A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. The characters revolve through a complex pattern of marriages of passion and convenience, sometimes across and sometimes within genders and cultures, punctuated by jealousy and interesting questions about trust.Īlthough this sequel doesn’t break new ground, it will appeal strongly to fans of the first book.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing. Perhaps more interesting than the plot are the relationships. Pulley’s witty writing and enthusiastically deployed steampunk motifs-clockwork, owls, a mechanical pet, Tesla-inspired electrical drama-enliven a plot that drags in the middle before rushing toward its explosive end. But if Mori knows what’s coming and what steps they can take to change the future, why doesn’t he just tell them what to do? The answer is half satisfying (because, as in any complicated relationship, communication isn’t always easy because the characters have wills of their own and might not obey) and half irritating (because if he did, there wouldn’t be much of a story). At least, that’s what Mori’s doing the others are rushing blindly down paths he’s laid out for them, which may or may not get them where he wants them to go. (Readers new to the series should put this book down and start with Watchmaker.) This time Pulley sets the action principally in Japan, where Mori Thaniel Steepleton, a British translator and diplomat Grace Carrow Matsumoto, a physicist and Takiko Pepperharrow, a Kabuki actress and baroness, are working together to foil a samurai’s power grab and turn away a Russian invasion. Readers of the first book already know the big reveal: that Keita Mori-the eponymous London watchmaker-has an unusual memory that works both backward and forward. More steampunk adventures of a samurai prognosticator, his clockwork octopus, and his human lovers.įive years after her charming debut novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (2015), Pulley brings back the main characters for another scramble through the dangers and consequences of clairvoyance.

The lost future of pepperharrow