You can fixate on the gears-and-goggles Steampunk nonsense, or you can look at what Perry did in the name of telling a slightly different story (one tYou can fixate on the gears-and-goggles Steampunk nonsense, or you can look at what Perry did in the name of telling a slightly different story (one that could evade the legal arm of Lucasfilm, but whatever). The relationship of each character to the story is different and that is more interesting than 'warp coal' or 'death blimp' or even 'quantum dragoon'.
Even though the quantum gimmicks do provide an interesting scaffold for the rest.
The conclusion is somewhat abrupt and implies future possibilities, but the existing volume is enough in my mind....more
There is magnificence in the intricate game that transcends time, the incredible scope of the scheme, and the jewel-like vision for the fate of this wThere is magnificence in the intricate game that transcends time, the incredible scope of the scheme, and the jewel-like vision for the fate of this world, seen complete like the glyph of reality in the denouement. Huso's aim is ambitious, and the moving pieces are done with delicate craftsmanship. Hardly a page goes by without throwaway mention of some evocative idea or a piece of wordsmithing that transforms things like "eaten" into "glistening pink conclusion" or a character realizing that the journal entry a character is reading is referring to events years in its future as though they had already occurred.
In the words of the book itself, "it creaked against reality's floorboards, almost insupportable". Cerebral like a Christopher Nolan film, it has the same satisfaction in its own cleverness and sterility despite being packed with astonishing ideas, the weight of which threaten gravitational collapse. You can only see the characters in hindsight, at the End of All Things, and why things had to end this way. Before this it is all a long chase and investigative mystery where Caliph Howl, ten steps behind, is completely in Sena's wake. Her motivations and situation are horribly suggested throughout, even to the point of Caliph seeming a bit of an idiot and observer of bigger wheels turning.
(view spoiler)[And then a major twist: a major character turns out to be seriously mentally ill. A person you thought of as an outside voice of reason to the whole diseased situation. That person's viewpoint collapses quite spectacularly and is yet another wheel that Huso sets spinning on this whirligig of terror. (hide spoiler)]
In all, it was supremely challenging, possibly too challenging to really like. The characters, the story, its entire world, are bent towards predation and capital-D Doom in the mythic sense, and this vector of inevitable tragedy permeates. Events are poised and things will start to unravel, and it is only a question of when. The kind of book that I can only read in small doses. The reader is like Caliph on his futile quest, chasing the plot elements and to a glistening pink conclusion....more
The Larry Niven quote on the back cover is perfectly appropriate, given that this is a spirit child of The Integral Trees. Humanity has adapted to liThe Larry Niven quote on the back cover is perfectly appropriate, given that this is a spirit child of The Integral Trees. Humanity has adapted to life in a (to us) profoundly unnatural environment, and Schroeder is relentless in layering on the worldbuilding when constructing the likely technologies and societies implied by the core concept.
That the result is an old-fashioned swashbuckler in slightly new clothing is an unexpected pleasure, even more so because he manages to find a rational excuse for the ridiculous Steampunk "sky pirate" conceit.
I was actually a little let down that the story eventually turns to the situation outside of Virga, and that Virga itself, while ancient and superscientific, does not exactly represent the product of a precataclysmic culture. To discuss this situation at all, while being the plot's most remarkable turning point, is to draw attention away from the amazement that is Virga and the humans sailing, flying, or flapping through its incredible expanse....more
Twenty-odd years of Steampunk nonsense have diluted its weirdness: brass clockwork in inappropriate places, a pseudo-Victorian aesthetic, and a nightmTwenty-odd years of Steampunk nonsense have diluted its weirdness: brass clockwork in inappropriate places, a pseudo-Victorian aesthetic, and a nightmare urban landscape. But latter-day Steampunk ignores the essence that Ford captures so handily here with a deeply distrustful and almost fearful look at the technological march of progress. Nearly every technological innovation is used as a tool to manipulate or oppress, and it is clear that the Master of the Well-Built City, Drachton Below, considers the population to be vermin contaminating his perfect expression of architecture.
A major question arising early on is the role of physiognomy itself. Is it a reality here, or is it balderdash that has been given a cutlass edge by political degree and conventional wisdom? Cley believes in it with religious fervor, but as a drug-addicted apparatchik is not reliable narrator.
Despite the scientific trappings, this story is more fantasy than anything else. Drachton Below wields strange powers that might be outright magical, and his mental state is reflected in the city itself. Dreams and drug hallucinations intersect with reality....more
That Tom Olam fell into this fantasy Europe some time ago and is now in the high echelons of the Bavarian secret service does the book credit, respectThat Tom Olam fell into this fantasy Europe some time ago and is now in the high echelons of the Bavarian secret service does the book credit, respecting the reader more than many do. But then, Olam and the other major characters figure greatly into the fiction and metafiction of the Castle Falkenstein rulebook itself.
The story seemed determined to puncture its own momentum. For one written in such a lighthearted tone, it took a hundred pages to engage on all cylinders, and once it did, Lord Auberon of the Seelie Court popped in twice to save the heroes from certain doom. While this was thematically appropriate--the Seelie and Unseelie manipulate events in some unseen Great Game of this world--it was hard to assign significant value to the actions of the human participants when all was said and done.
The setting resembles something between Terry Pratchett and the Girl Genius comic minus that one's frenetic slapstick and persistent dark tone. Magic is mixed with a steampunkery (sometimes literally) in something that verges on the fairy-tale and doesn't have much depth....more
The language and wit flows better and more naturally compared to the previous book, but still has a tendency toward wordiness that impedes the relentlThe language and wit flows better and more naturally compared to the previous book, but still has a tendency toward wordiness that impedes the relentless momentum found in the graphic novel version. Fortunately the author has adopted Pratchett-esque footnotes, which flesh out the corners of this entertainingly macabre version of Europe.
It is a book of narrow escapes, chases, pitched battles, and a near-continuous sense of crisis, all in a political landscape whose brutality would make even GRRM pause. With lightning guns and airships and weird monsters speaking in a pseudo-German accent.
And, as always, multiple Easter Eggs. (view spoiler)[I am particularly proud of finding the reference to The King in Yellow. (hide spoiler)]...more
I remember the old Space:1889 advertisements in Dragon Magazine, in times of yore. The clean lines of the David Deitrick art teased a story and settinI remember the old Space:1889 advertisements in Dragon Magazine, in times of yore. The clean lines of the David Deitrick art teased a story and setting--"steampunk"--whose words I didn't even know. It combined a sort of Barsoomian adventure with colonialism and imperialism in an intriguing mix that I've never quite gotten over.
Never bought the game. Always regretted that there wasn't a fiction series to go with it.
This book isn't framed as part of Space:1889, though it imports most or all of the setting and ideas. Meant to be sort of a prequel, I guess. Unfortunately, the more intriguing "flying ironclad ships on Mars" elements are barely mentioned.
It recalls the Oswald Bastable adventures, or Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, where a man from our world inadvertently falls into an alternate history. The Lord Kalvan connection is strong: Jack Fargo is uniquely skilled to meet this world's problems. His competence seemingly balloons during the events of the story, starting as wisecracking smart guy and historian, to all-round asskicker.
This is in tune with an intriguing theme. A more 'advanced' history--presumably our own near future--has more than a purely technological leg up on this 1888. Fargo is a product of modern military training, especially tactics, stress response, and combat psychology. It may be wish-fulfilment to say that a soldier with this background would make mincemeat of roomfuls of Victorian-era thugs, but the way that Chadwick applies this knowledge makes me want to believe it, and cheer as Fargo steps out of his opponents' combat stress tunnel vision and proceeds to mop the floor with them.
Chadwick, in fact, writes with a technical edge that I haven't seen in the 'steampunk' area. A discussion of momentum transfer in theoretical particle physics in regards to this world's "liftwood" airships--boring at the time--pays off in spades when revealing the meaning behind the title and the threat being posed....more
I am distrustful of any book with a metallic-colored cover and this much embossing. It's as though some muckety-muck decision maker felt the need to dI am distrustful of any book with a metallic-colored cover and this much embossing. It's as though some muckety-muck decision maker felt the need to dress the thing up, which is a warning sign of more than just poor art direction.
But, as it turned out, the worst I can say is I was not the right audience, and that an eleven-year-old me would have eaten the thing up.
There's a methodicalness to its plot points--Orphaned heir to the empire! Girl poses as boy to join the air service! Both must prove their worth! Secret missions! Fitting in and growing up!--that made its construction feel clinical and studied, rather than passionate....more
This contains (view spoiler)[partially as an object and macguffin and partially as a enigmatic character (hide spoiler)] the best and most interestingThis contains (view spoiler)[partially as an object and macguffin and partially as a enigmatic character (hide spoiler)] the best and most interesting rendering of a Necronomicon descendant that I've ever seen. Huso opens the veil a bit on his book of dark knowledge, the Cisrym Ta, revealing enigmatic Inti'Drou glyphs, complex fractal looping mind-distorting things--some of which are actually unsettlingly depicted on the page--representing compound syllables in a language thousands of years dead, a multiform construction that incorporates both the ink and the whitespace around it and which is a complex mathematical argument that may or may not have to do with the fundament of this or some other universe.
Previous owners, possibly of some precursor species, have added their own marginalia in equally cryptic markings.
The whole book is like that, importing tropes and concepts that genre readers take for granted and extruding them horribly in new and interesting directions.
We've all seen the Lovecraftian monstrosities from beyond the stars. These crawl between the branes of reality like some worming mobile pustule. These exist with mentalities and realities beyond human ken, but they have a plan, and they manipulate their human tools to that end, and it is very likely that things will not end pleasantly for the buglike humans. And sluglike prehuman overlords in the sewers below the feral borough of the city, and their crossbred progeny.
We've seen steampunkery and science and magic. The magic is science and is long mathematical proofs and arguments drawn in blood. Isca City is yet another Dickensian squalor that goes on the list of really interesting places that I have absolutely no desire to visit. A place that laces modernity and Victoriana and the ancient world: gas lights with phonographs and unfettered journalism and "hate crimes" as a concept and armored knights and of course zeppelins because zeppelins. And body horror manipulation of animals.
We've seen the youthful proteges develop. These two, Sena and Caliph, are weirdly codependent and intertwined and self-loathing. Each is skillful and untested, young and adult, formidable and vulnerable, determined and unsure, obsessed and doubting. Their characterizations are enthralling, especially as events--war, exposure to a particularly dangerous bit of reading, grappling with completely immoral power sources (arcane and political)--drive them up to and partially over the edge. And to The Last Page, into a strange aftermath....more
My other experiences with 'steampunk' novels (primarily The Bookman, The Court of the Air, and Perdido Street Station) all had a certain exquisite denMy other experiences with 'steampunk' novels (primarily The Bookman, The Court of the Air, and Perdido Street Station) all had a certain exquisite density of ideas that added to the Victorian splendor of the writing. It wasn't enough for Stephen Hunt to (also) have an underground body of water beneath the city sewers and the ruins of an ancient civilization. He elaborates detail after detail on the concept, fitting the situation into his ornate worldbuilding. Then again, this also explains his 582 pages, versus Jeter's 330 in this edition (thick pages, large print, wide spaced).
It's certainly made up for in velocity. This is a spare story, stripped of story and barely a sentence of love interest, and if you don't like what's happening, then wait twenty pages and it'll be entirely different. The velocity is sometimes slowed by the exposition, as the entire situation is explained to and discussed by the characters at some length.
I'm certainly going to check out more of his writing....more
This is exactly the kind of book that would use the phrase "to put the pudding in the puff" in narration on the first page, and this more or less setsThis is exactly the kind of book that would use the phrase "to put the pudding in the puff" in narration on the first page, and this more or less sets the expectations for everything that follows. It's frothy, a Victorian supernatural romance piece in the sparkly vampire and werewolf vein, with a soupçon of steampunk affectation. Fortunately, despite a sometimes overly precious writing style, it is so intent on having fun that the reader can't help but be caught up in it.
I'm not sure what I should have taken away from it. The story hinges on Alexia's "soulless" nature, which besides its measurable effect of neutralizing the supernatural appears to explain aspects of her personality: a forthright, unsubtle nature and a lack of grace or artistry. While this idea is an intriguing turnabout for the supernatural itself (vampires and werewolves have too much soul, rather than none at all), Alexia's characterization contradicts the premise, and it is not satisfyingly explained if the "soulless" appellation is accurate, or if her abilities have a more scientific basis, as suggested late in the book.
(And it appears that alternate views on the supernatural exist as well, in an interesting turn: does the "too much soul" hypothesis prevail only because the supernaturals dominate the discussion? This potentially-interesting notion is never explored.)
Perhaps a later book resolves this problem. As it is, Alexia is too animate a character, and is one who enjoys her confections and clothing style, for the "soulless" state to sit easily. I would have expected something closer to a Lisbeth Salander if this were true: a person without aesthetic sense and a complete inability to empathize or form normal relationships.
The alternate history aspects are different from what I've seen previously. Here, Carriger retrofits the supernatural elements into history such that the presence of vampires and werewolves are the reasons for certain things (vampire clans organization heavily influenced the basis for British government, and the Puritans departed England because the monarch had sanctioned the supernatural in society) but history ends up in the same place....more
I was not trilled to discover that this is a retelling of the first graphic novel, now in prose form, and the question that kept popping into mind is I was not trilled to discover that this is a retelling of the first graphic novel, now in prose form, and the question that kept popping into mind is "Why was this necessary?"
The graphic novel / webcomic is such an intensely visual experience, from the character designs to the panorama shots to the intricate Easter Eggs buried in detail-packed backgrounds that it was so hard to take the book at face value, especially since much of it is a line-by-line rendering. And reading this as an ebook on a tablet meant thrashing between it and the web version to see how each scene plays out. The additional narrative expanding the other characters and some back story and whatnot doesn't quite compensate for the madcap joy of the artistry in the original.
The story? The story is phenomenal.
The burlesque-and-slapstick routine (both done well) of the setting does not entirely hide its dark undercurrent. For all their destructive rue-the-day power, Sparks, especially rural/uneducated Sparks, are in a position of weakness. Especially female Sparks. Especially female Sparks whose family lineage make them a political football. There's a lot to read in this in regard to real-world gender politics and traditional gender roles.
Agatha is always floundering, always half (or perhaps a quarter) in control of any situation, only having time to wrangle the current threat partially into submission before some lumbering, obtuse Gentleman Adventurer comes through the door with death-ray gun, taking the action in some orthogonal direction. It's a repeated theme for the graphic series that has escalated matters to dizzying heights and which cannot possibly continue forever....more
First: ninety nine cents. The ebook version is aggressively--belligerently to the point of mouth-froth, rather--priced at ninety nine cents at Amazon,First: ninety nine cents. The ebook version is aggressively--belligerently to the point of mouth-froth, rather--priced at ninety nine cents at Amazon, at least for the moment. This is a value of such mind-boggling scale that I was agog for a full fifteen seconds before stabbing the 'Buy now with 1-Click(r)' button. If you want to try the Jackelian series, this is the way to do it. Reading the unavailable-as-ebook earlier members of the series is inessential but provides background.
Secondly: Sorry, _The Rise of the Iron Moon_...it's me, not you. You were the book that proved that ebook-on-a-tablet simply isn't working for me, both in terms of eyestrain, schedule, and distraction-by-internet. It's hard when reading sessions are limited to certain hours on certain days and aren't _quality_ hours. You deserve another star, but the long drag across the finish line, scattered over nearly a month, took a toll.
The Jackelian series up to and including this point have formed the sort of Russian nesting dolls that Doc Smith was so fond of: the threats unveiled in book X neatly encapsulate and render quaint the threats of book X-1, and will in turn be shown puny relative to book X+1. And given the scope of events here and the likely ramifications to the world, I can't see this progression going on indefinitely.
Just when I think I understand the setting--is this actually a far-future Dying Earth style style, the universe gone strange and doddering in its old age?--the author neatly pulls the rug out from under. From _The Court of the Air_ it felt like a smorgasbord of brass-goggles-on-my-tophat steampunk imagery mixed with odd elements of fantasy and whatnot, but in the last quarter of this book the explanations start to arrive, and the eclectic mix of genres finally does crystallize into something cohesive and satisfying....more
It again sets off a line of speculation, based on some random hints of changes to the fabric of the world and an unguessed-of prehistory: is this actuIt again sets off a line of speculation, based on some random hints of changes to the fabric of the world and an unguessed-of prehistory: is this actually some distant future history of Earth? I had started wondering about it during The Court of the Air and still can't come to a conclusion...probably by design.
Hunt's writing is suited to a Burroughsian-style high adventure, and I found myself liking this one over The Court. He still takes every opportunity to fill crevices with all sorts of world building, between references to the Royalist fleet, an Indiana Jones-style prelude to the story involving the tomb of Diesela-Khan, of the Black-oil Horde, the talk of memes by the lashlite seers, and the mercy killings of the Catosian free company. It's all intriguing, especially when it wraps into enormous set pieces like the organic Daggish city or the running battle in the Camlantean sewers against its feral living machinery (and the tie-in between that machinery and the Daggish greenmesh). All awesome.
The story again turns into a save-the-world adventure in a plot twist that would surprise nobody who had ever seen a Bond movie....more
Hunt works in as many top-level ideas as humanly possible: airships; the sentient steammen; the lands of fae; the weird and unsettling government of JHunt works in as many top-level ideas as humanly possible: airships; the sentient steammen; the lands of fae; the weird and unsettling government of Jackals; the "worldsinger" sorcerers; the deeply disturbing Chimeca and their Wildcaotyl gods; odd foreign governments and societies; and a smattering of fantasy flora and fauna.
It all gives the book a baroque richness but also works to its detriment when it goes off the deep end. "Pneumatic buildings" are mentioned several times but I'm left with no clear impression of what it's supposed to look like or why someone would build it. It took me until about page 300 to realize that a "grasper" is some kind of gnome or goblin, and is not a slang term for a profession.
The world he creates is intriguing--I was very impressed by the steamman society and the Chimecan history and mindset--and I'd like to see what would happen in a story that is not quite so apocalyptic and inclusive as this one. It seems that a story resembling the penny dreadfuls frequently mentioned (a lighter adventure) would be very entertaining....more
The part of me that is still a ten year old ate this whole thing up and demanded more helpings *. It has everything: secret societies in secret war, aThe part of me that is still a ten year old ate this whole thing up and demanded more helpings *. It has everything: secret societies in secret war, ancient technological civilizations, weird science, exotic world travel, island adventure. It would have pirates, but those were defeated in the prequel, and so it has to make do with warrior monks gone Cossack, sort of. And subterranean drilling machines.
It fits into the long and noble tradition of orphaned or semi-orphaned children on an adventure, where they always seem slightly smarter, gutsier, and luckier than the adults around them. What it lacks in constant excitement it more than makes up for in being extremely interesting and well-crafted.
I'm a sucker for a book with a lot of prop value, and this hardcover is made out to resemble a Moleskine travel journal to the point of having rounded-off corners and an elastic closure. Nearly every other page spread has some sort of gimmick on it, either a sketch, diagram, sidebar commentary, or random marginalia. And there are four fold-out diagrams, maps, and blueprints, one of which is huge. As an artifact in itself, this thing is awesome. The contents sadly veer from that motif and are supposedly the 'reconstructions' by Mowll from his discovered material, told in third person with all this supplementary awesomeness. There is the slight factor that the book wouldn't be nearly as interesting to read without this gimmickry.
I can imagine handing this book (or more likely the first of the series) to a young reader, and its style of presentation capturing their interest long enough for the story to take hold.
*: Accident with a time machine. I don't want to talk about it....more
Somewhere before the midpoint, the story's literary and historical Easter eggs become an actual distraction, and every name and title becomes a temptaSomewhere before the midpoint, the story's literary and historical Easter eggs become an actual distraction, and every name and title becomes a temptation for a look up on Google. Many of them (_The Book of Three_, Princess Irulan, Kilgore Trout) are not appropriate to the genre or nominal historical period and this comes off as too witty by half.
When done well--as the offhand mention to Doctors "Jekyll, Narbondo, Mabuse, Moreau, West" (p. 106), this is good, intelligent stuff. But not to the extent that Tidhar abuses the conceit. There's a point where Orphan is rummaging around a book warehouse and Tidhar makes an effort to enumerate what is within--about a full page of fictional book titles--and it's a game of "name that reference".
And based on the number of times that Harry Flashman's name is dropped in various contexts, George MacDonald Fraser deserves a special mention in the dedication, at least....more
Jess Nevin's introduction clarifies Steampunk's development as a "-punk" reaction to the science-forward, lone inventor stories littering dime novels Jess Nevin's introduction clarifies Steampunk's development as a "-punk" reaction to the science-forward, lone inventor stories littering dime novels and later influences, and the original use of the Victorian era as a one-step-removed stand-in for the modern day, for the purposes of social commentary. Like with the Cyberpunk movement, Nevin asserts that his social commentary has been consumed by the trappings, in this case the Victoriana of brass goggles and, for some reason, impractical airships.
This collection shows the breadth of possibilities, not all of which fall into the conventional Exquisite Corpse of alt-history "Victorian Era, but..." Stephenson's "Excerpt...", set in his Diamond Age, features technologies of the highest sort, but the New Atlanteans affect Victorian styles and modes of behavior for their own purposes. Chapman's astonishing "Minutes of the Last Meeting", off-balance and paradoxical, is set in Tsarist Russia 1917, but the non-Russian world unaccountably possesses nanotechnology. "The Giving Mouth" is alt-history but more deeply, weirdly so, and I want to read The Light Ages. "The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider" is a weird amalgamation of broken time-space that emulates the episodic dime-novel but vulgar and graphic, a young adult adventure ripped inside out and graphically violated. Jay Lake's Dark Town stories, which includes "The God-Clown is Near", is sadly uncollected.
I keep thinking of Ted Chiang's "Seventy-two Letters", which replaces pretty much the entirety of physical science with a combination of alchemy, preformationism, and Hebrew Shemhamphorasch (view spoiler)[I'm going with about five minutes of Google and Wikipedia for reference, here. Bear with me. Essentially a 72-character 'name' used within golem or amulets. (hide spoiler)] which upon explanation greatly resembles techniques of numerical analysis, cryptographic hashing, and code compilation/decompilation (view spoiler)[Software engineer, so on stronger ground. (hide spoiler)] with attendant problems in "name-piracy" (view spoiler)[software piracy, reverse engineering, and intellectual property disputes (hide spoiler)] and a plot that traverses all the issues of their 'technology' and into social class strife and eugenics and eventually in a surprise ending--this is a spoiler but you won't understand until you read the whole thing--genetics. Literally, genetics. If I were to name a story that encapsulates the possibility of Steampunk, this would be it....more
I walked into the book wondering how Reeve was going to make sense of Traction Cities and Municipal Darwinism, and was a little disappointed to learn I walked into the book wondering how Reeve was going to make sense of Traction Cities and Municipal Darwinism, and was a little disappointed to learn it offhand in the first fifty pages.
The writing definitely says "young adult", with characters occasionally acting like caricatures and strange slips of humor, but the unforgiving ends of many of them are counter to my expectations of what a YA novel should be. It was a little hard for me to deal with the change in tone from a pirate captain with hoity-toity aspirations to the brutal and sudden death of a promising and sympathetic character. ...more
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