Lee’s August Book Review
Nerves of Steel by Anna van Steenbergen
Warning! This review contains SPOILERS.
Back Cover Synopsis:
"There are sins only the gods can forgive, much like only fate can properly settle some scores."
Some boundaries of science must never be crossed. The Industrial Revolution is not only the development of new extraordinary technologies, it is also a temptation to open forbidden doors. The key to eternal life and the secret of the human soul may conquer the world of science or... lead to unimaginable tragedy. When an experiment by two young scientists goes wrong, love, friendship, and humanity are put to the toughest of tests.
A gripping story about the path to redemption and the price of genius, set in the reality of 19th-century Japan after the fall of the Shogunate.
The first volume of the "The Everbeating Chronicles" series, a uchronic vision of the world after the Industrial Revolution, with a solid dose of retro science fiction.
Lee’s Review: My first Steam Punk novel was full of excitement, humor, and big moral questions being asked. However, the explicitness of some scenes was too much for my enjoyment.
What I liked: (Some spoilers below:)
By far, the best aspect of this novel was the prickly relationship between the main character, Sanda, and the police inspector Fujita. Sanda and Fujita view each other as antagonists at the start, and the back-and-forth dialogue between them is biting and witty. Excellent. I also liked how Fujita went from antagonist to begrudging friend to gruff mentor.
The world-building of a steampunk Tokyo is fantastic. I’m not very versed in the steampunk world, but what I saw in this novel was so imaginative and detailed. The cover and the drawings were absolutely beautiful. I also really appreciated the footnotes at the bottom explaining terms.
I appreciated Sanda’s moral dilemma about his part in “saving” Ash’s lover Aoi with the Everbeating Heart. He really felt conflicted about his part in “resurrecting” her and I appreciated that nuance.
I was really getting into the murder mystery storyline and loved the big action finale of part 1. Man that was intense!
Finally, the editing of the novel was very well done. I spotted maybe one error in the entire book, and it was just a minor one. Very professionally done!
What I didn’t like: [Major Spoilers below!]
Honestly, I don’t think I was the right person to review this book. I told my bestie Nikki I wasn’t interested in explicit sex, and she read up to the end of Part 1 before she sent it to me. And then I read it, and then I got to Part 2. Oh boy.
Sanda has an affair with a married woman, and the two sex scenes are explicit, to the point I was taken out of the story. I know some people love that type of stuff, but, honestly, it was triggering to me.
Later on, Sanda agrees to “stay close” (seduce) a representative of a foreign country, Van Wijk, although Sanda says outright in one scene that he is “as straight as they get.” They get into the bedroom and Sanda, after “playing along” earlier (though the whole time we understand he’s clearly not interested), finally stops giving in to Van Wijk’s advances. This leads to a very uncomfortable (to me, at least) scene where Van Wijk tries to make love to Sanda, and won’t take no for an answer, while Sanda is trying his hardest to convince Van Wijk to stop. Again, just…not my thing at all. Sanda’s not exactly innocent because he was deliberately stringing Van Wijk along, but still, in the moment, Sanda said no, and Van Wijk didn’t respect that. The whole scene was too much for me.
It was my first book for my first review, and I encountered the one thing I did not want to review in the books. Next time, I’ll be sure to prescreen the content before getting into the story.
Also, the moral questions set up in Part 1 weren’t really followed through in Part 2. I would have enjoyed a part 2 that explored more deeply the ethical dilemmas that Sanda had to work through in part 2.
A Favorite Quote: Fujita to Sanda: “One day you’ll understand that living with your own conscience is a hundredfold worse than the death you fear.”
Content “Movie” Rating: R: language and violence, two sexually explicit scenes, two attempted rape scenes (one very quick, another long and drawn out); early scene in a brothel (but not explicit).
Overall Recommendation: If you’re an adult who is really into the Steampunk genre and not bothered by sexual content, you would probably love this book. I also recommend you read the Amazon and Goodreads reviews of this book, I know I’m in the minority here; all the other reviews are uniformly positive. Unfortunately, for me personally, I cannot completely recommend Nerves of Steel due to the sex scenes, but I do love the world, the main character Sanda and his dealing with the consequences of his actions, and his relationship with Fujita. It was definitely an eye-opening first book to review for Besties Review Stuff.
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Disclaimer: *Our reviews are solely our opinions and not swayed by any outside factors. The reviews are for fun and not meant to be taken as a professional book endorsement, review, or advice.