What if the world holds more dangers—and more wonders—than we have ever known? And what if there is more than one world? From Heather Dixon, author of the acclaimed Entwined, comes a brilliantly conceived adventure that sweeps us from the inner workings of our souls to the far reaches of our imaginations.
Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then—as every good adventure begins—the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he's a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations—or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path.
I read Heather Dixon's debut novel Entwined years ago when it was released, and really enjoyed it. Imagine my delight when I discovered that she published a second novel.
Like Entwined, this book is very imaginative and well laid-out. The world-building is very well-done. I could totally imagine the setting that Dixon was portraying. I like the steampunk as a subgenre, so I was glad that that was an integral part of the world that this book is in. It's aerial and light, almost taking on an ethereal vibe in parts. I loved how there were many explorations of space-time and physics. I'm really horrible with physics, so I was glad that it was simplified here (mostly - there were a few formulas here and there that threw me off my course).
Once the story got started, it was very enjoyable and interesting. I did predict some of the plot twists, but I found that that did not detract from my enjoyment of it. I found that it took some time before the plot got really going. It didn't falter, it just took its time, but I was not one hundred percent engaged until about halfway through. The fantastical elements and the complete imagination that went into Heather Dixon's writing cannot go without saying, which helped me stick around for some of the slower parts.
The characters were interestng for the most part. I found Jonathan to be a bit pompous in parts, but I feel like that was a) intentional and b) a reflection of a stereotypical 19th century gentleman. I found his footnotes to be very amusing. The character I ended up loving the most was Lockwood, who, at first, I thought was going to be a minor side character, but then ended up stealing the show. You go, Lockwood! I enjoyed the character(s) of Hannah/Anna, who was the catalyst for the main plot, as well as the villain, although I did sometimes find the villain to be a bit mustache-twirling and hammy at parts, but again, I think that was intentional to poke fun at stereotypes.
All in all, while there were a few halts along the way, I did really enjoy this book. I found the world-building to be creative and imaginative. Illusionarium takes a subgenre and makes it its own. With interesting characters, and an enjoyable plot, there were a few times where the plot stalled or the charaters were not completely fleshed out, but that didn't detract too much from my enjoyment. Overall, I had a good time. I did enjoy Heather Dixon's first novel slightly more, but on the whole, this one was pretty good too. I'm going to give Illusionarium a 3.5/5 - while there were a few iffy moments, it was made up for by a detailed world with witty imagination.
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