The Resurrectionist of Caligo
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
With a murderer on the loose, it’s up to an enlightened bodysnatcher and a rebellious princess to save the city, in this wonderfully inventive Victorian-tinged fantasy noir.
“Man of Science” Roger Weathersby scrapes out a risky living digging up corpses for medical schools. When he’s framed for the murder of one of his cadavers, he’s forced to trust in the superstitions he’s always rejected: his former friend, princess Sibylla, offers to commute Roger’s execution in a blood magic ritual which will bind him to her forever. With little choice, he finds himself indentured to Sibylla and propelled into an investigation. There’s a murderer loose in the city of Caligo, and the duo must navigate science and sorcery, palace intrigue and dank boneyards to catch the butcher before the killings tear their whole country apart.
File Under: Fantasy [ Straybound | Royal Magic | A Good Hanging | Secret Sister ]
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tremboli and Zaloga's cumbersome quasi-Victorian debut has the bones of an intriguing fantasy, but is bogged down by excessive worldbuilding minutia. Myrcnia's royal family rules by divine right, tied to their magical blood, but science is beginning to challenge magic's supremacy. Resurrectionist (which is to say, corpse robber), aspiring physician, and ex-convict Roger Weathersby suspects a connection between peculiar manifestations in recent corpses and the notorious Greyanchor Strangler, who's been terrorizing Caligo, the capital of Myrcnia. Roger and Divine Maiden Sibylla, the returned-from-exile granddaughter of the reigning queen, shared a childhood romance but are only in occasional communication via Roger's half-brother, Sibylla's warden, Capt. Harrod Starkley. Nonetheless, the story supposedly pivots on their connection. Roger's odd friendship with an impoverished nine-year-old girl somewhat redeems his generally unappealing character, but there's little insight into what draws Sibylla to him and vice versa. Readers who persevere through the extensive details of the unpleasantries and challenges of Victorian-era life will eventually be rewarded by the development of political intrigues that enliven the last section of the book. This is far from the top echelons of steampunk, but its unusual concepts (fungus magic, blood magic) will be of interest to genre aficionados.
