It was short, fast-paced, with a likeable, not-a-damsel-in-distress heroin and a mysterious stranger. ( )

Steampunk set in the Yukon during the Gold Rush? Yes, please. The main character is an 18-year old half native tribe woman? Yes, please, very much. She's trying to prove herself and finish her dead father's academic and technological legacy by winning a dogsled race with her steam powered sled? Give me this book now! ( )

Kali's only hope of escaping the wild and frozen backwater she grew up in is to win a sled race. Her custom-made steam powered sled might just win her the race--except that bounty hunters are after her father's greatest invention, "flash gold", and they'll kill her to get it. Luckily for Kali, she's got a mysterious bodyguard and a lot of inventions of her own.

One thing I particularly liked about this was that Kali and Cedar had tension and the beginnings of friendship, but it never became a romance. I'm used to stories in which plucky ladies and mysterious men immediately fall into bed together after a few scenes of antagonistic banter, so the slow build of their relationship was particularly nice. ( )

I got this book as the first in the series when I got the third in the series during the Read an E-Book Week. Proof that these promotions work for some people!

Flash Gold is a short book, but a full story that introduces Kali, her inventions and her world in vivid and glorious technicolour! Kali is set on competing in a sled competition with her new steam powered sled, much to the derision of the locals, and not a little jealousy and fear from those that suspect she’s a witch. A mysterious, but handsome, stranger turns up to suggest she hires him ‘for security’ during the sled race. The price? 10% of her winnings. Suspicious, Kali thinks. And of course she’s right. Nevertheless he proves his usefulness, with an antiquated sword as well as the latest in rifles, as Kali is beset by assailants over and over again. The hidden prize? Flash Gold, her late father’s invention, rapidly become the Holy Grail to unscrupulous and murderous entrepreneurs who see it as the solution to… what? I suspect they don’t actually know, and maybe Kali only suspects the half of it. From the sample of the third book I read online, I think we have plenty of the story to unfold yet!

It’s well written, vividly conjuring up the Yukon icefields and the characters sparsely populating them. Action scenes are smartly described, with diabolically imaginative inventions. The adventure looks set to continue. Looking forward to it! ( )

This book is more of a Sci-Fi book than anything with it being based in the 1980's. It is hard to like it. This book would be more interesting if based in a different era. This would be a great book for a teenager or young adult to read. ( )