That said, it's fairly well written, is clear in description and there's obviously an enquiring mind at work. only to find that there was much more of the slow bits and less of the characters and conversation and flights of fancy. I loved so much about the first book, but felt it was a bit slow in places so would try the new one. And the book is at least 6 hours too long. Also pitt the younger and robespierre being powerful magicians. Some alternate histories feel witty and fun, this felt turgid and fairly pointless. i was continually on the point off giving up on it as too dull but tottered on to the end. This is a historical period I know well and it felt as though the author was determined to show every moment of their research. Loved their first book - this one not so much I might still check out the other author's book, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Keep, because the description definitely sounds intriguing, but for now, I'm going to give this author a rest. I started out really interested and excited to get the next book, but at this point, I think I'm going to give the second book a pass. This was a very conversation-oriented book, and ultimately, it just didn't work for me. I kept plugging along, hoping it would become better, and there were definitely moments where I became very interested in the characters and what was going on, but for the most part, I had to really force myself to pay attention. But when I started listening, and it may have been the combination of the narrator and the story, but I had trouble keeping plugged in with endless discussions about politics, philosophy, and religion, The narrator also had this weird way of putting pauses in the middle of his sentences that ended up being more distracting than effective.

Thrown on top of that were vampires and magicians. The time period of the French Revolution, the issue of slavery in Britain as well as in the US and France, and well-known public figures of the time, like Robespierre all sounded great. It didn't really inspire any emotions in me, which is pretty unfortunate. It didn't make me mad, it didn't make me sad, it didn't make me glad. My biggest complaint is that it was boring. 2.5 stars I expected this to be so much better than it actually was.

A declaration of rights of magicians