Marsha's Reviews > Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams

Having escaped from Baron von Wulfenbach’s airship, Agatha and Krosp, emperor of all cats, find themselves on the run. They stumble across a traveling circus and get mistaken for show people. Agatha lends her mechanical talents to the traveling circus, all the while concerned with keeping her identity as a Heterodyne secret. She’s learned the hard way that folks respond uneasily when a Heterodyne spark is present.

There’s subtlety and nuance at work in these storylines. Bad guys aren’t crazed, scarred villains with scary laughs (well, they can be but that’s beside the point). Sometimes the villains are simply determined men and women willing to go to any lengths to keep the peace and, if that occasionally means killing people, that’s what it takes. Look at the history of any “civilized” country and you’re bound to turn up more than a few bodies.

The characters are varied, colorful and actually witty. The action is carefully plotted, filled with battles, explosions, exposition and genuine humor. Torture, mayhem, explosions, the promise of true love, good guys, bad guys, bad guys trying to become good guys (if the good guys are always winning, what’s the point in holding out? If you can’t beat ‘em…) and a traveling circus. What more can you want?