Starfall - Jamie Sedgwick

   2018; 279 pages.  Book 5 (out of 5) in the “Aboard the Great Iron Horse” series; Book 8 (out of 8) in the “Age of Steam” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Steampunk Fantasy; Teen & Young Adult Steampunk.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Steampunk Armageddon is approaching!  The forces of Evil, aka the “Clockwork Legion”, have amassed an army of incredible size and are advancing steadily on the few remaining human-controlled cities.

 

    For the moment, their defenses hold strong, although even that is disheartening.  The Clockwork Legion is being reinforced daily by hordes of ghouls and other undead creatures, and all the humans can do is watch from high atop the ramparts of their cities' walls and wonder if any friendly armies are on their way to help break the siege.

 

    Meanwhile, Socrates and his band of heroes – Micah, Thane, Morgane, River, Kale, Tinker, and Breeze – are scattered throughout the lands, and word has it that Socrates’ steam-powered locomotive, The Iron Horse, is wrecked beyond repair.

 

    It’s just a matter of time before the Clockwork Legion has the overwhelming numbers to successfully scale the walls and slaughter all the humans.

 

    And turn them into – guess what – more ghouls!

 

What’s To Like...

    Starfall is the final installment in Jamie Sedgwick’s Age of Steam series, which is a combination of his Aboard The Iron Horse and Tinkerer’s Daughter series.  Its primary aim appears to be to bring the storylines of the various main characters (is that an oxymoron?) to conclusion, and in that regard, it succeeds admirably.

 

    There are scene-shifts aplenty, since our band of heroes are spread out far and wide.  I didn’t find this confusing, although I think it definitely helps if you read these stories in proper order.  I was impressed with the way the fate of my favorite protagonist, a mechanical ape named Socrates, was resolved.

 

    There’s lots of fighting throughout the tale, both on land and in the air.  Our heroes are on the move, and so are the myriad hordes of bad guys; so it is not surprising that Starfall contains plenty of fighting .  But there is also room for several budding romances, the biggest one of which involves the warrior Kale’s impending marriage to Queen Aileen.

 

    Those who like dragons in their fantasy stories will not be disappointed.  I also liked Socrates’ encounters with the inhabitants of Ironhold.  I intend to stay away from the addictive drug kavi-oil, but I’d love to take a ride on one of the steamscout cars.

 

    Everything builds to a climactic mega-battle between Good and Evil.  The battle sways to and fro several times as various plot twists impact its outcome.  Things close with a heartwarming Epilogue which details the futures of several main characters as well as the fate of the “starfallen” world at large.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 135 ratings and 20 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.51/5 based on 59 ratings and 3 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Balusters (n., pl.) : short pillars or columns, typically decorative in design, in a series supporting a rail or coping.  (Google-Image it.)

 

Excerpts...

    The dragon came lurching towards him.

    Micah brandished the knife in front of him, ready to strike.  The dragon, somehow sensing his distress, lowered its head.  Micah stared at it, uncertain what to do.  Cautiously, the creature stretched its neck out and sniffed his hand.

    “Micah,” Morgane said in a whisper.  “I think it likes you.”

    As if in response, the dragon nudged him, touching the top of its snout to his hand.  Micah shook his head in disbelief.  At Morgane’s urging, he reached out to stroke the dragon’s chin.  The beast closed its eyes and a loud, rhythmic purring sound rumbled out of its chest.  (loc. 1675)

 

    Suddenly, the ghoul’s eyes went wide.  The creature shot a horrified look down at its feet, and then released its grip on the knife.  It turned and ran.  Confused, Tinker glanced down and saw Breeze’s open hand.

    “What happened?  Did you do something?”

    “I’m not sure.  Ghouls don’t work quite the way humans do.”

    Tinker’s eyebrows shot up.  You used your healing skills on him?”

    “Not healing,” she grinned.  “Un-healing.”

    “Oh . . . I didn’t know you could do that.”

    “It was worth a try.”  (loc. 2723)

 

Kindle Details…

    Starfall is priced at $3.99 at Amazon right now.  The other seven books in the “Age of Steam” series range in price from free (Book 1), to $0.99, (Books 2-6), to $2.99 (Book 7).  J.G. Sedgwick, aka Jamie Sedgwick, aka Jeramy Gates, has two other fantasy series for your Kindle, the “Shadow Born” trilogy and the “Hank Mossberg, Private Ogre” series.  The e-books in those are all in the free-to-$3.99 price range.

 

“What would I learn from watching people who are perfect?”  (loc. 230)

    I didn’t notice any profanity in Starfall, which makes sense since it’s marketed as being a “Teen & Young Adult” story.  When the occasion calls for cussing, the author uses the phrase “what the devils”, which I thought was quite clever.

 

    The page-numbering system was wonky on both of my Kindles; whatever page a chapter started on remained that number until the next chapter started.  I suspect this was a conversion glitch, and since the “percent read” worked fine, so this is merely nit to pick.

 

    The biggest issue is the usual one: an abundance of typos.  The main infraction involved the use of em-dashes.  It looks like the author used hyphens for this function, and the conversion program seemingly went haywire.  Besides this there were a few of the standard miscues, such as compliment/complement, leeching/leaching, impassible/impassable, and one instance of a misnamed Shayla/Morgane.

 

    These gaffes didn’t prevent me from enjoying the story.  I suspect it’s no easy task to write the final book in a series, gather all the major characters, tie up all the plotlines, allow Good to vanquish Evil, at least for the short term, and still be interesting and fast-paced enough to keep the reader turning the pages.  Starfall did that for me.

 

    8 Stars.  I assume this is a completed series.  But the Socrates plotline does leave the door open for further adventures.  Even though a “Book 9” has not arose betwixt the publication of Starfall (2018) and the present (2024), I personally hope Jamie Sedgwick is working on one.