Does anyone know where I can get this book? I have found the other two, but this one eludes me. See 1 question about Bones of Veridon…. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Dec 02, Ryan Spellman rated it really liked it. I hope for more tales in this setting. Bones of Veridon is a collection of early sketches by the author and supplemental short stories that are related to the universe that Veridon resides within.
Joel Butler rated it really liked it Dec 29, Sam rated it really liked it Aug 19, Laurie Anderson rated it liked it Aug 01, Chris Harris rated it it was amazing Jan 01, David Shackelford rated it really liked it Jan 17, Harald Grill rated it it was amazing Nov 14, Jessi rated it liked it Dec 27, Noah Richards rated it really liked it Oct 24, Janelle rated it liked it Mar 13, Vera marked it as to-read Jan 26, Chris marked it as to-read Feb 16, Marc Elmer marked it as to-read Apr 05, Trollibags marked it as to-read Apr 18, Nicholas Lee marked it as to-read May 01, Neveen Badr Seraphina Reads marked it as to-read May 09, Even the Church of the Algorithm is involved somehow.
People in Veridon are not the only one who live there. There is a species living in the river, the Fehn. They take their share of the dead and make them their own. They are more than creepy. There are also anansi, spider or bug-like people. One of them plays a very important role in the story. What I found impressive is how the author combined the machinery and flesh in this world.
For example, one of the first scenes you see is the pilot of the zepliner Jacob is travelling on. The pilots are trained and modified to fly with the help of the patterns given by the Church of the Algorithm. Considering the fact that everything in Veridon depends on machinery and those patterns, you can imagine how powerful the Church is.
Another fascinating thing are the engram performances. Well, they are disgusting too in a way. Basically, bugs enter the body and completely change a person. That and the queen fetus. Not a fan of bugs. I would like Jacob Burn more if I knew more about him sooner. You know more about him while he searches for the explanation of the cog and his own connection to it. But the book is confined to Veridon. It is only mentioned that somewhere 'far away' there is a city more advanced than Veridon.
Heart of Veridon
Veridon itself is shown only through those power struggles.. At first, it isn't clear how the fantasy aspect matters. When an artifact of unknown significance falls into the hands of downfallen ex-pilot and small-time criminal Jacob Burn, people start trying to kill him. He doesn't know why. He doesn't understand who is after him. He's not sure whom he can trust. And for a while, it doesn't particularly matter that he is a steampunk cyborg in a city full of steampunk cyborgs, steam-driven trams, mysterious religions, and at least a couple of intelligent non-human minority populations.
He's just a tough guy on the run, doing whatever it takes to escape and figure out what's going on. But long before the end, hidden truths about Veridon open up, and the fantasy elements begin to make a difference in how the story unfolds. While some of Veridon's secrets are foreshadowed a little too heavily, others are completely surprising. The linkage of plot and setting turns out to be very solid and, along with some fairly engaging action, makes the story worth reading.
There are a few rough spots, though.
Bones of Veridon
It's hard to like the way that the main character antagonizes his own friends and acquaintances. Several supporting characters aren't developed as strongly as their roles in the story probably merit. The names for people and things, given the exotic quality of the setting, are sometimes absurdly mundane I had to assume I was reading names translated into English equivalents.
And the ending is abrupt and feels slightly implausible based on facts established within the story--it works, but the poignancy the author aimed at is undermined by questions about whether it should work. Feb 12, Jordan rated it liked it Shelves: Waffled back and forth between two and three stars for this one. I felt like I should have liked this book a lot more than I did.
It's got an interesting set-up and the world is something that would typically interest me. It's got several intriguing races living in a city powered by magical clockwork. It almost seems a bit reminiscent of China Mieville's Bas-Lag, which is one of my favorite worlds.
- Set Free.
- Eternels, Tome 2: Lune bleue (French Edition).
- .
- I Do Two.
Still I mostly felt bored reading this book. It jumps right into the action and there's nearly non Waffled back and forth between two and three stars for this one. It jumps right into the action and there's nearly non-stop action and development after that. Which I think ended up being my biggest problem. I didn't have time to care. I gather that the author has other Veridon short fiction, which might have helped to have read it first because then maybe I would have felt a bit more interested and involved in the world.
As it is, I really disliked the main character and nearly every other character in the book, which I'm assuming I wasn't supposed to. The main character manages to be bitterly suspicious and stupidly naive at once, and his only retort seems to be 'fuck you'. The only characters I felt some amount of connection with were the angels, who were basically the bad guys. I spent the whole book after the reveal about who they are waiting for them to bring down some bloody vengeance on the entire crappy city.
May 12, A. Rustad rated it it was ok. It has a great premise, it's gearpunk, and it's got lots of shiny in the world building parasitic clockwork angels! I began reading really wanting to like this, because in theory it has many things that Merc loves. It bored me to tears. I tried to get over the issues of voice and flat characterization and the rough edges.
I really, really tried to find something to engage in. I did like Wilson, in the sense I found him to have the hope So. I did like Wilson, in the sense I found him to have the hope of developing more personality--plus he was some kind of humaniod spider scientist-assassin dude. It's sad when not even the shiny is enough. Jul 10, Yune rated it it was ok Shelves: Steampunkish, reveling in its disturbing juxtaposition of people and cogs, religion and the grimy underworld and the aristocracy of the founders of Veridon.
There were some great ideas in here, and the setting is wonderfully weird, but the characters felt flat to me even as they got pulled into the whorls of a deep and deeper conspiracy. Too deep; I stopped feeling shocked early on and just waved the hero onward as he got into more trouble. Sadly, one of the foremost thoughts in my mind is that th Steampunkish, reveling in its disturbing juxtaposition of people and cogs, religion and the grimy underworld and the aristocracy of the founders of Veridon.
Sadly, one of the foremost thoughts in my mind is that this would make an awesome RPG premise.
The world and the characters are super interesting. I loved the whole Steampunk setting and all the complex ideas about how the world in this books work. The characters were smart and likeable and I absolutley want to know what happend to Jacob next. It was a fantastic start and Im so excited to read the next one.
Nov 06, Ian James rated it really liked it Shelves: This wasn't a bad book, about halfway through I was pretty sure that I would continue on the series, but by the end of the book I decided not to continue the series. The final scenes were somewhat confusing when you don't know who is going to die or who is even allowed to die. It just seemed so muddl Eh.
It just seemed so muddled. I really enjoyed this book. I liked the world that Akers created, I liked the noir feel of the book, and how the plot kept moving forward relentlessly. I also appreciated that although it's part of a series, it's a self-contained novel, with no need to read the next one unless you want to. Jun 13, Charles Cohen rated it really liked it Shelves: The only people who do steampunk right are Tim Akers and China Mieville. Only they capture the mix of awe and horror that comes with combining industrial-age technology with information-age interest in AI and biological enhancement.
Heart of Veridon (The Burn Cycle, #1) by Tim Akers
So much fun, and a little gross. Jun 29, Stiltzkin Vanserine rated it liked it Shelves: Very interesting world 2. Lacks character development 4. Ending is abrupt, but makes you want to read more. Dieses Buch war ein reiner Coverkauf. Naja, und ein "Es ist Steampunk! Genauer gesagt, hat mich bisher selten ein Buch so sehr gespalten. Die Spinnenwesen der Anansi haben mir neben der Stadt am besten gefallen. Akers Sprachstil war mir zu simpel, so glitscht einfach so runter, ohne Spuren zu hinterlassen.
Die Charaktere selbst sind alle ziemlich farblos und gehen in der Masse an Buchfiguren unter. Weil sie keinen Charakter haben. Irgendwie macht mich das grad ziemlich traurig… May 03, Linda Jaejoong rated it really liked it Shelves: Und vor allem wenn kann er noch trauen?? Ich muss sagen zum Anfang hatte ich ein paar Schwierigkeiten mich ins Buch einzulesen, aber es wurde besser und besser.
Man kann nicht sagen das Jacob ein sympathischer Protagonist ist, er hat viele Ecken und Kanten, aber gerade die machen ihn zu dem was er ist. Er ist halt kein typischer Held, sondern ein spezieller!!
Besonders der schwarze Humor zwischen den Beiden ist super witzig und lockert die Stimmung immer wieder etwas auf!! Emily und Jacobs Vater waren einfach nur schrecklich. Sie hat verdient was sie bekommen hat.
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Das Cover finde ich schick gemacht und gibt ein gutes Bild von der Handlung wieder. This book has been on my To Read this for a long time and I finally took the plunge. I should mention that the Kindle version has numerous formatting issues that leads to abrupt paragraph breaks, run-on dialogue exchanges that confused perspective, as well as several incorrectly transposed words. It's one of the worst kindle conversions I've come across.
I was very impressed with the opening chapter and the story had me hooked early. This seemed like a story I wanted to read; there were echoes of This book has been on my To Read this for a long time and I finally took the plunge. However, the story never caught on for me. I kept waiting for the real meat and it pretty much dissolved into one big chase sequence. Unusual for me, I got confused between the different factions, religious theology of the world, and the motivations of the various villains - "who was with who again?
The motivation of the protagonist revolved around a seeming MacGuffin - it does develop eventually into more than this, but the exact point of it was elusive to me, especially the way it is eventually thrown away in the denouement. This was a very good addition, thanks for releasing it! Glad you enjoyed it. I'll probably do more short stuff in Veridon at some point, but I think we've seen the last of the novels. Subscribe to Post Comments [ Atom ]. The first book, The Pagan Night, is in stores. View my complete profile. Subscribe to Posts [ Atom ].
Dancing to Dirges Depressing and happy things Tim says, sometimes while drunk.