From the Orbit Books blog:

The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley

Mixing real history and historical figures with magics and conspiracies, this novel imagines the Edinburgh of 1827, populated by mad alchemists who treat Frankenstein as textbook rather than novel, and by a criminal underclass prepared to treat with the darkest of powers.

The plot follows the progress of an officer of the recently formed Edinburgh City Police as he follows a trail of undead hounds, emptied graves, brutal murders and mob violence into the deepest and darkest corners of Edinburgh’s underworld – both literal and magical – and back again to the highest reaches of elegant, intellectual Edinburgh society.

It’s nice to see Orbit Books sticking to a style reminiscent of Ruckley’s Godless World trilogy. Good branding strategy, you know? The real-life photographed dude works a lot better for a period piece like this, rather than a Secondary World Fantasy. That quote is way too cheesy, though.

So many similar novels set themselves in London, so it’ll be nice to see Ruckley step outside that city and into one of the Scottish cities he’s familiar with (granted, Edinburgh in 1827 likely wasn’t too different from London in 1827, but still….) I think Ruckley’s style will likely transfer well to a gritty Urban Fantasy and should (hopefully) allow him to tell a story with a quicker pace than his sometimes-glacial Fantasy novels. Definitely looking forward to it.

Discussion