| The
Oversight is the name for a secret organisation whose
task it is to guard the borders between our world and the
unseen one and uphold the law. Until a few years earlier there
were many, but since a disaster sent many to their doom now
there are only five left, a unit known as a Hand. There are
those who wish the Oversight to number even less than that,
and it is to this end that a screaming girl is delivered to
the house of one of the members. Taken in she is soon finding
herself being treated better than she has even been before,
but there is a reason for her introduction: the destruction
of the Oversight.
This is a very enjoyable book packed full of ideas and hopefully
the start of a series. It starts off exciting and does not
let up until the last page. Between those two extremes lie
adventures indeed, and the sign of a powerful imagination
at work. There are no anti-heroes in here; everybody is either
a good sort you would like to meet or a most hissable villain.
Perhaps this does not sound like the best set of characters,
but they are just the sort that fit into a historical fantasy
like this. Set in the 1840s, this is what you might have gotten
if Dickens wanted to write a fantastical thriller peopled
by the denizens of folklore. Mirrors that act as portals,
lawyers who see themselves as witchfinders, a sinister lord,
a travelling show and a cooking pirate are among the delights
in this very readable book. The author has a great storyteller
style that makes pages turn like magic as the reader is entertained
by a series of wonderful adventures. Very highly recommended.
Oversight
[audio review]
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