The Translated Man and Other Stories

Theres a passage here that has stayed with me since reading it 7 years ago, filed prominently in my brains storage of macho stories. When the young deputy witnesses the kind of trauma that tends to wreck a man, he feels a minuscule sliver of himself self ripped away, then quickly filled with cold steel, able to feel that much less but operate that much stronger. I recall thinking Hmmmm, thats pretty badass. Dang.

If theres such a thing as steampunk noir, these wonderfully gritty, mesmerizing and moving works perfectly embody the sub-genre. Think some junkie, near burned out Harry Potter as a dying yet noble master detective inhabiting some dark, dystopic alternate world rife with political intrigue, a permanent war economy and racism, and you have just a starting point. Make no mistake: Mr. Braak can write very, very well. This is stand-out dystopian, alternate universe noir fiction.

is a decaying city patrolled by press gangs and brutal police groups. Petty magicians and insane scientists engage in dangerous experiments. The disease afflicted MC charged with suppressing these abominations takes a drug that induces disturbingly regular hallucinations. I like the characterizations, especially that of the city.

I was a little leery of the book because self-published work tends to be short on the editing. Aside from random hyphen-ation, a problem common with all Kindle titles, it had no more grammatical or typographic errors than the usual book. Oh, and it was a ripping good read! And by that I mean besides all the good plot, good characterization, and good scenery, Mr. Braak also a solid wordsmith, delivering evocative and well-crafted sentences. So, if you were thinking about *not* buying this book, you should reconsider!

This is a wonderful story / novel. Steam punk but more than that. It has a steam punk setting that is full and rich with texture but its the story line that make the novel!

I read this some time ago but its imagery, characters and unique themes come to mind over and over. So often books like this veer off into faeries and wizards, which is where I stop reading. But Chris Braak builds a believable and enjoyable world for his characters to act within. He does this quite skillfully, never beating the reader to death with endless description or forced passages. If you just want to take a trip and enjoy a world that is immediately recognizable but still delightfully foreign to our own, and ride shotgun with some memorable characters, this book is for you.