Title: Osric Fingerbone and the Spring of Jacks
Author: Michael-Israel Jarvis
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 274
Rating: 3.5/5
Michael-Israel Jarvis – Osric Fingerbone and the Spring of Jacks
This is the fourth and most recent of Jarvis’s books that I’ve read, and while I don’t think it’s his best, it was still pretty good. It’s also the second book in the Osric Fingerbone series, and so if you haven’t read Osric Fingerbone and the Boy Murderer, I’d recommend starting with that. I preferred the first one anyway, but also this one continues on from where the first book left off and so you’d be mad to read it out of order.
What’s great about this book – and about Jarvis’ writing in general – is that the world-building is top-notch. The entire book is set in an alternate version of Edwardian London (called ‘Londun‘) and we have places like Brummagem, Norwych and Mancester. It’s our world, but it’s our world if magic and alchemy had powered the industrial revolution instead of science and technology. In that respect, it’s almost reminiscent of Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices books, except better.
My only complaint here is that I struggled to follow the plot at times, and I think part of that is because it’s been too long since I read the first book and the author almost assumes that you know the world as well as he does. The thing is that I feel as though it’s my own fault as a reader, although I would suggest that if you read and enjoy the first book, you should move straight on to the second. Still, it was fun!
Michael-Israel Jarvis
