The Wake of the Dragon

A Steampunk Adventure

By: Jaq D. Hawkins

Narrated by: Kevin Marchant

No sane airshipman will fly near a storm, but the cover of storm edge offers effective concealment for airship pirates who can strike quickly from above before anyone knows a ship is near. With the protection of Aide, the goddess of air travel, one airship defies the elements to seek fortune for the rag tag aerialists who make up the pirate crew.

The elements are the least of their problems when they find themselves saddled with an airsick clerk, a crewmember suspected of working for the East India Company and a love-sick farm girl whose headstrong misconceptions compel her to seek adventure where no decent woman would wander unescorted.

Battling businessmen, mechanoids, and villagers armed with torches and pitchforks, Captain Bonny must decide who to trust, and if the only rational course of action is one of apparent madness.

©2012 Denise Channing (P)2015 Denise Channing

Flammable helium!?!?

Said multiple times in the first hours. Basic science should be followed. Overall a fun fantasy story.

A Steampunk Business Venture

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in return for a review.

The Wake of the Dragon is a steampunk story set in 18th century England. The Dragon--the name of the Dirigible commanded by Captain Bonny, steals a cargo of opium from a business and sets off to do away with it and profit from it. The also take the night watchman who was to guard the cargo with them on their adventure. Much of the book is consumed with the business dealings of Zachary Wyatt, the entrepreneur whose opium was stolen.

The characterization is deep and rich, and was quite enjoyable. Each character had a different flavor, which the narrator picked up, and chose tones and voices which I felt were spot on for them.

The story is largely about crews of airship pirates, however there is very little fighting to be found in the pages. Mostly the book is about different moves and countermoves, who is a spy and who is not, throughout the tale.

If steampunk seems strange or offputting, never fear. This story is not so heavily steampunk that someone unfamiliar with the genre will be lost of out of place. On the contrary, any lover of historical fiction in the 18th or 19th centuries will likely find this work to their taste. Steampunk in this case is largely a veneer placed over old England.

DNF @ 20%..

I guess, since I loved the only 2 steampunk books I’ve ever read, I was going to like the third. This one is a DNF for me instead.

Here’s why: Mister Bale, the second mate, is always drunk, with a constant bottle of rum in his hand, or high on opium. The ship’s captain decides that’s a good idea and goes to his cabin and gets high on opium, too. Then he dreams of having sex with a goddess only to find out it’s the stowaway cabin boy, who happens to be the youngest daughter of the farmer where he stashed some crates of opium because it was too heavy for his flying ship.

I have no idea what age the “youngest daughter” is or how old the captain is. But mostly I have no desire to read about 2 stoned men captaining an airship like it doesn’t take any talent at all. Actually, I don’t care to read about the main characters be high, no matter what they do. And the title of the book, The Wake of the Dragon, that’s supposedly where you “go” when you use opium. That’s “where” Captain Bonny was when Anne snuck into his cabin and they had sex, and he believed it was all a dream.

The sex was only mentioned and there was no swearing. However, I can certainly see why there are only 22 reviews on Amazon, considering it’s from May 2012, no one really wants to read about stoned main characters, at least I don't.

As to the narrator: Kevin Marchant was very good. His voices were excellent and his emotions terrific. I would definitely listen to him again, if he were reading a decent book.