Tim Akers

The Burn Cycle — (2009-2011) Publisher: Jacob Burn is a disgraced airship pilot, and a man augmented by strange implants designed to keep him alive in combat conditions. An exiled son of nobility, he now makes his own way in the criminal underworld of Veridon, the City of Cog. But soon Jacob finds himself caught in a conspiracy of sabotage and murder between the government and the church, a mystery that stretches back into the roots of the city of Veridon itself. Heart of Veridon is a steampunk fantasy thriller from a major new talent.

Heart of Veridon

When my daughter was young and starting to read, she told me she didn’t like chapter books because “the words put pictures in my head.” Likewise, Tim Akers put pictures in my head. Once in a great while, you get a book that visually plays out on the big screen in your head as you’re reading the words on the page.

Veridon is a city on the banks of a large river that feeds into a massive waterfall, in a continent that sounds like unexplored Africa. I’m sure everyone’s picture of Veridon will be just a little bit different because there are no long descriptive passages — just little bits and pieces: “she had a pretty chin and lips, but the smile she dressed them in didn’t make it to her eyes.” Or, “From the outside, the Church looked like a cancer of architecture.” People are described by a single feature or mannerism, without the descriptions being reduced to stereotypes. This brevity keeps the action moving and makes the reader create those images in their own mind.

Heart of Veridon is a conspiracy novel: One man against everyone; Double and triple crossing; Church against state; Old church against new; Strange outside forces in motion. Jacob, a failed pilot, is at the heart of it all. Exiled from his noble family, he lives between the criminal and upper-class worlds of his city. As the story begins, Jacob is given a special cog that everybody wants, and that many are willing to kill for. Jacob has to find the answers to a whole lot of tough questions and he's got to decide just how far he's willing to go. He is helped along the way by his trusty girlfriend Emily and her friend Wilson, an Anansi doctor... Or are Emily and Wilson really what they seem?

I don’t often say this about books, but Heart of Veridon would make a great movie. As long as the special effects — of which there would be many — were done right. It's one action-packed scene after another. There are some spectacular cog-driven machinery and characters. There are fights, shootings, lots of sneaking around, and of course daring escapes and rescues.

Heart of Veridon is the first book in a trilogy but, fortunately, doesn't end in a cliffhanger — it's a complete novel in and of itself. The reader can either decide to stop here and be fully satisfied with having read a well-done thriller or, like me, try to find something else to read while waiting for the next book to come out. The publisher, Solaris, has been sold, so I'm not sure what the status of the sequel is, but I do hope we get to see more of Jacob and Wilson somewhere down the road (or should I say river?).

You don’t have to be a fan of steampunk to love this book. It’s not a subgenre I’ve ever explored before, but this was a wonderful way to take the plunge. Highly recommended for any one who likes well-written, action-packed adventure. —Sarah W.