Another tangle with a Prussian necromancer

My leaves are turning to the vibrant colors of fall, and they are beautiful. Until they fall in my yard, and I realize that it is a never ending battle to get them raked. So many trees line my yard. So many leaves. So many.

Storms of Lazarus by Karen Kincy

I have a definite love-hate relationship with this series. The first book was an introductory promotion on Amazon and the second was on sale for 99 cents. I really do not forsee me ever paying the full price for these stories, nor getting paperback copies for my shelf. With that being said, I would recommend them to people who match the writing style and enjoy the dieselpunk genre.

LOVE: 1.) The use of mechanized suits to amp up the battle scenes. My husband is a huge Armored Core fan and this gives me a feel of being a little part of his geekdom without actually having to learn the overly complicated button scheme as a part-time gamer. 2.) The actual writing. The story moves at the right pace, I don't find continuity errors, and the plot is interesting. There is a clear continuation from the first novel without reloading the reader with information. 3.) The characters--Ardis and Wendel are compelling characters because they are dynamic in their emotions. They are not static personalities, they have depth and flavor to their ups-and-downs.

HATE: 1.) Alternative history that uses (and skews) historical figures and facts outside their context. This is clearly fogging the history of WWI, not a fan. Why is everyone suddenly obsessed with Tesla? Sad he couldn't get this recognition in his life. 2.) Overdoing sex scenes and being overly descriptive with the language while not being transparent. If you are going to go there, go all there, not allude at some points and be blatant at others. If your publisher is limiting you on the language, then maybe you should just cut the scene.

I bought this novel on sale during a promotion, so I had both book 1 and 2 without having read the first one (always a dangerous gamble, and one I feel did not pan out for me this roll of the dice). Since I owned it, I was reading it. No book sits on my shelf (Kindle or real) without being read just because I didn't like the first one. I will not be moving forward with the series, however. I am at least happy Storms of Lazarus had an ending point that won't drive me crazy. 

I realize that not every book trend is going to be for me, which also means that they will be for some other reader out there. To those readers, I recommend this novel based on its writing merits. I would even take a guess that the third novel will be successful as well.