A Matter of Disagreement (Mechanical Universe) by E.E. Ottoman

Publisher:  Less Than Three Press, LLC (March 25, 2014)

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Review written by Christopher Hawthorne Moss

One of the subgenres of historical fiction is steampunk, also a subgenre of science fiction.  Throw in a little magic and you have a delightful read. The two men in this story are both upper-middle-class, but while one is an aristocrat the other has been disinherited by his family. This of course makes the latter a man with a chip on his shoulder which almost destroys any chance he has of connecting professionally or personally with the aristocrat. They start out convinced that they feel wronged by the other, thanks to an emphasis on the magic in the science, but as they work together they start to find things in common. One interesting aspect of this story is that the aristocrat was born intersex and identifies as male, as does the other man who is not intersex. That certainly added a dimension to the people in the story that I haven’t run into very often elsewhere. I look forward to reading more books by EE Ottoman.