The Mapmaker’s Apprentice

The first book was interesting, if a bit slow and anticlimactic. This second book is just absurd. Glass and his crew are supposed to be fantastic at infiltrating criminal gangs but I truly think they’re more like five year olds. The plot is silly, they’re unprofessional and make ridiculous mistakes. There might as well be nothing new in this book about India’s magic because what we do learn is minuscule and really gives any further understanding of the magic in this world. I’m so frustrated I read this, I didn’t realize until I’d already read a free copy of the first book that this is an author who writes series with a slew of books in them in which hardly anything happens, just to eek out as much money as they can.

If you’ve read the first and know like everyone knows, that Steele and Glass are going to get together, know that by the end of book two, it’s still just angsty crap, with her liking him but denying to herself that he’s actually looking at her like he’s attracted to her. This book left me feeling annoyed, frustrated and had.

I liked C.J. Walker’s story, of Victorian-era London with its rigidly stratified society and its inherited magic apparently attached to individual items (i.e.: clocks, maps, medical skills and medicine, and more).

On the other hand, I wasn’t nearly as fond of the characters. India Steele, C.J. Archer’s protagonist, is enamored of her employer, Matthew Glass but refuses to do anything to encourage his affections, despite being quite willing to do all sorts of other things normally outside the role of a proper well-bred Victorian woman. Glass is equally unwilling to admit his feelings for her, because of a significant risk of his dying if the magical pocket watch he carries (and that keeps his heart beating) should stop. The pocket watch is apparently a sort of magical pacemaker which he was given by a magician who assisted at his emergency surgery after his being shot in the chest some years before. It has been steadily running down, and only the watchmaking magician who created it can replace or repair it.

Glass is accompanied by his “posse” of friends and family from America, each of whom was apparently purchased from Clichs-R-Us. There’s the frightening-looking one-eyed giant with a heart of gold, called (of course) Cyclops– apparently he has no other name, making me wonder about his parents. There’s the cousin, a Calamity Jane sort who smokes a pipe, drinks cheap whiskey, gambles, and wants to solve everything with her trusty Colt. And there’s the comic, somewhat cowardly sidekick, who will do anything for Glass and secretly is in love with the cousin– a shared non-relationship apparently included to add a touch of comic spice.

The primary plot of the first two novels in this series has to do with the search for this unknown watchmaker, who calls himself Chronos. The second plot, around which this book revolves, is about the search for a young magician-mapmaker (the apprentice of the title), the illegitimate son of Scotland Yard’s Commissioner of Police.

In both cases, it’s an interesting plot in an interesting world. And in both cases, the stories are flawed by the writing, and particularly the characterization.
By the end of the second novel, none of these characters has grown, nor had an insight into his or her own motivations. Needless to say, neither have we.

Better writing could have made this a really good series… as it is, I’m stopping at two. I started the second because I had enjoyed the story. I won’t start the third because of the writing.

I picked up the second in the series simply because it was a bit of light pulp fun. The Mapmaker’s Apprentice it’s actually an improvement on the first novel. Steele appears to be over her concerns that her employer and the family she lives with are ready to slit het throat every other page. Instead, Archer builds on the themes of magic and the guilds of London, as our duo and their friends try to find the man to save Glass. The interplay between Glass and Steele is often witty and sly while his family’s interferences are amusing. The threats against people with magic become more real and intense in this novel as well. Altogether more pulled together and enjoyable than the first and left me looking forward to the third.

Second installment in this series is just as good as the first. At this point I will read anything this author writes because the books just suck you right into the story and are very well-written. The two main characters romance vibe isnt overdone, and you will find yourself rooting for them. I like the blend of magic and Victorian times, and the views on women from back then are well described but an undertone throughout the book and not pushed at you. I think her main storyline has a lot of promise to keep us entertained for a good while without getting tired of it at all. Fun, hidden magic, mystery, great characters – I highly recommend this series!

I’m completely taken with this series so far. I can’t even put into words how much I love these characters. All of them, but Willie is without a doubt my favorite. Anyone who knows me and reads this story will know exactly why.
I did hope to see a little more development with Indie in this book, and this book didn’t pack quite as big as a punch as its predecessor. Knowing there are two more books to read, as well as, at least a fifth in the making, I do understand the steady pace of the overall story development. Book two certainly wasn’t boring. Not in the least. There is still plenty of mystery and plenty of story to be told. A little more magic, a little more character growth, a little more romance in the making.
In my opinion, all the series is lacking thus far is TNT. I’m hoping Willie will be the one to solve this issue.
I’m going to continue to read. I downloaded book three this morning.

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