Heart of Steel
Meljean Brook
Berkley, July 3 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425251041

When Archimedes Fox found a Leonardo da Vinci sketch, he ordered Yasmeen, captain of the Lady Corsair to give him a ride on her airship to the Ivory Coast; instead she tossed him off of her flying vessel into the zombie cesspool otherwise known as Venice (see The Iron Duke). As he struggles to survive as a human in zombie canals, he also plots to regain his stolen sketch from the mercenary who dropped him from the sky.

When Fox catches up to Yasmeen, he tries to win her love. She accepts him as her lover but no more than that as her heart of Steel regrets emotional attachments. However she loses the Lady Corsair and the sketch while he gets them entangled in civil war in Morocco as adversaries want them dead.

The latest Iron Seas Victorian steampunk fantasy is a fabulous thriller starring two adventurous rogues who seem to get into one perilous escapade after another. The key to this exhilarating trip inside the fully developed and expanding Brooks mythos is the romance for the most part takes a backseat to the dashing duo’s daring deeds (and misdeeds). Fans will enjoy Archimedes melting that Heart of Steel (though with justification neither trusts the other) during the small respites between precarious capers. Additionally there is a fun novella Tethered, starring Fox and Yasmeen.

Harriet Klausner