Metal from Heaven

By: August Clarke

Narrated by: Vico Ortiz

“WHEN MY VIOLENCE SUBSIDES, WE WILL HAVE NOTHING, AND BE CHAMPIONS.”

Ichorite is progress. More durable and malleable than steel, ichorite is the lifeblood of a dawning industrial revolution. Yann I. Chauncey owns the sole means of manufacturing this valuable metal, but his workers are on strike. They demand Chauncey research the hallucinatory illness befalling them. Marney Honeycutt, a luster-touched child worker, stands proud at the picket line with her best friend and family. That’s when Chauncey sends in the guns.

Only Marney survives the massacre.

She vows bloody vengeance.

A decade later, Marney is the nation’s most notorious highwayman, and Chauncey’s daughter seeks an opportune marriage. Marney’s rage and the ghosts of her past will drive her to masquerade as an aristocrat, outmaneuver powerful suitors, and win the
heart of his daughter, so Marney can finally corner Chauncey and satisfy her need for revenge. But war ferments in the north, and deeper grudges are surfacing …

“A queer, bloody love letter to rebellion.”—Nino Cipri

©2024 August Clarke (P)2024 Recorded Books

A rare stunner

This, though niche, is a rare gift of a book. I’ve been looking for a year for something I like this much. I finally just relistened. Textured cinematic world building with great depth of unapologetically sapphic characters, like a protagonist of “great fiction” caliber with such vulnerability. There is something almost Faulknerisn about the diction of the writing. And an ending I truly couldn’t have foreseen. One part lesbian hunger games, one part dystopic revolutionary steam punk future-past, one part fraught love story. I keep recommending this book and waiting for someone to love it as much as I do.

I wanted to like it

You'd think a book about a lesbian orphan bandit whose birth defect gives them power over fantasy metal would be interesting, but this was so hard to get into. The first half feels like a prologue to a story that never seems to start. The only thing that kept me listening was the narrator; she did a really good job.

Great story but really curious about the narrator

It was such a bizarre experience to hear someone with a perfectly clear accent mispronounce so many basic English words. Like glove sounded like globe. There are dozens of instances of this and it took me out of the story a little bit. Idk it just seems to me that there should be a level of professionalism with that kind of thing which is a shame because they did such a great job otherwise.

The narration ruined it for me

The story was okay, but the author routinely used 50 words to say what could be said in 10, dragging the story out. The narration was terrible, with mispronunciation of words so frequent that it became a distraction. Eventually I had to give up.

solid if unfocused

very interesting stuff, plenty of concepts and world design, the story gets somewhat muddy at times and often things happen fast enough to not know how it happened withou backing up and relistening. Narator is great, but they needed a better editor.