Fornax Rising - Book Review

Fornax Rising by Nicole Ross

What is it about:
Daughter of the shipping magnate John Fornax, Cassandra has had a harder life than most young people of her social standing. After a tragic childhood accident leaves her an amputee, Cassandra’s uncle and engineer, Philip Fornax, builds her a revolutionary prosthesis which replaces the hand she lost. As Cassandra begins to make her own decisions about her future, she finds that her domineering father intends her to live a radically different life. She emancipates herself loudly and publicly at her eighteenth birthday party, scandalising her parents and putting paid to her father's scheme. When Philip receives an offer to work in an airship factory in Germany, Cassandra follows him so she can put some distance between herself and her father. As the threat of war looms over Europe, the German army has the talented engineer's most advanced creation firmly in its sights. Cassandra had hoped to leave her troubles behind when she left Britain, but finds they have just begun.

What did I think of it:
Although overall a nice read this story did disappoint me a bit. The lead character gets a revolutionary (steampunkish) prosthesis very early on in the book, which lead to certain expectations as to how the story would progress, but only near the end of the story are these expectations fulfilled and then things are going over the top fast. It's really a shame in my opinion when a story hook isn't used to it's full potential, and in this case I even got the feeling the story could also have been written without Cassie having her prosthesis.

Aside from this plot flaw the story is quite pleasant and interesting and I liked the lead character Cassie. Among the other characters there are some really intriguing characters, while others make you hate them on sight. Ross' writing is decent, although the dialogues miss liveliness.

There's a sequel in the make and I might give the sequel a try, if only to see if Ross will make use of the potential of the world she created in Fornax Rising.

Why should you read it:
It's a pleasant historical Young Adult story with a little bit of Steampunk added to it.