Review: “Tethers” by Jack Croxall

Tethers Cover This independent and self-published book that I received via a review request I received from the author. It sounded like a steampunk-y, action and adventure-type book that I would enjoy and so I accepted the request. Here is the synopsis from its Goodreads page:

In the wake of a cold Victorian winter, Karl Scheffer and Esther Emerson discover an anonymous journal filled with strange passages and bizarre scribblings.

The journal soon draws them into a covert and sinister conspiracy, a conspiracy centred around an otherworldly artefact with the power to change everything …

Karl and Esther have spent almost every day of their thirteen years in the quiet market town of Shraye. Stifled by their rural surroundings and frustrated by their unfulfilled ambitions, they find the allure of the journal’s mysterious pages impossible to ignore. The book seems to be beckoning them away from Shraye, away from their homes and towards the coast where an unsolved disappearance has set in motion a dark chain of events.

The voyage the teenagers soon find themselves undertaking is one of desperate importance and true peril; it will change the way they see the world, and each other, forever.

One of the best things about this novel is that Croxall is greatly thorough at giving each character his or her own voice. One character uses slang-speak with a cockney accent written in, another is prim and proper with prestige, plus everything in between. I often wouldn’t have needed the author to tell me who was speaking, I could tell by the way they said it! It provided a very rich reading experience and made each conversation easily play out like a movie in my head.

He also is great at world-building, one of the most important elements in a science fiction story. When your novel isn’t completely based in reality (and let’s be honest, reality is boring!) you have to make sure that the reader is completely immersed. There are few different towns along the coast and further inland of England that the story takes place in and I felt like I knew each one. This was a fun aspect of the story and made me yearn to be there myself! Ah, if only plane tickets weren’t so expensive!

It did leave me wishing there had been more of the vinniculum in the story. The device and what it does is SO cool and SO creative but I felt it didn’t get enough screen time. Maybe some scenes got cut out for length but I would’ve gladly read another 100 pages if it meant that it had more vinniculum. Also, the villains! They were cool and there was a great push-and-pull between who was in control but I would’ve loved to see more of them. To better understand their inter-personal relationships and how and why they got involved in this treasure hunt would’ve been great.

All in all I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. You can find it on Amazon here and visit the author on Twitter here.

What are your favorite Victorian books?