I started reading Stephen Hunt’s The Court of the Air many years ago. I was given a proof copy while working at another bookstore. Unfortunately I left that store while halfway through and accidently left it in the lunch room. It took me ages to get around to getting a new copy, and now I have. I’ve also got the third novel, but not having the second I’m not sure how long it’s going to take me to get through them now!

The thing I like about Mister Hunt’s novel is the world he’s created. He’s firmly grasped steampunk and run with it. That’s not such a common thing in fantasy, and I’m always a little stumped as to why there’s not enough of it. Surely there’s a market for it. One search on the internet shows a dedicated fanbase. Admittedly, many are obviously sunk into anime and manga for their fix, but surely Mister Hunt’s world feels a lot more well developed. At least, I’ve always preferred a good novel.

My wife, a big manga and anima fan, would no doubt disagree.

The tone of Mister Hunt’s novel is very light, almost superbly light-fingered, and his descriptions of his steam robots and general world mechanics is noteworthy. He’s got a fine ability to present difficult ideas in very simple ways. It’s something I’m mightily jealous of as I struggle to put across my opinion of this book.

Plotwise, it has enough twists and turns to keep you going and more than enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat. There’s also a wonderful little animation I’ve tacked on lower down in this review, and I think it should herald something of an animated movie. It would make a wonderful movie, I think. It’s just written for it.

His characters were interesting, and in many ways they buck the trend of fantasy by pretty much ignoring how they should act. Male and female lead characters, for example, should bicker, but feel an instant attraction. Heroes should be friendly to their enemies, and mentors should be honorable. Mister Hunt doesn’t think so, and so begins what is no doubt an incredible series if the others are falling as well as this one. And I think they will.

I was especially fond of Oliver’s highly adaptive weaponry in this novel. They were intriguing elements to the plot, with great room for future expansions on the theme. I loved the general weapons of the world, to tell the truth. The descriptions of the guns made me smile at the very steampunksihness of it, and I can see overlarge and unwieldy scopes on rifles that just beggar disbelief.

To be honest, I’ve never read a good steampunk novel before. I had begun to think all steampunk was good for was some rather wonderful pc mods.

Thanks to Stephen Hunt, though, I have high hopes for this slowly growing genre.