I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed reading it the plot was interesting and the characters made me want to know more about them. I highly recommend.

On the whole, I really enjoyed it.

This is presented as a murder mystery, and at the beginning, the mystery is very strong. It tights in with the city’s political struggle for power and I found that quite interesting and well-though out. Though I’ll admit that what I enjoy the most was the social circumstances of this imagined future city, were humans and semi-human robot work side-by-side and robots are often discriminated against.

Characters are really the strong suit of the story. Elias Roche is a very complex and empathic characters that remains mysterious at the end of the story. Yes we learn a lot about him – including some things that happened in the first book in the series – but there are so many hints at things that still remain in the background and some of which we only glimpse.

Allen is also a very complex character, one that is slowly coming into himself. I loved his relationship with Elias, one that is increasingly becoming honest and deep, between two characters that are really very different.

So, the setting is very strong, the characters are also very strong. In the end, what’s lame is the mystery. Its starts out very strong, as I said, but it progressively patters out, until it resolves in something that I found quite disappointing. Besides, I realise that the mystery is really an excuse to write the story of the making of a super-hero, and so – well, it does the job. Though, seeing how the writing can be involving, I was expecting something more from the end.

But this takes noting away from the story. I really really enjoyed this one and I’ll read more from the series, if I get the chance.

I had requested this book without realizing it was a sequel, but it didn’t make this book any less fun! I had been craving a 1920s New York story after finishing the Diviners books, and this scratched the itch. It’s a fun alternate timeline noir story, I dug it.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Dundurn Press for an advanced copy of this science fiction novel.

In Midnight, the second volume of The Walking Shadows, series, author Brenden Carlson continues to grow the alternative New York City he created in the first book, with a mysterious killer and more noir niceties. The year is 1933 New York City is divided into the upper class, separated by a plate or platform, and the lower city, ruled by corruption, mobsters and little recourse for most people. An assassin's has killed 5 megacorporation members who were slumming downtown, and only Elias Roche, known to those in desperate straits, including the police as the Nightcaller can solve the case.

The book is steampunk by way of Street and Smith, full-fisted noir, with lots of talk about mobsters and crime, with an intrepid in the way reporter to boot. I enjoyed that there was a radio show developed about the Nightcaller, sort of in the same way the Shadow was. I thought that was a nice touch. The world is interesting, the Automatics causing a Depression as they worked happily for no money, while people starved on the streets. The characters might be a little one note, a standard in noir stories, but I thought Roche's partner an Automatic named Allan Erzly who was slowly coming into his own, seeing the world not as it was programmed, but how it really was I thought that character's development was interesting.

There were a few anachronisms, but blame that on the influx of technology. I enjoyed that story and would like to know more about the world, and where the characters find themselves. I am looking forward to more books in this series.

It's 1933 and just a few days away from Christmas in an alternate Manhattan, a city divided by a huge platform or plate that separates the rich who live above the plate in Upper City from the poor below in the Lower City. The city is in the midst of a Depression brought on by the introduction of robots or Automatics although Upper City is mostly immune to the economic disaster due to their money and power.

Gangsters have controlled Lower City completely by controlling the business of robot parts but now a shadowy organization called the Iron Hand has moved in. A shaky peace exists between the two until another element enters the picture, a lone assassin who is killing members from both groups and, most recently, four politicians in what had been a neutral hotel. The only chance of preventing an all-out deadly war between the two criminal empires is Roche, a tough ex-cop who has become something of a folk hero to the people of Lower City who know him as the Nightcaller (a name he hates) and his robot partner, Allen.

When I requested Midnight, a tech-noir by Brenden Carlson, I hadn't realized it was the second in a series. However, although there are some allusions to the events of the first book, they didn't effect my enjoyment of this sequel. And, for the most part, I did enjoy it. I loved the world-. or, in this case, the city-building as well as the explanations of the different robots, as well as the noir elements to the story. The characters are interesting if somewhat one-dimensional but that works here and I especially liked Allen. The story does get bogged down in some places but the pace always picks up quickly, keeping my attention and willing suspension of disbelief throughout the first 80% or so of the novel.

However, the last 20% seemed rushed. Within a few breaths after Roche and Allen uncover the assassin, their opinions of the person and their motives seem to do a 180 degree switch on their feelings and the story rushes off in a different direction. Granted, it wasn't entirely a surprising change but it was just too abrupt for me to fully accept. Overall, though, I enjoyed the story and would recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining story with noir elements and robots.

3.5

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Dundurn Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

So yeah, I had this brief phase where I’d talk like a 1920s gangster after having a few drinks. “waaah, don’t taze me, coppah!”, “you damn dirty rat, you took my jaeger bomb, seeee”, and so on. I loved it and everyone else hated it, especially the chicks. What sort of dame doesn’t like being belittled? Hmm… I suppose that makes sense now, I was being a huge dick. Ok, anyways, after a severe dry spell, I eventually stopped doing the voice altogether. I recently found Midnight and it combined my love of Cagney-eqsue gangsters with robots. Score!

Midnight is set in an alternate reality 1930s New York. The city is split in two, with the rich upper-class folks living on top of a huge platform called the Plate that is perched above the old city. They avoid the people below the Plate and essentially treat them like shit. Dropping pennies off the shelf to smoke these losers. I’d totes be tossing empties and taking a whizz of the edge if I was up there. Then again, I have zilch for drive, and no real skills, so there’s no way I’d make it there or get thrown out pretty damn quick.

But yeah, the city itself is in a massive depression that was caused by the introduction of Automatics, which are humanoid robots. The Automatics have differing cognitive abilities and are differentiated by the colours of their eyes. Green being only able to follow commands, blue being able to think for themselves, and red pretty much murdering psychopaths. The Automatics are treated even more like shit than the lower-class people and there’s a prohibition on robot parts rather than alcohol. That’s where the mafia steps in and two groups, the Iron Hands and Maranzano’s gang, run the town dealing in robot parts and violence.

So our story follows this gruff cop/mob enforcer/grey-area-guy named Roche and his naïve blue-eyed robot partner Allen. Some upper-city bigwigs went down below the Plate to do some slumming and got blown away. A gang war is erupting, the assassin keeps bumping off mobsters, and the whole city is about to turn into mayhem. Have no fear readers, Roche and robo-Allen are on the case!

Yeah, so this has the bones to be a rad alt-reality robot gangster story, but it whiffs dudes. It fell flat and fails to engage the reader. It was kinda sci-fi, kinda-noir, kinda-30s, but never settled into any sort of groove. The characters, dialogue, and setting were all on the thin side and it got confusing at parts. I’d keep forgetting it was in the 30s as the dialogue read more like current day. I’d keep forgetting that Allen was a robot as he was pretty damn human to me. Maybe it’s just me, and I should lay off the brain-cell killing bottomless mimosa Sundays, but I never got immersed in the story.

It’s like when you eat a bunch of space cake. You see the walls wobbling a little but are waiting for it to really kick in and be one with the universe. But you just sit on the couch playing Pokemon because it was a weak batch. That’s what this book was like. A cool world and promising characters that just doesn’t deliver the experience you want.

Anyways, that’s about all I got. Adios amigos!

Special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

I have not at the time of this review read the first title in the series. However although characters were in another book I did not feel lost or too far behind in understanding and appreciating this story.
It is really good old steampunk with heavier sci fi than some but the plotting and characters were both good enough I will definitely read more by this author and find the first book.

I got this ARC for my husband because it sounded like it was right up his alley. He actually really enjoyed this and said I should give it a go, too.

The second book in Brenden Carlson’s tech-noir series, Midnight centers around a detective and his robot partner whom are trying to save the city from absolute chaos.

Brenden’s world building and creativity exceeded my expectations in this tech-noir and anyone who loves a 1930’s alternate New York universe with robot detectives, cool code names, and typical obnoxious journalists hindering investigations, this one is for you!