As I mentioned last week, I’m in this 99c boxed set with several authors I admire, including C. J. Brightley, Sabrina Chase and Lindsay Buroker. In fact, three books that I’ve very much enjoyed by those three authors are in the set, and over the next few days I’ll give you my reviews of them – starting with Lindsay’s The Emperor’s Edge.

My book Hope and the Patient Man, a fantasy romance which I consider the best of my Gryphon Clerks books so far, is also included. As it happens, that one, Lindsay’s and Sabrina’s are all approximately steampunk (the set is currently sitting at #4 in the Kindle store for steampunk); but what unites the collection is not the set dressing but the approach. All these books have at least one person who acts with integrity from noble motives, even in a dark, grim world.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lindsay’s Emperor’s Edge when I first read it in 2012, and I went on to read, and enjoy, the rest of the series, and most of her now numerous other books. It has action, suspense and humour. It also has a kickass heroine who’s believable (and a natural leader – although she does engage in fighting quite competently, her real skill is in talking people into doing things). Her ill-assorted group – a cold master assassin, an alcoholic historian, a vain aristocratic pretty-boy and a surly teenage would-be wizard – are lively, fun and convincing characters, as is the idealistic youthful emperor they (unbeknown to him) are setting out to save.

Three things in particular that I liked were the strong heroine whose strength is not just that of a gender-switched man, the steamed-up setting that wasn’t all brass, clockwork and airships but actually felt like a real place, and the flashes of situational humour scattered amidst the action and the desperate plots. Also, the heroes are kind of incompetent sometimes, get a little bit battered about but not to the over-the-top degree that a lot of steampunk heroes do, and don’t end up lauded as heroes.

The whole thing has the worn feel of a setting like Serenity, and also the same kind of strongly individual, somewhat flawed characters in an ensemble cast that works both because of and despite its diversity.

You can get this, and eleven other books with heroic characters, plus bonus short fiction, at the link below for 99c (on preorder).

https://www.amazon.com/Light-Darkness-Noblebright-Fantasy-Boxed-ebook/dp/B01K3534QI