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Ancient Appetites (The Wildenstern Saga Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Oisín McGann (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 41 ratings

Book 1 of 3: The Wildenstern Saga

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“An exciting new steampunk adventure” featuring living machines, murderous betrayals, and Ireland’s most ruthless family (School Library Journal).

The slow collapse of the British Empire in the nineteenth century meant opportunity for anyone with ammunition and wit. Now the Wildensterns are by far the most powerful family—and the most ruthless. Trained from childhood in the arts of assassination and conspiracy and endowed with the supernatural ability to live for more than a century, the clan has grown rich, vicious, and seemingly invincible.

After nearly two years away, eighteen-year-old Nate has returned. But his homecoming is shattered when his eldest brother, Marcus, is mysteriously killed. Following the Rules of Ascension, which allow one male family member to murder another, Nate is being blamed. Nate knows he isn’t the murderer, but who is? With the help of his sister-in-law, Daisy, and his cousin Gerald, Nate intends to find out. Their investigation brings them into the underbelly of the Wildenstern empire, where living machines, conspiring relatives, and undercover mercenaries do their dirty work. But when a disaster uncovers the ancient remains of Wildenstern ancestors, the lives of the family members and their struggle for power will take a bizarre and gruesome turn.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—An exciting new steampunk adventure. The story of the Wildenstern family starts with 18-year-old Nate, a younger son just returned to the British family estate from the wilds of Africa, taming The Beast of Glenmalure, a type of engimal called a velocycle. These half-animal/half-machine beasts are featured prominently throughout the narrative. The work details a murderous coup that threatens to topple the magical Wildenstern family, whose members are difficult to kill thanks to their incredible healing powers. Nate and his allies race to discover how his older brother really died, the source of a rumored plot against the family, and the true nature of the "ancient appetites" displayed by a trio of resurrected relatives. The author creates a rich fantasy world using the backdrop of 19th-century England, combined with fantastical techno-beasts and a family of humans with mythical healing powers and incredibly long life spans. The internal turmoil of this multi-generational family is intense and resembles the powerful Russian sagas written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy. Thankfully, the spunky characters, accessible dialogue, and nonstop action make this novel enjoyable for contemporary teens who already enjoy the genre and are willing to tackle a dense and complex story. VERDICT For libraries looking to expand their steampunk collections.—Sunnie Lovelace, Wallingford Public Library, CT

Review

"An exciting new steampunk adventure. . . . Resembles the powerful Russian sagas written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy . . . [with] spunky characters, accessible dialogue, and nonstop action.” —School Library Journal

"Despite intense action sequences and comic-relief robots, McGann’s focus on tradition, power, and primogeniture makes this a read that may appeal more to adults than teenagers." —Kirkus Reviews

“McGann impressively blends the futuristic engimals with Victorian Ireland. . . . Ancient Appetites illustrates a writer who is without doubt going from strength to strength. Watch this space!” —Inis magazine

“Combines the rich details of a 19th-century novel with science fiction . . . Impressively imagined . . . A well-plotted and absorbing story.” —The Irish Times

“Nate is an interesting character for readers to champion, and there are plenty of imaginative contraptions and detail for readers to enjoy.” —Write Away! Literary Magazine

“One is well and truly hooked. Unexpected plot twists fill the pages.” —Through the Looking Glass

“We’re in the realm of very imaginative science fiction with this one. . . . Highly recommended.” —Flipside Extra

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00Q5UWO12
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Teen & Tween (August 11, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 11, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3770 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #750,803 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #160 in Teen & Young Adult Steampunk eBooks
- #780 in Teen & Young Adult Dark Fantasy eBooks
- #1,016 in Teen & Young Adult Fantasy & Supernatural Mystery eBooks

Customer Reviews:
4.1 41 ratings

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schmettajames

Steampunk Ireland

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2015

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Ancient Appetites is the first book in a trilogy that’s being published for the first time in the U.S. (The full trilogy was already published in the UK several years ago.) Set in Ireland in the second half of the 19th century, Ancient Appetites is the story of a very unusual family, the Wildensterns. The British may nominally rule Ireland, but the Wildensterns have enormous power and influence. In addition to being fabulously wealthy, they have special healing powers and live abnormally long lives. Or rather they do if no one cuts them down in their prime. For the Wildensterns are a vicious group, and family tradition allows them to murder each other to gain power, as long as certain rules are followed.

Eighteen-year-old Nathaniel (Nate) Wildenstern returns home from Africa and learns that his eldest brother, the family’s heir, has died. The official cause of death is a mountain climbing accident, but given his family’s propensity toward violence, Nate is sure the death wasn’t an accident, and he and his hated sister-in-law Daisy end up working together to figure out what really happened. While Nate suspects everyone, many in the family are suspicious of him. It’s his elder brother Roberto who is now the heir, but Nate’s position in the family is now better because of the death and he’s expected to take over the family’s American interests.

I really enjoyed this book. I did find the first 50 pages to be a little slow, as there’s a lot of exposition, but then the action really picked and it was very absorbing. The world that Oisin McGann has created is a vivid one. The setting is a steampunk Victorian Ireland. Mechanical animals (known as engimals) roam the world, and the Wildensterns have a vast menagerie of the beasts in a zoo. Nate’s scientifically minded cousin Gerald is trying to reconcile the existence of these beasts with Darwin’s new theories. While the Wildensterns live in opulent splendor, the rest of the country lives in dire poverty, and McGann does a good job of showing the contrast.

McGann does some interesting things with the female characters. It’s a male-dominated world, and the woman of the family live very restricted lives. Nate’s sister Tatiana chafes at these restrictions, while her sister-in-law Daisy, being older, is more used to her place in the world, however frustrating it may be. Because the women seem so powerless, the men of the family consistently underestimate them, which leads to the women playing some very interesting roles in the plot.

I highly recommend this book, and I’ll definitely be reading the sequels when they come out.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kristin J. Johnson

A battle for the soul of a family, steampunk style

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2015

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

While Oisin McGann is compared to R.L. Stevenson or Jules Verne, he's also Alexandre Dumas crossed with Neil Stephenson, and a little bit of ABC's "Revenge" (based on Dumas) thrown in. Add a touch of the Sopranos and the Corleones, and can you put this book down? Fuhgeddaboutit.

Amid the backdrop of mysterious animal-machine hybrids, Victorian-era Ireland, and a spectacular sprawling manor, the Wildenstern family is grieving a loss: the heir, Marcus, who's been offed under mysterious circumstances. oh, but it's all perfectly honorable, thanks to the Rules of Ascension, which state:

1. If you're going to murder a higher-ranking family member in order to advance, you have to do it yourself.
2. No male under sixteen is allowed to commit this murder.
3. You can't kill anyone for a trivial offense, only for power.
4. Don't kill the servants. (N.B.: death is only a step up above servants' living conditions in this family. Most of the time.)
5. The target has to fight back. It's business after all.
6. You can't preemptively attack the person who plots to murder you.
7. Keep it out of the press.
8. The murder victim must be given a proper burial, unless the overworked, gouged townspeople decide to blow up the resting place--hey, that was an accident, they were only planning to rob the family.

At this point the Emperor Caligula would say, "Ew, gross. This is too barbaric." And the entire cast of "Game of Thrones" would sniff, "Wimps."

The scene in which Daisy, wife of the next-in-line Wildenstern scion called Roberto, explains the rules to newly resurrected ancient Wildenstern clanswomen Elizabeth and Brunhilde, is as darkly comedic as you could want. Daisy, growing up among the hoi polloi but emerging like Kate Middleton, is not too keen on murder or bleeding the working people dry. The book is heavy on the haves versus have-nots: Even though Nate, the third in succession, treats his servants and others more decently than most, he still has no idea what a pint of milk costs, although he does know beer can be had for a penny. Despite the Wildenstern privilege, you tend to find the whole family compelling. Some more than most--Daisy and fourteen-year-old Tatiana "Tatty" are definitely Victorian reformers, while Nate wakes up to the message that his family's scheming power-grabbing ways aren't working, and Daisy's husband Berto, the heir...well, he has secrets of his own.

Meanwhile, Gerald, Nate's cousin, is treating science as God a la Victor Frankenstein, but don't think either sincere or religion get a pass. As Daisy says, "The problem with people who think they've been chosen by God is all too often they haven't."

The resurrected Wildensterns led by the hypocritical Hugo show the current generation what their feuding ways could devolve into. To boot, there is a populist rebel movement reminiscent of the IRA crossed with Occupy Wall Street. The cyborg animals or "engimals" that are part of this lavish world aren't the main marvels here: the human characters prove themselves the most marvelous creations.

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