21/01/2014

Secret Cargo Review


This is the first thing I have seen from Charles Christian since ‘This is the Quickest Way Down’ and I was instant taken back to the quirky style I remembered. This is slightly outside of his Urban Fantasy playpen; much more Steampunk and very good at it too. The technology concepts are quite delightful.

Having said that I did think that both the main characters turning out to be unlikely closet ancient (20th Century) history geeks stretched the plot a little and did in some ways seem a vehicle to mention a lot of books and films. I didn’t quite get what that was to do with the story, and it did distract a little from the main plot. Which was a shame, as I enjoyed the simplicity of the setting and the retelling of a classic abandonment story.

On the flip side I loved the idea of an AI system that had a primary interface about as helpful as a DOS session
Of course, I can’t tell you much else about it without going into spoilers. It is, after all, a short story. I’ll settle for saying that its very much up to the standard one would expect from Charles.

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