Heart of Iron

By: Ekaterina Sedia

Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer

In a Russia where the Decembrists’ rebellion was successful and the Trans-Siberian railroad was completed before 1854, Sasha Trubetskaya wants nothing more than to have a decent debut ball in St. Petersburg. But her aunt’s feud with the emperor lands Sasha at university, where she becomes one of its first female students - an experiment, she suspects, designed more to prove female unsuitability for such pursuits than offer them education. The pressure intensifies when Sasha’s only friends - Chinese students - start disappearing, and she begins to realize that her new British companion, Jack, has bigger secrets than she can imagine! Sasha and Jack find themselves trying to stop a war brewing between the three empires. The only place they can turn to for help is the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, newly founded by the Taiping rebels. Pursued by the terrifying Dame Florence Nightingale of the British Secret Service, Sasha and Jack escape across Siberia via train to China. Sasha discovers that Jack is not quite the person she thought he was...but then again, neither is she.

©2011 Ekaterina Sedia (P)2014 Audible Inc.

12hrs I'll Never Get Back

1st, to the reader- Well done.

This writer has real talent in her expressive, visual style. There are some very good passages. BUT CAN WE MOVE IT ALONG PLEASE? I like a long story that allows the characters to fully develop and add motivation and intrigue to the story. But this?

For example: Blahblahblah, blahblahblah, blahblahblahblahblah. That's 11 blahs. Would it have been adequate for me to just write 3? That's this story.

It gets so bad that at the apex of where story should be developing real speed and tension, and the characters showing serious animosity in their conflict; instead, Pollyanna (I think that was the main character's name... should've been...) Pollyanna and the main adversary throw juvenile verbal darts at each other. They suck all the excitement out of what could have been a good scene with endless blahblah and irrelevant details.

Last, I have no clue where the title came from. It seems to be disconnected from the content of the story.

slow and unrealistic

while I liked the steampunk novel by this author, this revisionist history was disappointing. the plot was slow in the middle. however, the worst for me was not only were the characters unrealistic in motives, actions, dialogue but so was the plot. it was almost ridiculous in parts and painful in others. the actual writing is good.