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The Beckoning Void
Emelia DuMond is an actress, climbing from her humble beginnings to success on the stage of Victorian London. And to the attention of the Ghost Society, a secret organization who seek to defend the world from threats of the paranormal. After centuries of searching, the sinister Disciples of the Void have located an arcane book of great power. A power that could tear the veil between dimensions and plunge the world into a dark, unspeakable future.
Now she has recruited an aging soldier of fortune burdened by a conscience, the sword wielding daughter of an Afghan brigand and an airship whose captain escaped slavery during the Civil War by stealing a Confederate vessel.
Can Emelia and her band of plucky outcasts save the world from a cult of fanatics intent on unleashing an ancient horror?
“The Beckoning Void� is a tale of cunning plots, flashing swords, skillful piloting, witty repartee and eldritch dread.
Now she has recruited an aging soldier of fortune burdened by a conscience, the sword wielding daughter of an Afghan brigand and an airship whose captain escaped slavery during the Civil War by stealing a Confederate vessel.
Can Emelia and her band of plucky outcasts save the world from a cult of fanatics intent on unleashing an ancient horror?
“The Beckoning Void� is a tale of cunning plots, flashing swords, skillful piloting, witty repartee and eldritch dread.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2021
7 people are currently reading
1004 people want to read
About the author
Patrick LeClerc
11Ìýbooks82ÌýfollowersPatrick LeClerc makes good use of his history degree by working as a paramedic for an ever- changing parade of ambulance companies in the Northern suburbs of Boston. When not writing he enjoys cooking, fencing and making witty, insightful remarks with career-limiting candor.
In the lulls between runs on the ambulance --and sometimes the lulls between employment at various ambulance companies-- he writes fiction.
In the lulls between runs on the ambulance --and sometimes the lulls between employment at various ambulance companies-- he writes fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 29, 2022
It was a fun romp with sharp swords and sharp wit. It's quick to read and unpretentious. While characters are tropey, they remain fun and likable. Bad guys want to get a book that will allow them to tear open the veil between worlds and let them call forth supernatural horrors from the
void. Good guys want to stop them. Mayhem ensues.
I liked the pacing and straightforward writing style. However, I wasn't crazy about some distracting POV shifts and the depth of characterization. In all, though, I read it in two or three sittings.
Well worth a shot.
void. Good guys want to stop them. Mayhem ensues.
I liked the pacing and straightforward writing style. However, I wasn't crazy about some distracting POV shifts and the depth of characterization. In all, though, I read it in two or three sittings.
Well worth a shot.
November 3, 2021
Steampunk + Lovecraft = Awesome!!
This book was awesome. I love steampunk and Lovecraftian horror and 'The Beckoning Void' mashes them together for an awesome ride. All the characters are distinct and Victorian-cool. And the banter rules. It cracked me up on more than one occasion.
I hope there's another installment for this one! There are a bunch of POV characters and they're all cool, even the bad guys.
This book was awesome. I love steampunk and Lovecraftian horror and 'The Beckoning Void' mashes them together for an awesome ride. All the characters are distinct and Victorian-cool. And the banter rules. It cracked me up on more than one occasion.
I hope there's another installment for this one! There are a bunch of POV characters and they're all cool, even the bad guys.
January 26, 2022
I have a fondness for steampunk stories. Or, as the case may be, historical fantasy stories that have a strong steampunk bent. Airships and trains and all those wonderful things are like candy to me and I am thrilled by a chance to read anything even remotely related to it. Enter in Patrick LeClerc’s The Beckoning Void and suddenly I have a new story to devour.
1. Thoughts on the plot
This story follows Emilia DuMond, an actress turned spy for an organisation determined to stop a group of eldritch being worshipping zealots from getting a key piece to their plan to summon their lost gods. She travels across Europe in an airship piloted by a former slave who escaped the Civil War in America and guarded by a middle-aged Scots swordsman and an Arab woman who prefers fighting to politics. Of course, nothing is ever quite so easy as merely stealing a book�
I really enjoyed this plot. From the start, it felt like a thievery-to-prevent-bad-things novel, and it was for the most part. However, there were extra elements that involved action, airship battles, and characters performing acts of heroism that fuel fandoms for ages to come. What started as a fairly straightforward plot took twists and turns that were great fun to read and watch unfold. I enjoyed it, and would have enjoyed it even without the airships.
2. Thoughts on the characters
Again, at first the characters seemed simpler than what they turned out to be. I thought they were going to be caricatures of certain stereotypes that sometimes appear in fantasy adventure novels (for good reason, given they’re entertaining), but that notion was quickly dispelled. The characters were intelligent, clever, and had just enough snark to add the perfect amount of humour to the story. I especially liked the raport between Alya and Connolly, (whose names I may have misspelled) which worked as a great counterpoint to some of Emilia’s more serious moments.
3. Favourite part
For a person who doesn’t fly, I have a strange fondness for airships and airship battles. I have no intention of ever stepping foot near one (if they were a thing), but I’m happy to read about them.
4. Critique
My only real critique for this novel is that the ending felt a little truncated. I wanted to know what happens with some of the characters, and while the primary threads of plot are tied off, there are a few questions of what happens with certain characters that I want to know. Granted, that could just be me bemoaning the cliffhanger. I’ve been known to do that.
Overall, I would say that The Beckoning Void was an excellent fantasy adventure with eldritch beings, history that doesn’t always follow the remembered lines, and characters to root for. A great book.
1. Thoughts on the plot
This story follows Emilia DuMond, an actress turned spy for an organisation determined to stop a group of eldritch being worshipping zealots from getting a key piece to their plan to summon their lost gods. She travels across Europe in an airship piloted by a former slave who escaped the Civil War in America and guarded by a middle-aged Scots swordsman and an Arab woman who prefers fighting to politics. Of course, nothing is ever quite so easy as merely stealing a book�
I really enjoyed this plot. From the start, it felt like a thievery-to-prevent-bad-things novel, and it was for the most part. However, there were extra elements that involved action, airship battles, and characters performing acts of heroism that fuel fandoms for ages to come. What started as a fairly straightforward plot took twists and turns that were great fun to read and watch unfold. I enjoyed it, and would have enjoyed it even without the airships.
2. Thoughts on the characters
Again, at first the characters seemed simpler than what they turned out to be. I thought they were going to be caricatures of certain stereotypes that sometimes appear in fantasy adventure novels (for good reason, given they’re entertaining), but that notion was quickly dispelled. The characters were intelligent, clever, and had just enough snark to add the perfect amount of humour to the story. I especially liked the raport between Alya and Connolly, (whose names I may have misspelled) which worked as a great counterpoint to some of Emilia’s more serious moments.
3. Favourite part
For a person who doesn’t fly, I have a strange fondness for airships and airship battles. I have no intention of ever stepping foot near one (if they were a thing), but I’m happy to read about them.
4. Critique
My only real critique for this novel is that the ending felt a little truncated. I wanted to know what happens with some of the characters, and while the primary threads of plot are tied off, there are a few questions of what happens with certain characters that I want to know. Granted, that could just be me bemoaning the cliffhanger. I’ve been known to do that.
Overall, I would say that The Beckoning Void was an excellent fantasy adventure with eldritch beings, history that doesn’t always follow the remembered lines, and characters to root for. A great book.
November 23, 2021
First of all, I wish to thank the author for sending me an ARC copy and hope he has a lot of success in his writing endeavours.
Steampunk tech? Check. Likeable morally grey villain? Check. Badass characters? Also check.
For starters, this book has a lot of the right formula to make an entertaining romp for readers that want to priorize witty dialogue over sumptuous worldbuilding. And luckily The Beckoning Void will find its right audience.
The plot seems more like an excuse to form a band of mercenaries on a deep air adventure all over Europe than the average save the world story. Emelia DuMond, a former maid who has learned from the school of hard knocks how to build a false persona from her innate abilities as an actress is a member of a secret society based in London with an important mission: to recover an ancient book that might be dangerous if it ends up in the wrong hands.
Tasked with the job of recruiting a crew to act as her bodyguards while she charms her way with her mastery of multiple languages into obtaining the book without unnecessary bloodshed is pretty much the book's slower first half of the story. Meanwhile, we get chapters focusing on the dauntless antagonist of the story, an Austrian nobleman named Roderick whose war hero father gave him a nobility title... ladden in debt due to his lifestyle. Unable to pay off the debts he inherited with his palty cavalry officer salary and not sufficiently well bred to marry a rich noblewoman to help him get rid of his problems, he is cornered to a wall and obliged to bring the book to a gang of crazy cultists he detests. I like it how the author gives us a villain we can root for because of his sympathy for the plight of ethnic minorities being of Roma ancestry from his mother. He has a twisted sense of honor, but he treats his loyal minions well. I also found it funny that he has the audacity to try to recruit the heros to his side at least once halfway into the book. Every POV chapter featuring him was fabulous and it was quite to treat to enter his head.
Emelia is okay enough. She has an interesting backstory and is a good strategist in unconventional warfare, just that when you compare her to Roderick, his chapters shine like the sun whereas her POV has a more subdued reflection like the moon. Maybe I felt her desire was not as strong as Roderick because we don't seem to grasp the equal sense of scale of urgency to win for the vast majority of the book. Roderick has to win because he doesn't want to lose the nobility title and estate his father worked so hard to achieve. He is cocky and arrogant, yet he is respectful to his butler and hates a lot of the atrocities the cultists do during the story. If the London society had hired him first, he would have been more than glad to switch sides. Emelia meanwhile... well, she wants to save the world. And umm... I guess get some money to travel, make new friends. And um... well, one can see we have a MC which has a lot of the right aspects of the formula to make a strong female lead character with believable sword and espionage skills, but she just seems too much of a good guy. Again, I don't think she was a badly written character, just that she doesn't stand out all that much. More like the book has to find nonstop conflict to keep her interesting instead of having major character flaws outside of brief instances she lets her guard down in front of Roderick because of her subconscious infatuation for him. I will however give Emelia credit because she does have a brief moment of self doubt when she gets a bit too close to her female bodyguard Aalyah (which I liked a lot because of her depth and far more developed backstory).
The crew she helps assemble is fine, albeit the only member that really struck out to me was Aalyah. The first half of the book suffers a very steep climb because it takes a huge amount of time giving the reader glimpses of the crew and why they accepted the job. I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more if the first half didn't feel so loaded and maybe gave us a bit more time to enjoy the worldbuilding. For the most part, the world is pretty much the same as ours in the late 1880's, except that vapor powered blimps are a common mode of transportation alongside trains. For readers that solely want character driven stories, this will be a non issue, whereas others readers might feel unsatisfied.
All in all, I think it was a pretty entertaining read with more than enough open story for a potential sequel, albeit it is a story I didn't find to be fully memorable that can stand out among so many fabulous books out there. Might be a wise idea for the author to fix the large amount of soldier/solider typos, albeit otherwise I don't think I saw a lot of other spelling or formatting issues.
3 1/2 stars!
Steampunk tech? Check. Likeable morally grey villain? Check. Badass characters? Also check.
For starters, this book has a lot of the right formula to make an entertaining romp for readers that want to priorize witty dialogue over sumptuous worldbuilding. And luckily The Beckoning Void will find its right audience.
The plot seems more like an excuse to form a band of mercenaries on a deep air adventure all over Europe than the average save the world story. Emelia DuMond, a former maid who has learned from the school of hard knocks how to build a false persona from her innate abilities as an actress is a member of a secret society based in London with an important mission: to recover an ancient book that might be dangerous if it ends up in the wrong hands.
Tasked with the job of recruiting a crew to act as her bodyguards while she charms her way with her mastery of multiple languages into obtaining the book without unnecessary bloodshed is pretty much the book's slower first half of the story. Meanwhile, we get chapters focusing on the dauntless antagonist of the story, an Austrian nobleman named Roderick whose war hero father gave him a nobility title... ladden in debt due to his lifestyle. Unable to pay off the debts he inherited with his palty cavalry officer salary and not sufficiently well bred to marry a rich noblewoman to help him get rid of his problems, he is cornered to a wall and obliged to bring the book to a gang of crazy cultists he detests. I like it how the author gives us a villain we can root for because of his sympathy for the plight of ethnic minorities being of Roma ancestry from his mother. He has a twisted sense of honor, but he treats his loyal minions well. I also found it funny that he has the audacity to try to recruit the heros to his side at least once halfway into the book. Every POV chapter featuring him was fabulous and it was quite to treat to enter his head.
Emelia is okay enough. She has an interesting backstory and is a good strategist in unconventional warfare, just that when you compare her to Roderick, his chapters shine like the sun whereas her POV has a more subdued reflection like the moon. Maybe I felt her desire was not as strong as Roderick because we don't seem to grasp the equal sense of scale of urgency to win for the vast majority of the book. Roderick has to win because he doesn't want to lose the nobility title and estate his father worked so hard to achieve. He is cocky and arrogant, yet he is respectful to his butler and hates a lot of the atrocities the cultists do during the story. If the London society had hired him first, he would have been more than glad to switch sides. Emelia meanwhile... well, she wants to save the world. And umm... I guess get some money to travel, make new friends. And um... well, one can see we have a MC which has a lot of the right aspects of the formula to make a strong female lead character with believable sword and espionage skills, but she just seems too much of a good guy. Again, I don't think she was a badly written character, just that she doesn't stand out all that much. More like the book has to find nonstop conflict to keep her interesting instead of having major character flaws outside of brief instances she lets her guard down in front of Roderick because of her subconscious infatuation for him. I will however give Emelia credit because she does have a brief moment of self doubt when she gets a bit too close to her female bodyguard Aalyah (which I liked a lot because of her depth and far more developed backstory).
The crew she helps assemble is fine, albeit the only member that really struck out to me was Aalyah. The first half of the book suffers a very steep climb because it takes a huge amount of time giving the reader glimpses of the crew and why they accepted the job. I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more if the first half didn't feel so loaded and maybe gave us a bit more time to enjoy the worldbuilding. For the most part, the world is pretty much the same as ours in the late 1880's, except that vapor powered blimps are a common mode of transportation alongside trains. For readers that solely want character driven stories, this will be a non issue, whereas others readers might feel unsatisfied.
All in all, I think it was a pretty entertaining read with more than enough open story for a potential sequel, albeit it is a story I didn't find to be fully memorable that can stand out among so many fabulous books out there. Might be a wise idea for the author to fix the large amount of soldier/solider typos, albeit otherwise I don't think I saw a lot of other spelling or formatting issues.
3 1/2 stars!
August 16, 2022
The Beckoning Void is a fabulous mash-up of steampunk and cosmic horror, all told with Patrick LeClerc's signature fast-pace, accessible writing style.
The book is a fun to read right from the beginning - I'm always partial to theatre-influenced characters, so one of the main characters being a Victorian actress-turned spy is a highlight. In fact, the characters overall were probably the best part of the book, all of whom are well-rounded and interesting, cool and clever, even the villain is sympathetic and well-fleshed out. The banter and dialogue is superb, with plenty of snark and wit. (You can never have enough snark)
Throw in some secret societies with real-world ties, awesome airship action and creepy eldritch horror, and you have a hell of ride. I know LeClerc has a couple of others series in progress, but I do hope we can look forward to more books and adventures with these characters in this world.
The book is a fun to read right from the beginning - I'm always partial to theatre-influenced characters, so one of the main characters being a Victorian actress-turned spy is a highlight. In fact, the characters overall were probably the best part of the book, all of whom are well-rounded and interesting, cool and clever, even the villain is sympathetic and well-fleshed out. The banter and dialogue is superb, with plenty of snark and wit. (You can never have enough snark)
Throw in some secret societies with real-world ties, awesome airship action and creepy eldritch horror, and you have a hell of ride. I know LeClerc has a couple of others series in progress, but I do hope we can look forward to more books and adventures with these characters in this world.
September 10, 2024
everything all at once!
I really got into Margarethe. I felt that LeClerc drew her as someone he could actually see in his mind or maybe even someone he knew/knows. REALLY got into the Civil War history. loved the fact that Charles Dickens shows up as an actual character. and whenever I see the classic Poe v. Shelley debate, I’m hooked!
I really got into Margarethe. I felt that LeClerc drew her as someone he could actually see in his mind or maybe even someone he knew/knows. REALLY got into the Civil War history. loved the fact that Charles Dickens shows up as an actual character. and whenever I see the classic Poe v. Shelley debate, I’m hooked!
May 13, 2023
Excellent story
Loved the characters. The action was well paced and detailed. Hope to see another story featuring these characters. Excellent combination of steampunk and horror.
Loved the characters. The action was well paced and detailed. Hope to see another story featuring these characters. Excellent combination of steampunk and horror.
February 8, 2025
The subtle humor mixed with some retro science fiction (was that steam punk?) added spice to this story of a book of spells set in the late 19th century.
June 14, 2022
If there’s one thing that I’m sure to love in a work of fiction, it’s a secret society. And personally, I think it’s pretty cool when notable historic figures are included in that secret society.
Early in these pages, we find that Charles Dickens, himself, is a member of this secret society. And soon after, Captain Little is an obvious reference to the Civil War hero Robert Smalls. I enjoy subtle clues like this.
Many of the scenes in The Beckoning Void were quite immersive. The author has a talent for creating atmosphere, and building character background through anecdotes and memories.
The pacing was a little monotonous at times, and the author's anti-church persistence got a little tiresome, but the action was fun and the synergy of airships and eldritch horror was a delight.
Early in these pages, we find that Charles Dickens, himself, is a member of this secret society. And soon after, Captain Little is an obvious reference to the Civil War hero Robert Smalls. I enjoy subtle clues like this.
Many of the scenes in The Beckoning Void were quite immersive. The author has a talent for creating atmosphere, and building character background through anecdotes and memories.
The pacing was a little monotonous at times, and the author's anti-church persistence got a little tiresome, but the action was fun and the synergy of airships and eldritch horror was a delight.
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