Whitechapel Gods a review of a steampunk novel

We have all heard ad nauseum that you cannot judge a book by its cover. That is true, but you can still choose to read a book by its cover. Whitechapel Gods has a cover that most books would kill for, assuming of course that books could kill. It features a robotic man (complete with organs made of gears and fire leaping out of his chest) tipping his bowler hat while a machine like spider rests on his shoulders. If it was larger I would hang it on my wall.

Needless to say, I bought the book. Who could turn down such a wonderful cover like that? Not I. The back of the book boasts a story of an England taken over by two mechanical Gods, Grandfather Clock and Mama Engine - I know. I thought the names juvenile myself. Did I mention that the cover was amazing? So with humanity (at least in that part of England) in the grips of two machine Gods, someone has found a way to free the world (or really just that part of England) from their tyranny.

The book itself starts off rather rocky. It jumps immediately into the action which is a bit confusing. I understand it is supposed to be a writing device that makes you want to keep reading to find out what is happening. Personally, it made me want to close the book and look at the cover some more. (Seriously the cover is awesome.) It introduces multiple characters, but takes about 100 pages to give any of them any depth and that is only a handful of many, many characters. I thought for sure the whole thing was going to be a waste of my time, but thankfully everything started to come together about 200 pages into it and from that point on it was an enjoyable read.

While certainly not the best book I have ever read once you get over the bumpy beginning and confusion on what exaclty is going on the book certainly picks up. This was my first time reading anything "steampunk" and I am still unsure how I feel about the subgenre.

I'll give this one 3 out of 5 steam rifles.