The Kingdoms: Natasha Pulley

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Agatha, you have to do something about Kite. He can't just go around murdering children. I don't care what the reason is." I’ve read The Kingdoms six months ago, and I actually haven’t stopped thinking about it since. And yet, I still have no idea what to say about it. It’s one of those books that shattered my heart into pieces, but I’m staring at this mostly empty file & can’t string together two sentences to explain how. This is impossible. A vessel that is drifting with the current cannot be steered. It must be moving through the water before the rudder can have any effect. That's what steerage way means. A sailing in that situation would be all but helpless, and would probably try and anchor until the fog lifted and some wind arrived. Natasha Pulley's prose, her descriptions and the relationship between her characters makes the book really atmospheric. As if you were feeling the essence of the sea salt when the characters are close to it, or feel the drops when it rains in a chapter… God I already said this on my “The Watchmaker pf Filigree Street” review but the writing is wonderful. Joe has never left England, never even left London. He is a British slave, one of thousands throughout the French Empire. He has a job, a wife, a baby daughter.

I know, I know. I'll go and see him soon, but I'd like to see your heart rate come down first. Can you hear it?" amnesia storylines hurt, but this one felt like it was on a whole other level. groundbreaking honestly. the whole idea of feeling as though someone somewhere is calling for you, someone who knows you so intimately, almost touching their fingertips, and then it slips out of your grasp? B R U H. PART II of the book: This was good? At this point the protagonist, Joe, had finally been spurred into action, the mechanics of the world were being introduced, the mystery was tantalising and hadn't yet grown stale. I nearly gave it an extra star because of that section, but decided against it because of the awful time I had with nearly everything else. From the moment I started the sample, I couldn't stop reading. I was caught up in the suspense of the alternative-history plot (will the British be able to re-create a world in which they won the Battle of Trafalgar?) & in the central human mystery of who Joe is / who he is to Kite / whether Joe will be able to return to his daughter. You'll probably figure out the answers to the Joe questions long before Joe does, but it makes human sense that he doesn't get there till very late, and IMO the fact that he doesn't makes the uncertainty all the more poignant. Pulley comes to The Kingdoms fresh from the success of her three previous novels – the best known of these are the duology of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and its sequel The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, a pair of carefully-crafted novels about an aspiring composer-turned-government-clerk who finds his path entwined with that of a Japanese samurai lord with a propensity for watch-building. These novels are delicate and considerate in their construction, with timelines and characters dovetailing pleasingly to create stories about grief and loss and hope and the pain of knowing. Fortunately, The Kingdoms more than continues in this vein.

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An Oxford physicist named Grace Carrow happens to interfere unwittingly, causing Thaniel to be torn between two opposing loyalties. The novel turned out to be an entertaining and sweeping read. Its atmospheric narrative tends to take the reader on a mesmerizing journey through London of the Victorian era and Japan at the time of its crumbling civil war. Author Pulley has done a fantastic job of combining historical events with interesting, fancy flights. The original story and mind-blowing characters enabled the book to reach out to readers in huge numbers. Author Pulley’s wonderful style of writing and original story helped the book win the Betty Trask prize in 2016. Following the tremendous success of the book, Pulley began working on the second volume of the series and published it with much more success and popularity.

Dearest Joe, come home, if you remember. M.” says the postcard Joe Tournier receives in 1898; it has apparently been held at the sorting office for 93 years, so that it could be delivered to him on the date specified. The postcard has a picture of a lighthouse called Eilean Mor in the Outer Hebrides, but Joe doesn’t recognise it. He doesn’t even remember who he is supposed to be, since he lost his memory a while ago. Joe is told that he is a British slave in London, one of the many in the French empire. But he also gets flashes of a life he has supposedly never lived, in an England that’s not ruled by the French and where he can freely speak English.Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon. Macneal, Elizabeth; Hurley, Andrew; etal. (et al) (2021). The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights (hardcovered.). Pegasus Crime. pp.1–336. ISBN 978-1643137971. Given his confusion Joe is taken to a hospital and is diagnosed as having a form of epilepsy that includes both amnesia and paramnesia, a blurring of something imaginary and something real. The story starts with Joe arriving at a train station in late Victorian London, except it is called Londres, everyone is speaking French and the fact that Joe is speaking English is treated with suspicion.