The Constantine Affliction By T. Aaron Payton

Book The Constantine affliction definition

Above Victorian England the sky is lit up by a strange phenomenon known as the aurora anglais Whitechapel has been walled off as alchemical fires rage inside and London is trying to come to grips with the Constantine Affliction a seemingly sexually transmitted disease which transforms its victims into the opposite sex that is if they survive the transformation Men now frequent clockwork brothels which use automatons as prostitutes to avoid the disease. The Constantine Affliction book summary However someone is killing human prostitutes and leaving them in front of these brothels Abel Value both pimp for the murdered women and owner of the brothels thus targeted blackmails Lord Pembroke Pimm Halliday younger son of a Marquess functioning alcoholic and brilliant detective into investigating Although Pimm finds the idea of working for a notorious criminal somewhat distasteful he soon takes the case with the aid of his wife Winnifred who was his best friend Freddy before falling victim to the affliction Adam a brilliant scientist hopeless romantic and Frankenstein monster and Eleanor Skyler a journalist who hides her gender under the nom de plume E Skye so that readers will take her seriously What they discover is a conspiracy so deep and so far reaching that all of England is in danger. The Constantine afflictionclothing The Constantine Affliction is steam punk at its finest Sure the plot is improbable and occasionally the story gets mired in long monologues which are meant to explain what s been happening but hey its fantasy The characters are well drawn even secondary ones there s plenty of twists and turns within the story to keep the reader involved and the story is intelligent dealing with issues of gender roles class science and ethics without sidetracking the plot or browbeating the reader Surprisingly under all the alchemy and adventure is the real Victorian England the poverty the dirt and the overarching class system author Payton clearly took the time to research the era a rarity in historical fantasy But most of all The Constantine Affliction takes the reader on a fun ride never forgetting for a moment that the purpose of the story is to entertain and that it does in spades 279 This book is a bit of a hot mess but it s very fun It is a fast read and lots of crazy things happen that leave you scratching your head and wondering what the heck but the characters are lovable and entertaining. The Constantine Affliction book 2 I don t know how to go into most of the plot or premise without giving anything away so I will only touch on the disease for which the book is named The Constantine Affliction is a fictional disease that either kills or turns those afflicted into the opposite gender against their will This could have been a very interesting and deep look into gender equality fluidity and body dysphoria But it wasn t So if you re hoping for this to use a crazy what if scenario to discuss any of those things you will be disappointed The characters occasionally show very modern ideas about gender equality spurred by this development that would be otherwise greatly out of character for a Victorian era person And the closest it comes to discussing body dysphoria is by mentioning how many people choose to continue to dress and present themselves based on their pre change gender but even that is only mentioned in passing and as background It s actually a bit disappointing that the author proposed such a mind bending thought experiment and then mostly avoided the topic altogether. EPub The Constantine affliction clothing So deep thinking and thoughtful exploration this book is not But if you want something completely crazy with a mish mash of subjects likable characters and a fast plot then you will be entertained And since a crazy palette cleanser is really all I was looking for in this book I was happy 279 I love steampunk and I love mystery and this book is a great mix of both thrown into a historical version of London A disease called the Constantine Affliction has ravaged society with some very unusual side affects like turning women into men and vice versa In fact one of our main characters has been afflicted Freddie was once the best friend of Pimm but with the Affliction turned into a female Pimm does the honourable thing which is of course to marry her Pimm saw this as the only way to keep his friend around Another fun character is Eleanor Skyler a female jounralist whoc uses the by line of E Skye to keep her anonimity She finds herself dragged into this case after deciding to write an article about the clockwork brothels Pimm finds himself contacted to the crime kingpin Able Value to investigate what is happening to his girls From there this turns into a rollicking adventure full of fun interesting science and a multitude of interesting possibilities This is a great book and if you like to be caught up in a great story with fascinating lead characters then I can heartily recommend The Constantine Affliction 279 Two stars Two and a half Maybe three I don t even know There were some quite inventive parts The Affliction the various creative uses of steampunk and a few engaging characters WiniFred Ellie Pimm but so much of this was flat dry or just uninvolving The aspects of The Constantine Affliction that I liked I really liked but the bad was so damn bad I don t even know I m just glad to be done. Book The Constantine affliction t I read only the description of the book not reviews The story takes place in an alternative Victorian London Three years before the events in the book a strange affliction started spreading among the people rich and poor alike They called it the Constantine Affliction shortening the name from Constantinopolitan its alleged origin It killed a lot of people but those who survived transformed into the opposite sex I loved this idea People acted the way you can imagine some tried to hide the fact wearing false mustache the others changed names families denounced their sons and daughters There was no one unaffected by it Victims transformed by the Constantine Affliction were legally speaking considered to be the same sex they d been at birth otherwise you could have a daughter transforming into a firstborn son and inheriting her father s estate over her younger brothers In practice though most victims of the Affliction went into hiding or tried to pass as their original sex or like Freddy simply changed their identities and began a new life. The Constantine Affliction epub.pub Several things are happening at the same time there are rumours of tentacled monsters living in the Thames Whitechapel is burning with alchemical fires and someone is killing women leaving them at the door of the most powerful crime lord in London That takes us to our hero Lord Pembroke Pimm Halliday a very functional alcoholic and a brilliant amateur investigator The fact that he shielded his best friend Freddy after he changed into a woman by marrying him was a reason enough to love him but throughout the story you get to respect him even He is forced to accept a case from the crime lord Following leads for her next story Eleanor Irene Skyler a talented journalist E Skye runs into Pimm and somehow they end up investigating the murders and later the affliction together It is a great Lovecraftian mystery with just a touch of romance I won t write about the events in the book I loved its characters Though Pimm is brilliant and Ellie is not some whimpering miss but a talented and resourceful young woman there are others which make this story even better Freddy is a great character who brings humour into otherwise a dark story One of the benefits she said was how much easier it was to shock someone as a woman Freddy had always enjoyed shocking people Adam a Frankenstein like character in his search for love and one of the people that Pimm meets in the course of his investigation is both terrible and sad We only get hints on his origin but it is enough I am glad how the author resolved his issue The villain was not as great as Pimm and Ellie Still you may agree with him on a few things He gets to drone on about his plans twice but I ve decided to consider that as humorous part of the book All in all a fun story 279 T Aaron Payton is the pseudonym of site_link Tim Pratt T Aaron Payton is the pseudonym of site_link Tim Pratt site_link 1864 London is a city in transition The Constantine Affliction strange malady that kills some of its victims and physically transforms others into the opposite sex has spread scandal and upheaval throughout society Scientific marvels and disasters such as clockwork courtesans the alchemical fires of Whitechapel electric carriages and acidic monsters lurking in the Thames have forever altered the face of the city Pembroke Pimm Halliday is an aristocrat with an interest in criminology who uses his keen powers of observation to assist the police or private individuals at least when he s sober enough to do so Ellie Skyler who hides her gender behind the byline E Skye is an intrepid journalist driven by both passion and necessity to uncover the truth no matter where it hides When Pimm and Skye stumble onto a dark plot that links the city s most notorious criminal overlord with the Queen s new consort famed scientist Sir Bertram Oswald they soon find the forces of both high and low society arrayed against them Can they save the city from the arcane machinations of one of history s greatest monsters and uncover the shocking origin of THE CONSTANTINE AFFLICTION The Constantine AfflictionIf this is what T Aaron Payton can offer I can t wait to get my hands on of his books The Constantine Affliction is a witty imaginative new offering that will please fans of steampunk and historical mysteries it is well written has delightful characters and is altogether fun. The Constantine afflictionclothing The Victorian London of The Constantine Affliction is not quite the one we re used to reading about people are still coming to terms with the spread of a sexually transmitted disease that changes the gender of its victims Lord Pembroke Halliday better known as Pimm is forced to investigate the cause of a series of murders involving the human prostitutes managed by Abel Value one of London s most notorious criminals if he wants to protect his best friend Freddy or currently his wife Winifred actually but on that later from scandal Eleanor Skyler a talented journalist writing under the byline E Skye is a much willing investigator who is intrigued by the truth behind a new chain of brothels featuring clockwork courtesans Naturally their respective investigations collide and they realize that there s quite a bit happening in the seedy underbelly of London society than meets the eye. The Constantine Affliction book summary Freddy Winifred is a real hoot and one of the best things about this book I must say A sufferer of the Constantine Affliction due to his less than careful choices of bedside companions he or she is now Lady Pembroke thanks to a marriage of convenience and finds new ways to support his best friend Pimm such as hiding in a next door room with guns at the ready when Pimm receives unsavoury guests HA The situations the two find themselves in are hilarious but it s also quite sweet that Pimm went to such lengths to protect Freddy when his family would have rejected him after he contracted the disease The inclusion of Freddy is also a very clever move by the author Because readers have established a connection with Freddy we see not only the humorous side of the affliction but also the potentially painful after effects experienced by survivors particularly upper class men What on earth do they do with their lives afterwards when they are ridiculed by society and find themselves placed under the same restrictions as women were in the 19th Century It certain puts a new spin on the dangers of infidelity and it grounds a plot that might otherwise have been dismissed as pure frivolity. Book The Constantine affliction pdf Further it opens up all manners of possibilities for discussions on gender equality I can t be the only reader who s just a little sick of books where authors use their characters to preach feminist viewpoints or otherwise The Constantine Affliction on the other hand is a really fascinating new way to approach the subject Through the effect it had on secondary characters and other members of society in the story we can see the contradictions men and women being treated differently and judged differently the confusion introduced by the affliction should men or women who have changed genders be considered based on their genders at birth and the new possibilities it opens up for women changed into men Pimm Ellie and Freddy also engage in some very thoughtful conversations where this and other related topics are brought up and I really appreciated that the author wasn t afraid to introduce intelligent debates that gave readers something to think about even while the characters are having all sorts of fun with clockwork courtesans murder mysteries and treasonous intrigue. Book The Constantine affliction t Pimm and Ellie are both perceptive resourceful individuals and I liked them immensely even if I didn t quite connect with them on an emotional level Pimm has his vices of course and Ellie s bravery veered slightly into reckless territory that left her in a few close scrapes along the way but they made a great combination The author mentions in an afterword that he was influenced by other mystery writing greats like Dorothy Sayers and this shows Pimm reminds me of the best of the classic aristocrat detectives For those who like a sprinkling of romance we do get that here it s actually adorable to find a male protagonist who appreciates his counterpart precisely because of her intelligence But what about Freddy you say I confess I was a little worried but everything is resolved admirably at the end to the satisfaction of all involved. The Constantine Affliction bookworm There have been an unwelcome trend in the last year or so of supposedly steampunk books where machines and airships were thrown in and left as window dressing Not so here I m glad to say Machines and science in general is at the very heart of this story What appears to be a simple serial murder mystery resulting from a gender changing affliction is all rooted in science T Aaron Payton manages to capture both the confusion and excitement in an age where new technology is all the rage and is evidently a double edged sword that may bring improvements but also a variety of problems. The Constantine Affliction book review If I had one complaint to make it is the fact that the climax veered away from the scientific basis established throughout the story Of course there is new technology introduced along the way that may be entirely impossible even by modern standards but it is convincingly written and doesn t require significant suspension of belief I did draw the line when the villain introduced the supernatural at the end however and was frankly a little disappointed that after the logic of it all we re presented with extraterrestrials At least it produced a fun scene where Ellie and Freddy fended them off with Pimm s fencing swords That aside T Aaron Payton has produced a fantastic steampunk story that is thoroughly worth a read The book has a tagline stating that it s a Pimm and Skye Adventure which makes me wonder whether there will be any It certainly reads perfectly well as a standalone novel but I m keeping my fingers crossed that there might be a sequel 279 Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography cclapcenter. The Constantine Affliction book 2 com I am the original author of this essay as well as the owner of CCLaP it is not being reprinted illegally It s true just as some people always love them some Scandinavian crime fiction I always love me some steampunk And in fact this is what has directly led to me taking it easier recently on fans of subgenres I find silly precisely from realizing that I m a big fan of a subgenre that a lot of others find ridiculous and there s nothing wrong with that either as long as you recognize that you re basically letting your fetishistic love of the accrouchements surrounding that subgenre forgive what is sometimes only mediocre storytelling and vow to make that easy love only an occasional treat instead of the main ingredient of your reading diet Take this charming but forgettable title for example which I confess even just a month between finishing it and now has already become hazy in my head just another Sherlockian actioner containing the same beats as all the others although certainly I haven t forgotten the great and unique central premise the thing that s gotten it most of its press that Payton s speculative alt history Victorian London includes a sexually transmitted disease that turns people literally into the opposite gender and that the resulting panic regarding human intimacy has among other things created an entire new industry of robot prostitutes That s what makes subgenres work after all no matter which one you re talking about they mostly all concern themselves with roughly the same general type of storyline and it s the very specific details where one book will stand out over another among readers and for existing fans of steampunk Constantine has everything you could want regarding this although it s only okay as a general piece of literature and will drive non fans of Victoriana batsh t crazy This should all be kept in mind when deciding whether or not to pick up a copy yourself. The Constantine Affliction booker S I ll never be able to think of steampunk the same way after seeing Felicia Day s take on it in The Guild video removed 279 Addictively wonderful Fingers crossed that T Aaron Payton aka Tim Pratt writes Pimm Skye Adventures I hope to write a full review someday 279 Why privilege the natural We can do so much better than that It s 1864 and London is a city of transformation and change where scientific marvels coexist with disasters and maladies The Constantine Affliction is one of the latter a mysterious disease that physically transforms its surviving victims into the opposite gender effectively altering the very fabric of society and its gender related expectations forever. Book The Constantine affliction definition Nobody knows how it all started but an intrepid duo of protagonists Pimm a drunken aristocrat with an interest in criminology and Skyler a journalist who hides her gender behind a male byline is about to find out the shocking origins of the disease as they stumble on a dastardly plot that threatens the Kingdom. Book The Constantine affliction definition I have the slight suspicion that I might be about to damn T Aaron Payton s The Constantine Affliction with faint praise An enjoyable book The Constantine Affliction is a breezy read that relies heavily on the utterly familiar yet fun trope of the Gentleman Detective and the Intrepid Lady Journalist Who Fall in Love While Saving the Day There is nothing new in the portrayal of either the Detective or the Lady in fact their romantic relationship is underdeveloped and unsurprising but still a fun trope is a fun trope is a fun trope. Book The Constantine affliction definition This is a very superficial reading of The Constantine Affliction which does in fact have a lot to offer than its main investigative storyline and tepid romance and that is largely due to its thought provoking thematic core stemming from the eponymous disease The story uses this disease and its consequences to examine gender roles to great effect For example men who have been transformed into women realize that surprise their mental faculties have remained intact And women who have been transformed into men all of a sudden have all sorts of opportunities open to them. EPub The Constantine affliction lock Although the story contemplates and criticizes gender roles very successfully I think it completely fails to address other sides of the issue especially that of gender identity What does it mean exactly to be transformed into a person of the opposite gender when you remain the same Surely gender role is only but one aspect of such transformation So although I appreciated the way the book addresses the issue of gender roles and of societal expectations I also thought that any other equally important aspects of this transformation were left out entirely I am also rather conflicted about the idea behind the story itself Does it not say that men can only understand sexism if they experience it Further despite its strong female lead and the general message of the obvious stupidity of constricting women to certain roles I do have to question the general depiction of female characters and what such portrayal means within the context of the novel The murder victims in the story are still all female the Constantine Affliction is sexually transmitted by prostitutes because men are still men don t you know and the main male character is plagued by the memory of a Dead Lover Although admittedly there is fun to be had with The Constantine Affliction and the basic tenets of the novel are thought provoking I can t help but feel disappointed when I think of all it could have been In Book Smugglerish an underwhelmed 5 out of 10 279 Book Club Buddie D and I strapped in for another adventure laden steampunk extravaganza with The Constantine Affliction Author Tim Pratt thought up a highly imaginative plot where this mysterious illness see title transforms men into women and women into men What I found encouraging was that the change of sex did not change the sexual orientation because that would have been intolerable. The Constantine Affliction book summary All the great Steampunk ingredients are there the city of London in all its grimy Victorian splendor a highly genius madman fearless heroines giant moustaches necromancy alien monsters street urchins clockwork prostitutes a dash of romance a string of gruesome murders oodles of magnificent inventions but oddly enough no dirigible was spotted in the night sky boo Oh and there was some levity as well don t worry. The Constantine afflictionless As you can imagine the affliction created some interesting dilemmas for Victorian society There is a very thin straight romance plot running through it all but the main focus is on the genius yet sinister machinations of a single man The clock is ticking and it does not bode well for the people of London and beyond Can our motley crew of heroes an amateur sleuth with a penchant for the bottle his wife who used to be his male best friend a crossdressing female journalist and an ex thug built like a barge save us all from impending doom m fThemes it s alive Victor Victoria if you build it they will come automatons both fascinate and scare me the fem bots came to mind but these galls didn t shoot rockets from their boobs the ultimate death of the villain was a tad anticlimactic though. The Constantine Affliction ebook free download It was rumoured that it started with prostitutes so anyone who transformed was unfaithful or a person he or she lives with is That led to clockwork courtesans.Review to come 279 This book was a pleasant surprise.Out of 10 8.0 or 9.0 for steampunk fansP.4.5 stars 279.