last surviving member of her family, has passed away. She leaves her home in Toronto and journeys to Victoria, B. C. to deal with the disposition of his possessions. Colleen is immediately immersed in a sea of danger. Not sure who to trust, she finally teams up with government agents investigating a cult whose goal is to unleash ancient evils upon the world. At the final chapter, though, it is up to Colleen alone to turn the tide against those who serve evil.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was that it was set in Canada, not London. The seas, mountains, and forests of British Columbia serve as a refreshing change from steampunk’s stereotypical fog of London. The varied landscapes allow the reader to create different visuals as the story moves through these changing settings. In imagination, as in real life, it is nice to get out of the city once in a while!
I also enjoyed the detailed editing job put into the text by the author. I can only recall one instance of a typo or wrong word being used, and there may have been a few extra commas, but overall it was easy to read because of the clean, professional presentation. Authors who take the time to put that final effort into their text are to be thanked and commended for it!
There was a sudden infusion of several government agents at one point early in the story, but as these were all minor characters, it was only important to know their names, so the confusion did not last long.
One genuine complaint I have is that the “bad guys” are simply that just a mob of people who want to kill anyone who may hinder their evil plot. We don’t even know what their evil plot is, so the lack of knowing what’s at stake will naturally limit the level of drama one can achieve. There is also no “Darth Vader”, no single named character leading the bad guys, so the threats and danger do not take on a personality of any kind. This would make the danger much more personal and real, in my opinion, and give the plot more focus. It is a tribute to the quality of the author’s writing that the numerous chase scenes and action sequences have enough variety to keep the reader interested, despite the lack of focus from the opposition’s side of the story.
A second complaint is that Colleen is supposed to be a mechanically-minded girl, but we really didn’t see any manifestations of that talent within the story. There is one scene where she uses a steam hose to help her allies escape a perilous gunfight, and there is another scene where she uses steam-driven machinery as a distraction, but I feel like there could have been more than that. While both of these scenes were well-done and pivotal to the story, all Colleen really did in either one was to turn a valve or start a fire in the boiler. The supposed mechanical talent of her character was not used to its best potential.
I do have a few words of caution for more sensitive readers. There are a (very) few instances of swearing in the book, and much of the action involves (mostly not too graphic) descriptions of violence. One character is tortured (which is not depicted in the book), but the physical aftereffects of the torture are briefly described.
While this story has an action plot, the author is not afraid to dive beneath the surface of the characters. Colleen is forced to deal with the moral, emotional and psychological effects of killing someone. This gives it an emotional depth and realism that helps the reader connect with the characters. Colleen is also a great problem solver, and we are allowed to solve the problems with her as she is working out the solutions. This is not only interesting to read, but it connects the answer to the problem for the reader and connects the reader to Colleen.
Whenever I write a review, I always take time to read some of the other reviews that have been written, and I was surprised to see so many bad reviews written by people who seemed to have not even read the story, or if they did read it, they weren’t paying attention. This story is much better than the one or two stars some people have given it. I have read some one-star stories, and this is far above that level!
Colleen is not afraid to take an active role in her story, but I doubt she would consider herself an “action” star. She is thoughtful, intelligent and clever, and those are her greatest weapons against her enemies. They should be very afraid!
This is outside my usual reading genres I got this purely because I read Brent Nichols' excellent Stars Like Cold Fire.
This was a rough read, because plainly it's roughly written. Don't get me wrong, it's not badly written, that's something else, although there are isolated editing lapses. The style is rough and ready, I think a slight mismatch with the genre, and yet it has its own engaging character. I'm not a Lovecraft fan, so the effective failure to deliver in that area didn't bother me one bit. Colleen is a character I like, but, like the writing, unpolished. Nichols jumps from scene to scene, sometimes neglecting to communicate enough of Colleen's thinking or emotions to bring the reader along, which leaves the reader with a gappy experience. The story is gripping enough, and the pace is, well, lightning quick. Too fast, really. I think the author needs to rework this book. Nevertheless, I'm giving it four stars on because it's still better than just 'okay'.
I am currently reading the 5th of the 6 novellas in this series (so far). I have to admit I am enjoying it and that enjoyment started with this first volume. Set in the early 1920's, during Warren Harding's time as President, the author stays as true to things as they were but does make a few errors, but they don't really matter.
The story involves a very atypical young woman who is very mechanically inclined, especially when it comes to steam powered devices. She prefers pants to dresses and the dirt of hard work on her hands rather than the spotless presentation expected of ladies of her time and age. She is from Canada and when her favorite uncle is murdered, she is off on an adventure to avenge his death. She is aided by members of a secret government (American) agency to which her uncle (unbeknownst to our heroine, Coleen) belonged. She finds herself deep in the pursuit of an ancient cult whose members will stop at nothing to attain their goals. They worship an ancient god named Katharis (we don't find this out until vol. 2). As it turns out, Katharis resembles, vaguely, some descriptions of Lovecraft's ancient god, Chthulu.
In this episode, the focus of attention is the whereabouts of a place called, "Tathanos." (Nichols couldn't be playing with Thanatos, could he?). It turns out it is an island.
This book contains a lot of action and introduction of characters, none of whom are very well rounded out other than Coleen, and the setting of the basic story arc.
What I liked about this book is that it moves quickly, has lots of twists and turns, lots of heroism and villainy and is just a fun read. If you are looking for something full of deeper hidden meaning, this is not a series for you. This is more like an old time Saturday afternoon at the theater serial. It's all just for fun.
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