The Kingdom Beyond The Waves - Stephen Hunt
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers/Harper Voyager: London, 2008. I wanted to like this novel. Adventure, intrigue, and (best of all) steampunk! We follow adventurer Amelia Harsh, an Indiana Jones-type, but with magically-enhanced muscular arms, as she seeks to learn the location of Camlantis, the legendary lost possibly-floating-in-the-sky city of ancient mythology. Eventually she unites with a ragtag group of warrior women and freed convicts, taking a u-boat (submarine) deep into the heart of a deadly jungle in search of clues. We also follow Cornelius Fortune, an eccentric (or possibly outright-insane) aristocrat who is secretly also a vigilante named 'Furnace-breath Nick' as he seeks to find the reason behind a series of grave-robberies targeting ancient steammen (sentient robots). Eventually the two story-lines will link, but not before we meet a vast array of characters, some of whom are introduced as if important, only to vanish from the story immediately afte...