Secrets in the Mist, the first novel in the Skyworld series, is part adventure, part mystery, and all steampunk—a fascinating genre. Award-winning author Morgan L. Busse’s latest combines lighter-than-air transports with class inequalities and a strong undercurrent of Christianity into an unforgettable novel.
Young Cass lives on the streets and survives by thinking on her feet. She comes across the airship Daedalus where she’s offered a job. Upper-caste Theodore (Theo) Winchester is a scientist who cares more about people and science than politics and privilege. He’s concerned about the mist that shrouds the surface and the lower parts of the mountains. And in that Mist? The infected, known as the Turned, seek their next victims.
For the first quarter of the book, Cass and Theo go about their own business until they cross paths. When they meet, the novel kicks into high gear. Close encounters with deadly adversaries, both living and unliving, make for some tense sequences.
Cass’s growth from street urchin to one of the leaders of the ship, and her longing for a home and how she’ll fight for it, makes her a delightful main character. Theo’s righteousness and steady resolve hardly changes despite the revelations he encounters. A third “character” is the setting. All people live on mountains or islands floating in the sky as in a Roger Dean painting. All the elements of steampunk are here, and for once, a real use for goggles than just for show!
While the novel never gets downright horrific or gruesome, the scenes are plenty tense. And the descriptions of the surface world are captivating. As this is the first part of a duology, no one should be surprised that the novel ends on a cliffhanger. Fortunately, the second novel is available.
The style of the novel is fairly simple and straightforward. It serves the purpose of the narrative and never shortchanges the descriptions or the dialog. Overall, the story pulls you in and doesn’t let go for a moment.
Secrets in the Mist builds a unique and riveting world with characters you care about and stakes that are as high as the mountains people live on. The first book kept me turning pages. I’ll be sure to pick up the second one soon.