Karen Memory Books in Order

Karen Memory is Elizabeth Bear's steampunk adventure series about Karen Memery, a young woman who works at Madame Damnable's Hôtel Mon Cherie in an alternate version of the Pacific Northwest. The setting is usually called Rapid City, and it has the right mix of mud, machinery, money, and bad politics to make trouble feel close at hand.

Karen is the reason to read the series. She is funny, sharp, brave, occasionally impulsive, and very clear-eyed about the business she works in. Bear writes her voice with warmth and grit, so the books feel less like a tour of steampunk scenery and more like sitting beside someone who has a story to tell and no patience for nonsense.

The first novel, Karen Memory, begins when a badly injured young woman arrives at the Hôtel Mon Cherie needing help. That one act of shelter pulls Karen, Madame Damnable, and the other women of the house into a fight involving a violent rival, missing women, political corruption, a serial killer, and dangerous inventions. Marshal Bass Reeves enters the story too, which gives the novel a lawman thread without turning it into a standard Western.

There are airships. There are mechanical wonders. There is also rent to pay.

One of the best parts of the series is the relationship between Karen and Priya. Priya is capable, angry for good reason, and not interested in being a decoration in anyone else's adventure. Their romance gives the books a tender center, but Bear does not sand off the danger around them. The city is full of people with power, and not many of them plan to use it kindly.

Stone Mad is a shorter follow-up that sends Karen and Priya into another tangle, this time with spiritualists, stage magic, con games, and an angry tommy-knocker. It is lighter on the grand citywide machinery of the first book, but it is useful if you enjoy Karen's voice and want more time with her after the main novel.

Angel Maker returns later with a full-length adventure set around the dawn of motion pictures. Karen and Priya take work with a Western film company, where stunt riding, a mechanical named Cowboy, a dangerous horse, and a double murder put them right back in the middle of danger.

Start with Karen Memory. The world is welcoming, the voice is immediate, and the series works best when you meet Karen before she has had time to become anybody's legend.