Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Aurorarama (The Mysteries of New Venice #1)

3.29 of 5 stars 3.29 · rating details · 382 ratings · 116 reviews

A startling, seductive literary novel that entwines suspense, science fiction, adventure, romance and history into an intoxicating new genre.

1908: New Venice--"the pearl of the Arctic"--a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds and elegant victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice.

But as the city prepares for spring, it feels m...more

Hardcover, First Edition, 409 pages

Published August 31st 2010 by Melville House Publishing (first published August 10th 2010)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Best Steampunk Books

134th out of 471 books — 2,481 voters

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Translated Speculative Fiction

30th out of 128 books — 57 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,959)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 20, 2012 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: littry-fiction

i wrote a review for this, already, for another source - michael isn't the only one who can cuckold a website! but so i haven't really wanted to write a whole new review, but i didn't think it was seemly to cut and paste the one i already wrote. and that blank spot has been tormenting me with its blankness...

so i gotta write something.

as a physical object, this book is gorgeous. and like anything gorgeous, it isn't going to give you its number at the end of the night. not unless you work little...more

47 likes · like · see review

Sep 18, 2010 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010_release_read, review_fbc, genre-sf, read_2010, top_25_2010_novels

Described as "Jules Verne on drugs" with some justification, the book takes place in the fictional city of New Venice 450 miles from the N. Pole - "putting ice back in Ven*ice* " is one of the many wonderful plays on language in the book; literate, funny, a sort of "icepunk" alt-history with sex and drugs.

Will add the full review tbd soon, but for now I would say that this is the best sf I've read in 2010 (full FBC rv below)

INTRODUCTION: "1908: New Venice--"the pearl of the Arctic"--a place of...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 16, 2011 Elijah Kinch Spector rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dont-own

Finished the book and I still do not know who or what the ever so important Helen was supposed to be. It is very confusing.

Ahem, we'll get back to that. Aurorama, by the end, reminded me a lot of The Court of the Air in both its strengths and its weaknesses. That is, both books have extremely strong and entertaining worldbuilding, with a lot of great details and ideas and nooks and crannies that make exploring the world therein a rich experience. But, both books seem to get so wrapped up in that...more Finished the book and I still do not know who or what the ever so important Helen was supposed to be. It is very confusing.

Ahem, we'll get back to that. Aurorama, by the end, reminded me a lot of The Court of the Air in both its strengths and its weaknesses. That is, both books have extremely strong and entertaining worldbuilding, with a lot of great details and ideas and nooks and crannies that make exploring the world therein a rich experience. But, both books seem to get so wrapped up in that side of things that they never quite got around to making me care about their characters, or fully understand what was actually going on.

You can see why this would be a problem. Aurorarama was full of moments that had a great Sense of Wonder thing going on, but there were others that should have had a similar impact, but lost it due to confusion as to what was happening and what was or wasn't important. Valtat's prose is pretty great throughout, but at times it feels that crafting it distracts the book from actually explaining things that we need to know.

I should add very quickly that there is one major caveat regarding the prose itself. It is positively riddled with puns. Groaner upon groaner, often used as normal terms that the people of Valtat's beautifully-realized arctic city would just throw around; as though some reference to America or New York had to be part of every other word that I used in my normal day. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Back to the story, though, my major problem came along with something that I usually like. I very much enjoy it when a story throws in references to things in a past that we never see, when a feeling of continuity is given. (As an example, there's an amazing episode of The Venture Bros. that is presented as the second episode of a three-part story that we never see the beginning and end of.) But Aurorarama goes a little too far with this kind of thing, to the point where the reader doesn't know which knowledge they should be trying to retain and which is just colorful background. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and like to think that I'm pretty good at keeping track of these worlds, but when I'm told that someone whose name I never heard before died saving the city alongside the Lobster Girls, that is not enough background for me to understand her importance every time she's brought up again throughout the book, especially not when she becomes intrinsic to the plot in a way that's never really clear. It feels like the book is trying to do too much and loses track of itself. The city of New Venice would have made a great travelogue novella with no real plot.

But there is a plot, and it's hard to follow -- which would be acceptable if the characters were likable. But they really aren't, I'm afraid. Our heroes, Brentford and Gabriel, are interesting enough for awhile, but I never felt much affection for them, nor agitation at their peril. They're just kind of there, anchoring a fascinating setting full of fun side characters with their own unexemplary selves. That's not even getting into how ill-served the book's female characters are. (Ok, I'll get into that just a touch: They are usually perfect cyphers to affect their male counterparts, and it seemed like we were supposed to find one character at fault for herself being hypnotized and used, which is nonsensical and I must charitably chalk up to more of the book not being clear, rather than some bizarre slut-shaming.)

So, I'll grant that a lot of what I've just written makes three stars seem awfully generous. Let me clarify, then, that there are some positvely sparkling parts of Aurorarama. The setting is wonderful, and the city really does come alive, especially in the first part. One can often feel the bite of the cold or the warmth of various drugs, one can imagine the strange bohemian lifestyle (pop jazz in 1908? that part doesn't make sense, but let's move on...), and one can feel the disturbing undercurrents of a place that was meant to be a utopia. The way that rules intended to make New Venice a wonderful place are twisted, and the ways that oppression of the indigenous peoples is passed off as "respecting their traditions" are done wonderfully. It is a great setting beautifully described, I just wish that the story had matched it.(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Feb 09, 2013 Ori rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, steampunk, reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm having a hard time deciding whether I liked this book or not. One one hand, the world building was absolutely fantastic, with just the right amount of detail to build it up in your head and leave the rest up to your imagination. New Venice seems like a splendid magical city of wonder and corruption, and it's this blend that brings it to life.

Where the story is lacking is probably speed. It takes forever for the story to pick up, and having so many unexplained references to things within the...more I'm having a hard time deciding whether I liked this book or not. One one hand, the world building was absolutely fantastic, with just the right amount of detail to build it up in your head and leave the rest up to your imagination. New Venice seems like a splendid magical city of wonder and corruption, and it's this blend that brings it to life.

Where the story is lacking is probably speed. It takes forever for the story to pick up, and having so many unexplained references to things within the world doesn't help. Just...who the fuck is Helen? Context clues only go so far, to my never ending frustration. Why does everyone know her and how did she get all these magic powers? I suppose she will be explained in the next installment of this trilogy, but it's sort of bad form to bandy her about from the very beginning and not really tell us why or how she's doing everything she's doing.

There was also a distinct lack of appeal to the two main characters. Brentford was boring and passive, and Gabriel went a bit too far in the whole "dissipated rake" thing to be completely likeable. Still, persevering in reading the book was a reward. I ended up liking Brentford and his solidity as a character and appreciating Gabriel because of the bleeding heart he tries very hard (almost too hard) to conceal.

The side characters and their respective backgrounds were also pretty excellent. I loved the air of mystery around the masked Scavengers and the jolly anarchism of the airship Germans. The Sophragettes were probably my favorite dark horse faction, and I'd love to read more about Lillian Lake. The oppression of the Inuits also sort of struck a personal tone with me, and his respect of their culture went a long way in endearing Brentford to me.

This book reminded me a lot of Gordon Dahlquist's The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters for what I liked and what I didn't like about it. It had the whirling steampunk adventure I loved and also the slow character-building and seedy debauchery I didn't quite want at all.

Would I recommend this book to people? It's certainly not for everyone, but I think I would tell people who have a healthy fascination with the steampunk genre and enough patience to root through a lot of diegetic in-jokes to give it some consideration.(less)

like · see review

Jul 11, 2012 Margaret Mcgaffey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is not for everyone. I’ll say that up front so as you read the rest you can judge for yourself if you’re part of the someones who will be delighted as I was. I had a hard time reading it, because Aurorarama demands more of the reader than just presence. The descriptions are complex, interwoven, and often drug-addled, leaving the feeling of strolling through an opium den while images swirl around you just out of comprehension.

The pieces of a traditional narrative are present, but in suc...more

like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Lisa Eckstein rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

AURORARAMA takes place in New Venice, "the pearl of the Arctic," a city located 450 nautical miles south of the North Pole, and more than anything else, the story is about the city itself. This is planned as the first book in a series, and that's evident from how much city history and legend is revealed in this book and how much more is only hinted at. At times as I read, I could have done with a bit less world-building and a little more plot and character development, but overall the book prese...more

like · see review

Feb 01, 2011 Smellsofbikes rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the strangest books I've read in years, not only from the standpoint of plot, but also from the uneven writing style. If the first 50 pages seem Baroque, overwritten, and almost intentionally opaque, it's not just you, and it doesn't stay like that throughout: it evens out into a solid, although very odd, story. At times this reminded me of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and at other times, of Chabon's The Jewish Policemen's Union, but mostly it felt like an arctic steampun...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 08, 2011 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mar-apr-2011

Described as "gloriously retro literary steampunk" (Guardian), something like "what Jules Verne would write if woken from the dead and offered a dose of mushrooms" (National), Aurorarama captivated the critics from start to end. As it slowly unravels its secrets through Orsini's and d'Allier's alternating perspectives, the narrative "glides on silver skates from the surreal to the absurd to the languorously decadent" (Salon.com), balancing a stylish, suspenseful thriller with eccentric character...more

like · see review

Feb 22, 2011 Sarabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Really I would give it a 3.5 if I could. I almost put this book down 3 or 4 times and I actually started and finished another book after I started this which is uncommon for me. I admit to being a cover whore and the gorgeous blue ice field with polar bear (which should really be a Polar Kangeroo) and dirigible with all those stars was what kept me going. My problem was I just could not get into the beginning. Oh I loved the setting with the weird sort of "icepunk" city in the middle of the froz...more Really I would give it a 3.5 if I could. I almost put this book down 3 or 4 times and I actually started and finished another book after I started this which is uncommon for me. I admit to being a cover whore and the gorgeous blue ice field with polar bear (which should really be a Polar Kangeroo) and dirigible with all those stars was what kept me going. My problem was I just could not get into the beginning. Oh I loved the setting with the weird sort of "icepunk" city in the middle of the frozen Arctic but I had a hard time with the character Gabriel and his weird drug addiction; although possibly because of that we get a lot of existential comments from him, which I appreciate. The other main character, Brentford, really wasn't doing much for me in the beginning either; although I was intrigued by the seditious book he supposedly wrote. It wasn't until Book Two (really part two), Magic and Mayhem, on page 120 that I really picked up the story and ran with it. So for those of you who are discouraged, perservere, it gets better! There were still some slow parts but all in all once the mystery begins to develop; in which you can't seem to figure out who is really working for whom and which "side" they are actually on the book catches it's flow. I found too, especially because of my issues with Gabriel, the secondary characters, as well as the setting, made the book for me. Helen, the sort of ghost/goddess, General Mason, Lillian Lenton/Lake, the Kiggertarpok or Polar Kangaroo, Stella, and in Brentford's thoughts "[he] was amazed at how many allies he had with him: the Scavengers, the Aerial Anarchists, the Sophragettes, the Navy Cadets, the Inughuit." "Aurorarama" is worth it for the secondary characters alone.

Some great quotes from the book :

via Gabriel "Books knew more than you did, as a rule."

"...the city spread and sprawled beneath him, its silver and golden lights strewn in Marco Polo Bay like ducats and doubloons from a burst treasure chest...the lights had the archaic charm of little fires on a plain, and the frailty about them...at least explained a lot of Man's stubborn ruthlessness."

"The Arctic is one of the last free spaces there is, be it for the men or be it for their minds-free to the point of being fearsome, actually, fearsome as only freedom can be."

So read this book if you love steampunk, stories about the last frontier of men, or for some very thoughtful writing.

(less)

like · see review

Mar 30, 2011 Bill rated it 3 of 5 stars

I generally dislike magical realism as an entire genre, with a few exceptions (Murakami springs to mind, but he is such an excellent writer and even his weirder books have a consistent internal logic; Lethem's Chronic City was also amazingly well written and consistent in tone despite being more or less the same genre,) I find them to be lacking in story and too heavily reliant on deus ex machina to move the plot forward.

The only thing that kept me engaged enough to finish this book was that Val...more

like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, library-books, science-fiction

A nighttime view of New Venice, 1908:

They were now entering the centre of the city, an off-white grid of frozen canals and deserted avenues, lined with impressive Neoclassical and Art Nouveau buildings. In the twilight, their incongruous stuccoed, statue-haunted silhouettes, rising darker against the darkening horizon, gave the eerie impression that they had been cast down from the sky like palaces from another planet. You could not, by any stretch of the mind, imagine an architecture less adap

...more A nighttime view of New Venice, 1908:

They were now entering the centre of the city, an off-white grid of frozen canals and deserted avenues, lined with impressive Neoclassical and Art Nouveau buildings. In the twilight, their incongruous stuccoed, statue-haunted silhouettes, rising darker against the darkening horizon, gave the eerie impression that they had been cast down from the sky like palaces from another planet. You could not, by any stretch of the mind, imagine an architecture less adapted to its surroundings. (59)

And behind those impressive façades, tensions are growing. The city, founded by men with Utopian dreams, is now being governed increasingly strictly by the Council of Seven; a police force called the Gentlemen of the Night is exerting more control over the citizens; the surrounding Inuit are, more and more, being ghettoized and marginalized; someone's just written a call to revolution that has the Council worried; and there's a mysterious black airship that's been hovering like a cloud that just won't leave. It's polar winter, and the New Venetians do lots of drugs to deal with the darkness and the boredom; the Gentlemen of the Night are cracking down on clubs where drug use happens, though, and there's even a rumor that the Council wants to set itself up as something of a drug syndicate. Meanwhile, in mid-February, a sanitation crew happens upon something strange: a glassed-in sled with no driver, pulled by a team of dogs: upon further inspection, there turns out to be a dead woman inside the sled.

Aurorarama is the story of all of the above and then some. It's told in chapters that alternate between the stories of two men: Brentford Orsini, a government worker who, we learn early, is the author of that revolutionary pamphlet, and his friend Gabriel d'Alliers, a professor who's really more of a dandy and flâneur. There's lots of wordplay (much of the story is about "poletics") and lots and lots of allusion: Valtat, clearly, has done his research. Brentford's pamphlet includes language from the 1649 tract by the Diggers, and I kept having to go look up various real-life polar explorers and anarchists, plus bits of Norse and Inuit and Irish mythology. The Doukhobors make an appearance, as do bits of Spenser and Shakespeare and Bataille. But the book isn't all philosophy: there's plot and excitement too: Gabriel has more run-ins with the Gentlemen of the Night than he'd like; Brentford receives a weird dream-message from a dead woman telling him to go to the North Pole and decides he should go for it; a stage-magician turns out to have more secrets up his sleeve than anyone guessed; the lines between reality and dream and hallucination are often blurred.

This book is, according to the flap copy, the first in a series; it's also Valtat's first book written in English (his first language is French). Though the prose sometimes struck me as clunky (though partly this may have been because the dialogue was meant to be closer to speech from 1908 than to speech from 2011), it had its moments of loveliness, too: I liked the playfulness and the puns and the descriptions of the Arctic landscape and the occasional lyricism: at one point Valtat writes about "the pensive loneliness of all things snowed upon," which is such an excellent phrase. (174) And though I wished there had been some better proofreading (I saw several "than"/"that" mess-ups and one "not"/"now" error), I still enjoyed the book and will probably read future installments: I'm hoping Valtat will write a prequel that will give some of the back-story that's only hinted at in this book.
(less)

like · see review

Jun 23, 2012 Yokosuka14 rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was worried about this book when I was about half way through. The language is beautiful and imaginative, but I was worried that the language was hiding the fact that there was little substance. Much back story was implied, but I wasn't sure whether it would ever appear.
I became less worried as I plowed on, as bit by bit back story was revealed in an enjoyable way. By the end, my concern had moved to the opposite end of the spectrum. Too many things seemed to be tied up (including almost a l...more

like · see review

Jan 28, 2011 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy

Science-Fiction, but quite different. While a lot of Sci-Fi/Fantasy is highly character-driven (to make it more palatable to immerse oneself in a new world), this one treated its universe very matter-of-factly. One enters the world of Aurorarama in the middle of things, not quite understanding until the very end, and even then not entirely. I will likely reread this in the future to better grasp a few elements of the plot, which is wonderfully turn-of-the-century in its tone and texture: leftist...more

like · see review

Apr 20, 2013 urban added it

Shelves: unfinished

This book is basically not worthy of my time. As many reviewers note, the world building is great. Yet, amazing novels come about because a concept isn't just that. It is something with either robust characters or a strong plot. This book has neither. Add in a remorseless rape, and I'm pretty much done.

I got a hundred pages into this and felt I would prefer to spend my time elsewhere.

1 like · like · see review

Mar 09, 2011 MB Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars

I finished reading Aurorarama last night before heading to bed. It was pretty good; steampunk-ish without being overpowering. The inside of the dust jacket says: “Episode one in an astonishing new series” but it looked so good I bought it anyway, despite my stated aversion to series (I think I may be trying to fool myself on this one).

Oddly Aurorarama reads more like episode 1.5 or even 2. All the characters have a history we don’t know that keeps popping up without much explanation; and it’s a...more I finished reading Aurorarama last night before heading to bed. It was pretty good; steampunk-ish without being overpowering. The inside of the dust jacket says: “Episode one in an astonishing new series” but it looked so good I bought it anyway, despite my stated aversion to series (I think I may be trying to fool myself on this one).

Oddly Aurorarama reads more like episode 1.5 or even 2. All the characters have a history we don’t know that keeps popping up without much explanation; and it’s a history that the author seems to think we know and that seems critical to the story. This certainly gives the story & characters depth, but I found it somewhat confusing. I searched the net a couple of different times to see if there were any precursor stories or even an earlier novel. As far as I can tell, there aren’t any.

It’s an interesting stylistic approach. It made me feel I’d entered a story in progress and it avoided (or at least made me less aware of) the typical first novel in a series digressions where the author introduces the characters and the back story.

The story takes place in the early part of the 20th century in the city of New Venice, a city in northern Canada, close to the Arctic Circle. There may be enough geographic clues in the book to determine New Venice’s exact location, but I’m not an expert on northern Canadian geography and didn’t have an atlas handy while I was reading. On the other hand, this does take place in an alternate world, so the names may not be the ones we use anyway. New Venice was apparently founded as some form of utopia & has been drifting from its roots.

The two main characters are two friends who have grown apart: Brentford Orsini, a respectable member of society and government employee, and Gabriel d’Allier, a decadent (degenerate?) professor. In their own different ways they have lost their ways and are adrift. In addition each is having their own separate but related difficulties with the city authorities.

In Aurorarama everything comes to a head and everything adrift comes together.

It’ll be interesting to see where Valtat takes this series. He’s created an interesting world and a cast of characters to populate it, but it’s not clear that they are particularly well suited for whatever comes next.

Bottom line: Aurorarama is a good read & I’ll, if I see it, I’ll pick up the next book in the series.
(less)

like · see review

Sep 15, 2011 Meg Jayanth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I'm done with Jean-Christophe Valtat’s deleriously literary steampunk adventure Aurorarama. It’s a book brimming with ideas and wit; a fully realised alternate history of the arctic city of New Venice, 1908. The “poletics” are deftly observed - the city is slowly encroaching on the life of the native Inuit, and the sinister & authoritarian Council are clamping down on the riotous, drug-fuelled, auroral cultural scene as an anonymous radical pamphlet A Blast on the Barren Land begins stirring...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 24, 2011 James Van rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book in spite of myself. Set in a dreamy world, less plot-driven than image driven, I loved the way the author explored the world he created, rarely explaining everything but constantly hinting at the nefarious hidden side of everything. While I usually only like fantasy lands that make sense, where I can predict the consequences of an action, Aurorarama had me enjoying the ride. I never really read books this way, maybe reading it at night, in bed, helped.

I guess this was my first...more

like · see review

Dec 29, 2011 Noora Mäntyranta rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

2 likes · like · see review

May 02, 2012 zxvasdf rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Victorian, almost steampunk ice-crusted Viriconium, an frigid Gormenghast. New Venice is lodged somewhere in the Arctic Circle, surrounded by an elaborate Air Architecture which warms the city to a tolerable degree of frigidity, populated by elaborate architectural fancies and a mythological history.

So many ideas are packed into this volume, many of them incorporating, contrasting, and clashing with Inuit philosophies which might as well be alien. The fact that people took the time to build s...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 27, 2012 nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

A Victiorian science-fiction story set in New Venice, a city in the Arctic, where tensions run high between the Eskimos and citizens, a treatise against the current governmental regime has been released anonymously and a mysterious black airship hovers above region.

The writing is brilliant and cinematic, so clever, but I wasn't nimble enough of a reader to follow pace. I was gripped by a constant fear that perhaps I'd misunderstood and this was a sequel, because the background stories received...more

like · see review

Nov 25, 2012 Jurate Stanaityte rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: steampunk

Besides of discussing problems that rest on the shoulders of this world's sensitives—climate change, demise of mores, communities in distress—it took me all the way back to George Eliot's Middlemarch and decently killed-off Casaubon's rigid ego!, to much appease my thirst for Justice (Casaubon, my beloved character throughout literary puzzles and... the real life, appears here named as Gabriel Lancelot d'Allier).

And at last, it's #steampunk that is not ridiculous for someone for whom English is...more

like · see review

Dec 29, 2012 Jer Thorp rated it 4 of 5 stars

Aurorarama is published by Melville, whose head office is a block from my house. I've walked past their window about 100 times this year, and this book has always caught my eye; I'm not sure why it took so long to read.

It's a psycho-mythic steampunk story set in the high Arctic of the early 1900s, and it does well to live up to that strange setup. Valtat has clearly spent a great deal of time setting up the history of the central city, New Venice, which makes the novel feel like a continuation o...more

like · see review

Dec 11, 2010 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read

Shelves: fantasy-scifi, ebook-available

KOBOBOOKS

Reviewed by The Guardian

1 like · like · see review

Feb 14, 2011 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

" 'A peaceful citizen. How I love this expression, Mr d'Allier. It sounds almost as good as 'obedient citizen' or 'law-abiding citizen,' which, I must admit, are the sweetest music to my ears. But, as an intelligent man like you certainly must know, it is, alas, not the citizen himself who decides if he is peaceful or not.' "

Sinister sentiments like these leaven the fantastical world in this book, a polar tableau populated by bird-beaked garbagemen, a mysterious black airship and a mythic kang...more

like · see review

May 06, 2012 Angelya (The Oaken Bookcase) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy, reviewed, steampunk

New Venice, the utopian city high in Arctic Canada, is protected from sub-zero temperatures by some kind of technological wizardry. The dark days of winter when the sun does not rise are made more bearable by the liberal use of “psylicates” drugs and alcohol, plus plenty of free and liberated love.

All is not well in the city. Tensions simmer between the native inughuit people and the white “qallunaut” inhabitants of the city, and between the ruling council and revolutionaries.

Valtat is a brillia...more New Venice, the utopian city high in Arctic Canada, is protected from sub-zero temperatures by some kind of technological wizardry. The dark days of winter when the sun does not rise are made more bearable by the liberal use of “psylicates” drugs and alcohol, plus plenty of free and liberated love.

All is not well in the city. Tensions simmer between the native inughuit people and the white “qallunaut” inhabitants of the city, and between the ruling council and revolutionaries.

Valtat is a brilliant storyteller – the twists and turns of this story kept the pages turning all the way through. The style of writing often requires concentration – sentences often run on and on, separated by numerous commas, but always sparkling descriptions and brilliant imagery. He also loves to make up new words in a rather Shakespearean way – there’s a whole range of jargon the citizens of New Venice use, from “poletics” to “anarchitecture”.

I have no knowledge of Inuit culture so have no idea whether the representations of it in Aurorarama are accurate, but the legends and descriptions of the Inuit way of life give a lot of extra colour to the cast of characters and Valtat certainly gives the impression that he knows what he’s talking about.

There were a few aspects of the story that I found a little baffling. The characters make references to some major disaster that befell the city long ago called the “Blue Wild”, but this is never described in any detail. Also, who is Helen? We never really find out, even though several of the characters seem to have had dealings with her at one time or other. It’s almost as if there was a previous book that I missed reading first, but this is the first in a new series.

There were formatting problems all through my digital ARC copy which I hope would be resolved in the final e-book versions, but because there are several sketches scattered through the book, I’d recommend a paper copy if you’re thinking of reading this book. Sketches don’t translate well to a Kindle screen!

Aurorarama is an amazing work with beautiful descriptions of the Arctic and Steampunk city scenery, plus plenty of action. Fans of Steampunk and of Fantasy will love it. I’ll certainly be trying to get my hands on the second in this series, Luminous Chaos, due for publication in October, 2012.

Warnings: Suggestive sexual content and drug use.(less)

like · see review

Sep 11, 2012 Janna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-ish

This was more like a 2.5 for me. My hopes were high because I heard this was the "adult Golden Compass," but I also almost expected to be disappointed because it could never be as good.
There were 8 or 9 knockout sentences and a few breathtaking paragraphs, even, but the plot didn't start intriguing me until more than 2/3rds of the way through. Once it picked up, it was highly entertaining, though. I was much more interested by one of the main characters than the other, and- maybe it was just me-...more

like · see review

Mar 10, 2011 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: black-comedy, literature-disguised-as-science-fic, literature-fantastique, spy-vs-spy, steampunkery

Valtat’s Aurorarama is a sui generic creation filled with bizarre and loopy humor, dreamlike images, and a playful skewering of literature and history. A combination of its dreamy style, Valtat’s use of English (he is French writing in English for the first time), complex plot and a large cast renders much of this hard to follow and to be honest a little incomprehensible, but push through and it will be mostly worth it. Lots of stuff gets pulled together here, Pynchon( Against the Day seems a sp...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 03, 2011 Micha marked it as to-read

Recommended to Micha by: Found on Steampunk book list, indirectly Felicia Day

Nov. 3rd, 2011
I want to read this because of a review !Tæmbuŝu posted from the Guardian on my birthday (Dec 11, 2010), despite the three star that Karen gave it. It really is a pretty thing though, and I love the idea of a steampunk, Arctic Vencian world with polar greenhouses (YAY! Sustainability is making its way into BookWorld now! *HAPPINESS*) AND airships! Who doesn't love an airship? Am I right?

Plus, it really IS a pretty cover. They definitely covered some bases with the cover alone. I w...more

like · see review

Jul 04, 2011 Miz Moffatt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: steampunk, speculative-fiction

Aurorarama adds an icy edge to the world of steampunk fiction as Arctic wonderland meets the sinister whisperings of revolution under the great Northern lights. Jean-Christophe Valtat blurs the boundaries between arch adventure, speculative fiction, and historical insight while adding sharp-witted, stinging dialogue to tantalize readers.

As New Venice prepares for the inevitable spring thaw, its citizens creep ever closer to anarchy—local "poletics" are wracked by tensions between the city’s Subt...more

like · see review

Mar 21, 2013 Corin Cummings rated it 2 of 5 stars

I picked up this book looking for something fun and interesting, and it was a bit of both of those things, but left me feeling... 'meh.'

While there are some intriguing ideas in the book, I found the story jumbled and dull. I never cared particularly about the characters or the plot. It wasn't immersive enough to really take me somewhere, and it didn't move along quick enough to hold my attention. And there was all that annoying, jargon-filled, self-referencing "steampunk" bullshit. Although the...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 65 66 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (3)

Genres

Science Fiction > Steampunk

68 users

Science Fiction

27 users

Fantasy

26 users

Speculative Fiction

5 users

Novels

5 users

Adventure

4 users

Literary Fiction

3 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

3 users

Cultural > France

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

The Bookman
by Lavie Tidhar
The Dream of Perpetual Motion
by Dexter Palmer
Morlock Night
by K.W. Jeter
The Half-Made World
by Felix Gilman
Homunculus
by James P. Blaylock

About Jean-Christophe Valtat

JEAN CHRISTOPHE VALTAT was born in 1968. Educated in the Ecole Normale Superieure and the Sorbonne, he lives in Paris and teaches Comparative Literature. He has written a book of short stories, Album, and two novels, Exes, and 03 (published in English by FSG), as well as award-winning radio-plays and a movie "Augustine" (2003), which he also co-directed.

More about Jean-Christophe Valtat...

Books by Jean-Christophe Valtat

Cultures et Figures de la Relativite ; le Temps Retrouve, Finnegans Wake

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Aurorarama

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Aurorarama

“Clusters of distant lights was the view of Mankind that he liked the best. The lights had the archaic charm of little fires on a plain, and the frailty about them, if it did not excuse anything, at least explained a lot of Man's stubborn ruthlessness. Mankind had not started the mess that was life, after all. And on the whole, it had been an interesting species to be a part of, the girls especially, as long as you remembered to watch your back.” — 2 people liked it

“The blizzard seemed to be dying down, and it was now possible to enjoy the sight of the buildings and embankments and bridges smothered in the diamond-dusted whiteness. There's always something soothing in the snow, thought Gabriel, a promise of happiness and absolution, of a new start on a clean sheet. Snow redesigned the streets with hints of another architecture, even more magnificent, more fanciful than it already was, all spires and pinnacles on pale palaces of pearl and opal. All that New Venice should have been reappeared through its partial disappearance. It was as if the city were dreaming about itself and crystallizing both that dream and the ethereal unreality of it. He wallowed in the impression, badly needing it right now, knowing it would not last as he hobbled nearer to his destination.” — 1 person liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Aurorarama
avg rating	preview: Aurorarama Goodreads rating: 3.29 (382 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8089555-aurorarama?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320559915l/8089555.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8089555-aurorarama?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat[/url]

Aurorarama (The Mysteries of New Venice #1)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website