Inkerman

Full disclosure: I was given a free review copy of the book by the author.

This is a dark steampunk novel set during the Crimean War, with much of the emphasis on the desperate straits that the British army have found themselves in. The plot concerns a British officer trying to find the reason for a failure of the telegraph system that the army uses to communicate with London, alternating between a horrors-of-war story and exposition of the fantastic technology involved. It's full of imaginative detail (some of it gory) and the central character is sympathetic and well-drawn given the short length of the story. (It's what literary awards tend to call a ‘novelette' - shorter than most novellas, but longer than a short story). Sure, it's not a light read, but it is a quick one that still managed to draw me in more than I was expecting it to.