The Great Faerie Strike by Spencer Ellsworth (Broken Eye Books/Stinkeye Books, 2019) is a spirited adventure story set in the Otherworld, a region inhabited by fantasy creatures. The story is told from two points of view: Jane, a half-vampire, and Charles, a gnome.
Werewolves have industrialized the Otherworld and have replaced their factory labor with vampires paid in blood instead of the previous employees of numerous other races, putting Charles out of a job. Meanwhile, Jane has left the asylum her mother had her committed to and is attempting to accumulate enough wealth to return to the boarding school where she was learning about magic, the Otherworld, and more. They initially meet through happenstance, at a party where Charles’ uncle is accused of murder, but fate throws them together again and again, as Jane investigates the mysteries of the Otherworld and Charles brings Marxism to the denizens of the Otherworld.
What follows is a steampunk adventure of Charles leading workers to fight the werewolves’ stranglehold over the Otherworld’s economy, and Jane attempting to find stories worthy of publication in the Otherworld’s sole newspaper, intermixed with the two protagonists growing closer to each other. The book is filled with humor, mixed with a bit of romance and a strong storyline. If you enjoy the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger, or other books that mix steampunk and humor, I think you’ll like The Great Faerie Strike as well!
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