Title: Everything’s Got Soul by Brian Thomas
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟
Culture: English
Themes: Fall from grace, steampunk, slave trade, maritime

Steampunk adventure meets maritime battle

This was a fast-paced steampunk novella that had so much potential. I liked the premise of the story, that it had a black girl as the strong female lead, and that it interweaved historical fiction from 1850’s London with steampunk. Unfortunately, the character development felt flat for me and left me looking for more. I think the author should have enlisted a authenticity reviewer for development of the black character – Dido. Dido needed more than stereotypical black archetypes that minimized her role in the story.

This is the first book I have read where artificial intelligent (AI) was used to create the story. I was a little thrown off by that as I believe it takes away from true creative writing. Overall, I thought the story was ok, wished it had been longer as I didn't feel completely satisfied with how the story ended.