The Oversight

A very fun read with a cliffhanger that begs for the next book.

Don't miss this one--I listened with my mom, a picky retired college lit teacher and we both loved it. Plenty creepy, deeply complicated, good guys with just enough flaws to not tip over the superhero line, backstory showing through here and there that you want to know instead of trudging through on your way back to the action. And of course, the irresistible ambience of our modern, smoke stink and swirling mist total misapprehension no doubt of Victorian London. Although I think we all somehow know on some level that as the cradle and pinnacle of industrialization and so in a way the mother of all that has gone drstically wrong as well as the few bits that we got right, it is the place to locate such a story as this. If you liked Penny Dreadful (lousy ending excepted of course) then by all means, dive in to The Oversight. Looking for the rest of the trilogy now. Fit of apoplexy assured if not found forthwith.

i liked the idea behind the story, just wasn't the fondest of the way it was presented.

Solid book. Not a memorable stand alone, but laid a great foundation for future books to build from.

This was a great book! I can't wait to read more by the author.

I loved the book. It was highly engaging. The fantasy of the book was well balanced with a modern and pseudo scientific explanation for why the mysteries of the book existed. It was a great production and leant an atmosphere similar to the Harry Potter series but with more blood and gore.

Om’goodness but this was SO good! I certainly hope there are more!

A little difficult to follow but really enjoyed the story. Loved the narrator.

Engaging fantasy, expertly read. I wish the sequel was offered here.

Now this was an unexpected treat, with the kind of creepy fae I enjoy reading about and a collection of appealing law keepers in dire straights. Features I enjoyed: a victorian flair, a very interesting cast of characters, circus, hedgerows, and a pleasing affinity for knives. Also, several side characters that seem to have potential to join the fray and some very annoyingly powerful bad guys that have not triumphed yet, by some weird chances. Kept me on the edge of my seat, and relieved me significantly whenever the danger passed -- although that's never a guarantee, and I worry over the future.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.

I've stopped reading this book at p124 of 500+.The setting and characters look very intriguing and I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the book hit two annoyances in a row and that was enough to throw me out.The first is relatively minor, but a cliché: there's a conspiracy going on directed specifically against the Good Guys, and this conspiracy involves an awful lot of moving parts and complexities. Nevertheless everything seems to go as planned, *even though* it includes the villains predicting very specific details of what the Good Guys will do (without demonstrating any particular special talent that would allow it), and having very specific knowledge about the whereabouts of certain items (without showing why they know this). It's a common trope that the best-laid and simple plans of Good Guys gang aft agley while the Baddies pull off elaborate conspiracies, but somehow I found it noticeable here.The specific point which started me thinking about this: one of the villains, while imprisoned, uses a load of bones to create a necromantic pet and feed this through a slit he's convinced a jailer to open in the cell door. There is no way he could have known the jailer would allow this. The pet then runs right across London without being lost, run over by a carriage, or eaten by the dog that very nearly catches it, to deliver a message - and then runs back to the cell with a means of escape. I'd have loved to see the pet get caught by the dog and this plan fall apart, just the once.The second one is significantly more frustrating, because it's one huge lampshade with a touch of sexist cliché. Essentially, the villains' plot is largely outlined over the course of the first hundred pages. Then the Goodies have a conversation. Male Protag says, basically: "Hey, I'm worried about the thing that's happened. I'm concerned that [pretty much the exact plot] may happen. We should [take simple, obvious, reasonable steps which would basically foil the plot] to avoid it and fulfil out duties."Female Protag says, basically: "No, we can't do that because I am emotional right now. I feel bad about things, including that I was emotional earlier and allowed my emotions to make me do something unwise. I will briefly exposit the point of our organisation and pretend this addresses your reasonable suggestions in some way."Minor Character says: "You two are so into each other."Sigh. Basically, this scene has the man lampshade the situation, in a way that makes him sensible (and correct) just like we want our clever protagonists to be. They have, after all, survived for centuries by being very clever and cautious. But to explain why they don't do the sensible thing, the woman gets emotional and overrules him, leaving them vulnerable to the villain's plot. This is old hat.Yes, the scene does allow the author to explain away why they don't do the sensible thing. It makes the man sensible, and the woman irrational. It makes the man right and the woman wrong. It makes the woman to blame for the fact that everything will go wrong. And it makes the man wrong, because he succumbs to his own emotional attachment to the woman and allows her emotions to mislead him. It's old. It's a cliché. And it's frustrating. The author has made the very clever characters be foolish for no good reason, in order that the plot can go ahead. And in the process, he makes them look bad, and in particular he undermines the female protagonist who was until this point pretty damned awesome.This book has a cool setting, a cool premise and a pleasingly diverse and exciting cast. I was really quite excited by the prospect of following these characters through this story. The protagonists are kickass in a not-quite-obvious way. The villains are intriguingly weird and sinister. There are some more ambiguous figures who also seem interesting, like the minions. But this scene really just evaporated my interest in reading the rest of the book.Having had that scene, I am faced with reading another 400 pages watching them succumb to the very plot they agreed not to take precautions against. And the whole time, I'm just going to be sat there thinking "but you could easily have avoided all this bad stuff by Doing the Thing". On top of which, I've now got a reasonable idea of how the plot is supposed to unfold: having stated the plot, and had the protagonists lampshade why they aren't doing anything that would hinder the plot, it really doesn't seem plausible that the villains' plot will go wrong any time soon.I appreciate there's a possibility that Fletcher has been clever, and actually things won't go the expected way. I don't see any way that he can recover this specific scene, because even if things don't go as expected, it won't change the fact that Man accurately predicted the specific plot against them and Woman emotioned him into stupidity. And so the characters themselves are weakened. And because there are another 400 pages to this book, I can't really be bothered to read them all on the remote chance that the story is much cleverer than this.And plus, this is only book one of a trilogy. There is no way at all I'm reading 1500ish pages if it's as frustrating as I predict, which means I won't get closure anyway, which particularly deters me from reading the first 500. So no. Sorry Charlie. Too many books on my To Read pile to take a punt on you being less disappointing than I fear. Unless I get reports back that I am completely wrong about this, I'm stopping.

A very engaging & entertaining story. Well constructed and developed. Great characters & performed by a wonderful reader. Sorry when it ended. Left me wanting more.

Stoneheart setting with glints etc,, but in the Victorian Era, but there were no animate statues in this stories, there was politics, a golem and lots of strange goings on.Interesting look at earlier times in the Stoneheart world.

This is my favorite audiobook to date. I cannot wait for the sequels.

Like 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell'? How about Daniel O'Malley's 'The Rook'? Then you should get this book.
The old-timey London setting, with secret magical elements, is reminiscent of the former book, but the tone is much less fussy. The supranatural agency and amnesiac heroine reminded me of the latter.

'The Oversight' is the organization of half-fey agents who are sworn to uphold 'The Law and the Lore,' protecting both magical and mundane elements, mainly by keeping them from each other... However, after a past Disaster, the Oversight is radically reduced, and in quite dire straits. They are desperate for new magical members, and in danger of being overwhelmed in their task by maleficent magical forces.

When a girl who seems to have some ability is delivered into their hands, Sara Falk is eager to accept her into the fold... but there could be a trap awaiting her and her friends.

Nice, rich, complex world-building and a good twisty plot make this long book very enjoyable. It's very clearly the start to a series... not all the questions are answered, or issues resolved... but it's done well enough that rather than aggravating me, I'm eagerly anticipating the next volume. I hope Mr. Fletcher is a quick writer!

This is a new series set during the Victorian era with a group known as the Oversight is tasked to keep normal humans safe from the Fae. But it seems there are people that want to take them out and use the magical tools they have for themselves and will team up with the Fae in order to get rid of the last group of Oversight in England. The numbers of them has dwindled due to was a generation ago. The setup of the story was good and I'm interested to see what will happen with this. I have heard several people compare it do Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but I have to say it is ha a bit of that feel but certainly isn't written with any footnotes.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

I came to The Oversight during a forced holiday after a long dry spell absent of any fiction. It was just what I needed. This is a playful gothic fantasy that starts in the gas-lit, fog-drenched streets of Victorian-era London, and follows an ages old coterie, now deeply diminished, known officially as the “Free Company for the Regulation and Oversight of Recondite Exigency and Supranatural Lore.” What does this mean? It means magic, but more significantly, it means supernatural monsters, the Sluagh of Irish and Scottish folklore. The supernatural, forgive me, supranatural elements of the story are not overblown, but are rather understated and often lend a tasty eeriness to the story. This is a story with a strong sense of atmosphere and well-handled pacing and complexity, all tied together with capable and often elegant prose.The characters of The Oversight borrow from a broad range of literary archetypes. This is certainly a plot-driven story, but I find the characters interesting and compelling despite their lack of internal development. These are characters as we find in the best serials, be they comics, penny dreadfuls, or Dickensian tales. And they are bolstered with a sense of authenticity by the summoning of the likes of such real-history characters as John Dee, Rabbi Dr Hayyim Samuel Falk, and the 17th century encylopedist and esotericist Sir Thomas Browne. (The quotes from Browne are real, while Falk’s writings are fictional, and Dee makes a cameo appearance.) Fletcher even appropriates the historical dispute between two 19th century conjurors, Barnardo Eagle and John Henry Anderson. This blending of the real and the imaginative brings depth and life to the story.The Oversight is the first novel of the Oversight Trilogy, and the second installment, The Drowning Glass, is not due out until May 2015.I’m waiting impatiently.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: Enter an alternate, dark version of Victorian London, full of witchhunters, supranatural creatures, and much more. This book constantly keeps the reader guessing and is completely engrossing!Opening Sentence: The natural and the supranatural inhabit the same world, intersecting but largely unseen to one another, like lodgers who share a house but keep different hours, only occasionally passing on the narrow stairs.The Review:When I read the premise for this book, I was immediately intrigued because it sounded different from any other fantasy book I’ve read recently. I was definitely not disappointed. While there is a lot of world building, the world that’s been created is fascinating, and Fletcher constantly keeps the reader guessing as to who is good and who is evil.The book takes place in an alternate version of Victorian London. One fateful night, a girl is brought to “The Jew’s House,” wrapped in a burlap sack. The man who brings her says he heard a rumor that the Jew was looking for screaming girls. “The Jew” is in fact Sara Falk, and the only thing she wants is to get this poor girl away from the man who captured her. In so doing, she discovers that the girl, Lucy, has the same talent Sara herself has: when they touch stone with their bare hands, they can see glimpses of the past. This, plus the ring Lucy has in her possession means that she is one of them: a potential new member of The Oversight. The Oversight is tasked with keeping the barrier between worlds closed, protecting normal humans from supranatural creatures. Thirty years ago, their numbers were decimated, and now there are only five left, the minimum amount needed to keep the barrier closed. Seeing hope for the future in Lucy, Sara takes her in, not realizing Lucy has been placed there by their enemies. Thus begins an adventure full of witchhunters, enchanted mirrors, evil creatures, and the five people meant to protect the world from them all.If I had to pick the main characters of this book, I would have to go with Lucy and Sara. While the reader gets to see all the characters’ points of view, it seemed to me that it focused the most on these two (or at least, these were the two I connected to the most strongly). Lucy comes off at first as being rather self-centered, but as the book goes on, she begins to seem more and more like a scared girl who is just trying to figure out who she is, and by the time the book ended, I was desperate for her to find out as well. Sara’s storyline in the book is very harrowing, and I found myself riveted every time the book showed what was going on with her.This is not a book you want to read if you’re feeling tired. There is a lot of information given, and I found myself constantly having to pay attention to what was going on so that I didn’t miss anything. This definitely isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re looking for a light read, this isn’t it. Fletcher was able to constantly surprise me throughout the book with revelations made about certain characters. You could never be too certain what was really going on. It’s definitely obvious that this is part of a trilogy, as the storylines were not wrapped up completely. Some concluded, while building blocks were put in place for future storylines, all of which have me very eager to find out where the story is going. Fans of fantasy should definitely check this book out!Notable Scene:“You call me foul because you have tricked me into a disadvantage,” he wheezed. “But you do not know what enemy you have just made, you mannerless puppy. Our blood is Pure, our blood is One and I am Many!”His eyes flashed for a moment, then faded again.Mr. Sharp smiled down at him.“I know who you are. I recognised the smell and the tattoos. You are one of the Night Host, a Shadowganger. You are one of the Sluagh,” he said, pronouncing the word “sloo-er”, his lip curling with an evident distaste as he did so. ‘But your place is in the north. Your place is the wild lands. That is the Law and the Lore.”The Sluagh shook his head and winced as his neck touched the iron on either side. His voice was weakening and fading as fast as his tattoos were washing out but there was still a flicker of defiance within him.“That is your Lore, not ours. We live wherever we will and always outside the Lore. What is this Lore anyway?”“The heart of the Lore is simple,” said Mr. Sharp in a measured voice, the kind a teacher might use to a slow but excitable child, “It says you cannot come among defenceless men, women and children and prey on them. If you do, we will stop you.”The Sluagh tried to snarl but only had the energy to curl his lip.“What almighty ‘we’ is this?”“You know who those of us who carry this badge are. We are the Free Company. We are Law and Lore…”Mr. Sharp made a fist and held the ring in front of the Sluagh’s eyes. “…we are The Oversight.”FTC Advisory: Orbit provided me with a copy of The Oversight. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

Pros: highly descriptive writing, lots of interesting characters, complicated plots, cool monsters, decent world buildingCons: several info dump chapters in a rowWhen a tied up girl is ’sold’ to ‘the jew’ of London’s Wellclose Square, several plots are set into motion. Because that’s the safe house of the last remaining hand of the Oversight, a group of people with supranatural abilities who keep the ordinary people of England safe from the creatures that go bump in the night. There’s a large cast of characters, but the author’s attention to detail makes it easy to remember who’s who. And the various protagonists and antagonists are all distinct enough to keep them separate along with their varied plots, worries and actions. I loved that there’s a mixture of rich, poor, beautiful, horrible people, able-bodied and not, in the book. There are several female characters in major roles, allowing for a large variety here too, in terms of temperament and actions.The descriptive writing does make the opening a bit slow but it really helps to ground you for when the plots start to multiply. Indeed, the necessity of paying close attention for the first few chapters pays off as the book continues, as it becomes very easy to remember what’s happening to whom, and where.I loved the monsters in the book, the Slaugh and the Alp. Both were suitably horrifying, as befit faery-style creatures.There’s a lot of information you need to know in order to understand this alternate Victorian England. Unfortunately, this required several information dumps. While the author tried to vary these by working them into different conversations, the fact that these take place one after the other in successive chapters makes them feel contrived. The first one especially felt contrived, as it has a member of the Oversight explaining what the organization is to one of the creatures it oversees, a creature who should (and you discover does) already know what the Oversight is. Some of the other conversations would have sounded natural, had there not been so many other info dumps around them. The ending is good, with several plot points being tied up while others are left open for the forthcoming sequels.

I love books that keep me guessing, books like The Oversight that have me hanging on every word from beginning to end! It had me wondering from the start: Just who or what is The Oversight? Are they the good guys or the bad guys? Who are their enemies, and their enemies' enemies for that matter, and why is it that every time I think I’ve got a bead on what’s happening the book decides to drop a bombshell on my head and look out, it's a trap!? Oh boy, it's all plot twists and hidden agendas galore with this one!Accomplished children's/YA author Charlie Fletcher takes readers on a journey steeped in magic and mystery in his first adult novel, offering a wonderful and genuinely captivating tale which historical urban fantasy fans will surely adore. Headquartered in a neo-gothic Victorian-like version of London, the Oversight is a secret society that has since dwindled down to a mere five members after a tragedy devastated their numbers thirty years ago. But five, being a sacred number, is enough. Five is all The Oversight needs to keep things running, guarding the borders between the magical and the mundane and protecting the unsuspecting public from the nasty things that go bump in the night.But creatures from the Otherworld aren’t the only threats. Danger comes in the form of more earthly foes as well, from sinister factions to witch-hunters who won’t rest until they see the last remnants of the Oversight destroyed. When a young girl with special abilities shows up at the Oversight safehouse, Sara Falk wants badly to believe she has found a fellow Glint and potential new recruit in Lucy Harker. However, it soon becomes clear that Lucy’s appearance is part of a more sinister and unsettling plot to strike at the Oversight. The question is…just whose plot is it?Stick with this book, and sooner or later you will find out. Admittedly slower to start because this is the kind of story requiring plenty of time to build itself up, the setting will nonetheless pull you in straight away with its incredible atmosphere. I reveled in this dark, magical side of London. Anything at all can happen, so prepare to see some truly bizarre and uncanny sights. Fletcher’s prose will put a spell on you, wickedly leading you down twists and turns with his artful storytelling. He made me think I knew what was going on, only to surprise and humble me by showing me just how little I knew. I was very impressed with the way he revealed his secrets, meticulously setting up the stages of the plot so that one revelation always led to another, and things are never as they appear.From the city streets to the countryside with a traveling circus, this book will also take you to all sorts of places and introduce you to a lot of interesting people (and creatures). Even now, I can’t decide what I liked better, the characters or the setting. The world was what made me fall in love with this book initially, but I was also taken with the group of personalities making up the Oversight. Fletcher didn’t have to resort to any overloading of background information to convey the weight of the history and connections between the five members – Sarah, Cook, Mr. Sharp, Hodge and The Smith. Strange creatures from folklore also lend their nightmarish presence to this world, but even they were hard pressed to be less creepy than some of the truly disturbing human antagonists. I haven’t enjoyed myself this much with a book in a long time. I was also quite satisfied with the ending, which caught me unawares considering how dire and heartbreaking some of the events were. A major conflict was resolved but the path is also paved for so much more, which is the way I like my series starters. The future looks quite desperate for The Oversight, but there’s also hope for this steadfast group of friends. Remember: “When they fall, so do we all.” With such high stakes, I just can’t wait to find out what happens next.