A Conspiracy of Alchemists

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but in this case the cover promised more than the book delivered. I was expecting an atmospheric read with a creative mix of steampunk, fairies and vampires presided over by a kick-ass heroine. Instead I got a whiny heroine who spends most of the book in a snit (even the hero asks her if she ever gets tired of being “constantly outraged”) and an annoying warlock hero who, unbelievably, doesn't do any magic. Most distressingly, even though the heroine is supposedly a powerful Oracle of some sort, she never displays any power until suddenly at the book's climax, the voices of the previous Oracles somehow magically teach her everything she needs to know overnight, enabling her to immediately vanquish hundreds of bad guys in one fell swoop. The book's epilogue indicates that there will be future adventures in this series, but I won't be along for the ride.