
Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl by David Barnett
As one might perhaps be able to tell from the title, Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl (2013), by David Barnett, is a paean to the pulp adventure novels of yore a la Frank Reade and His New Steam Man. This sort of thing can be a bit tricky to pull off, as it is a fine line between keeping the spirit of the source material in terms of characters, dialogue, and plotting and crossing over that line into the trite and silly. For the most part, Barnett pulls it off. Enough so that I’d be interested in picking up the clearly planned sequel.
Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl opens with a wonderfully chilling scene, as poor Annie Crook, a young shopgirl and as-need... Read More