Winston & Baum and the Secret of the Stone Circle: The Winston & Baum Steampunk Adventure Series #1

by Seth Tucker

Winston & Baum are two men who are no strangers to danger and the mythical creatures that plague the English countryside. Now Queen Victoria, a cyborg of brass and bolts, has charged them with an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1478302933
• ISBN13: 9781478302933
• Release Date: August 2012
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An interesting premise brutalized by awful writing, a bland story, and flat characters

"Winston & Baum and the Secret of the Stone Circle" has an interesting premise. Admittedly, this is the first steampunk book I have ever read, but I found it entertaining to see our world merged with magic and magical creatures as well as a smorgasbord of what I can only assume are steampunk staples like steam-powered cars, airships, carriages, and other gadgets. The cast is also intriguing: a pair of “Exterminators of the Strange and Weird.” The brawn of the duo is a crass American stereotype while the brains is an English inventor. But premise can only carry a story so far, and problems begin on the first few pages. Simply put, the writing is bad. Technical errors litter the pages including missing words and letters, extra words and letters, misplaced spaces, incorrect capitalization, and misplaced or missing punctuation. Sentences are often confusing, repetitive, and more than a few caused me to stop to decipher them. These errors are not uncommon in lesser-known books, and I usually forgive them, but the sheer volume here makes them worth noting. The plot is a generic fetch quest with a few obstacles along the way. The actual objective is known from the onset, but specifics are provided to our protagonists over the course of the story, meaning their ability to plan and prepare is nil. Without a plan to be stymied and thwarted, the obstacles thrown in their way feel less like problems to overcome and more like random events tossed in to make the plot more exciting. This is not helped by the fact that the action feels very safe, is clinical and devoid of emotion, and consequently comes across as sterile. Problems pop up from time to time but are solved almost immediately, bringing into question why they were introduced in the first place. The characters, an American and an Englishman, have plenty of differences to make this duo fun and quirky in their interactions. This holds true for the first portion of the book, but the boorish nature of Baum and the more refined attitude of Winston quickly homogenize into two characters who act very similarly. They are also mostly static throughout the book with no developmental arcs and little insight into who they are. The antagonist is not so much a single person but a parade of characters who enter the novel to threaten the protagonists only to be defeated easily and in short order. Because of this, there is no time to build trepidation or stakes, making the final conflict devoid of emotional impact. In conclusion, while the world and characters of this story have potential, the execution and writing squander it, so I cannot recommend this novel.