Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind
Month: May 2025
Book Review: Steamborn
Amazon Cover
Steamborn (Steamborn #1) by Eric R. Asher
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
A supernatural swarm. A treacherous scheme. A tinker’s apprentice may be the village’s only hope…
Jacob has yet to meet a gadget he couldn’t fix or an adventure he could resist. With trade routes to his remote Lowlands town cut off, Jacob must exchange his boyhood adventures for petty theft. After all, his wages at the tinker shop aren’t enough to pay for his father’s medicine.
But it soon becomes clear why few merchants brave the nearby roads as a plague of terrifying creatures descends upon the town. With the Lowlands under siege, Jacob and his friend have no choice but to run for their lives. When their escape uncovers a terrible secret, Jacob learns there are those who’ll stop at nothing to make sure the teen takes the scandal to his grave…
Steamborn is an inventive YA fantasy novel with a heavy dash of steampunk. If you like dystopian settings, killer insects, and resourceful characters, then you’ll love Eric Asher’s gear-turning tale.
MY REVIEW
The junction where Battleship Troopers meets Weird West is where Steamborn lives. This post-apocalyptic steampunk mash-up is hip deep in insect monsters. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this is occurring on Earth – but planetary location doesn’t matter as much as the deeply rich, layered world of steampunk science, political decisions driven by civil war and elitism facing off against the can-do survival of the west, and the young-adult focus on a 15-year old boy with his support system of adults and best friend.
While technically a YA because of the age of the main character, it is YA in the way Ender’s Game is YA – which is to say the genre – in this case Weird West / science fiction / steampunk – matters a heck of a lot more than the age of the protagonist. If you love bug battles OR steampunk OR layered worldbuilding, this is the book for you.
(Note: very male-focused with all the female-presenting characters in traditional roles. I think I remember one of the Knights being female, but be prepared for the women to be caregivers, nurses, and teachers and the men to be the fighters, political leaders, and craftsmen. Loss of a star for lacks of female agency – otherwise a 5-star manuscript.)
Writing Exercise: Story got Sad
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I know last month we talked about B is for Bleed. This week could be entitled T is for Tears. Explore the emotion of grief / loss. It doesn’t have to be loss of life; there are many things devastating to lose.
WRITING EXERCISE: Create a scene where “the story got sad all by itself.” You know that story you told yourself once that went somewhere you never expected. Five hundred words or less. Good luck!
My attempt: Last month I mentioned the Ymir’s Songs duology.