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Oct 08, 2011

King Dinösaur rated it:

Well, the important thing is that "Infernal Devices" is a seminal, rip-roaring hell of a story, done with expertise by the guy who, if he didn't invent "steampunk" the genre, was at least there at its inception, and indisputably gave the genre its name. Everything is here: clockwork automatons, H.P. Lovecraft-esque aquatic oddities, Doomsday machines, etc. Very cool, very adventurous and very well done.

The bad news is - upstart publishing company, "Angry Rob More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Maegan rated it:

I'm glad I read this as it's credited as being the book that started the steampunk movement, but that's one of the only real positive things I can say about it. I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't like it and was glad to finish it.

The biggest problem was that the main character was so boring and unlikeable (on purpose), which could have been ok if all the other characters hadn't also been so obnoxious and unlikeable. The only character I actually liked was the dog. The plot More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Eric rated it:

This was my first foray into the steampunk genre and I have to say that when I first started this book I was very confused as to what was going on. However, as I progressed through the book I started to get more and more into the plot and the characters.

Jeter does a phenomenal job of painting a scene and developing his characters. I could actually picture myself walking through the dank streets of London at night along with the main character. The main character in this book is Mr. Dow More...

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Apr 12, 2011

J.C. rated it:

I took my time reading this novel - it's one of those books you want to dwell in a little. There is plenty of action, lots of great stuff going on, but I really think that in order to get the most from it, you should take your time.

George, the narrator, is a man who doesn't get worked up over much. Despite everything thrown at him, he tends to keep his wits about him, even though for the most part he has absolutely no-idea whats going on. When we come into his life he is More...

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Apr 05, 2011

Marcus rated it:

Infernal Devices is quite a different reading experience to Morlock Night. Where Morlock Night has a plot that is transparent right from the start, nothing is clear in Infernal Devices almost until the very end and there are quite a few surprising and some rather nasty turns. In Morlock Night, good and evil are clearly definded, in Infernal Devices, you cannot be sure at all who is the protagonist’s ally and who is not.

The novel features a somewhat happles protagonist, George Dower, More...

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Apr 04, 2011

Ole rated it:

This book is a bit of a peculiar acquaintance. It is written in a style that is distinctly Victorian, and I would not have been surprised if it was originally published in 1897 based only on how it is written.
It is written in a style that is reminiscent of both Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, and to some extent H.P. Lovecraft's tales. We get a protagonist that tells the story himself after everything is over. Not as a diary, but as if he himself was writing this story of More...

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Apr 01, 2011

April rated it:

Infernal Devices is an account told by George Dower of Clerkenwell, London in the hopes of repairing his ruined reputation as a result of the events he lays out in full description and detail. A wild adventure complete with sea creatures, people who've seen the future and now speak the lingo, secret societies for science, and a robot (automata) that takes on a life of it's own. A truely fantastical journey that requires a suspension of disbelief - but makes you all the more happy for it.
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Jan 19, 2012

Fantasynibbles rated it:

Suddenly I can see exactly what the whole fascination with Steampunk is all about. Jeter sets the Victorian scene here so skilfully, it’s absolutely perfect. I could easily have been reading a novel written in 1840. He’s impressively deft and accurate in his language of the time, making the novel completely believable, and yet he still writes in a style that is effortlessly readable. His Victorian London is dark, menacing, and compelling. We follow Dower through a City of gloomy drinking dens hi More...

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Nov 29, 2011

Nicola-jane rated it:

This book was like a roller-coaster but at times not in a good way.

Opening the book and glancing over the first few pages is enough to scare many people away. The clever narration of George Dower is written in faux-Victorian prose, it contains long sentences and a requirement to have either a Kindle or a dictionary handy to decipher some of the vocabulary.

Writing from my own personal experience; it took five pages until I began to get used to this narrative but once I was in More...

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Apr 03, 2007

Ron rated it:

More properly referred to as "steampunk" than sci-fi, and written in Jeter's kinetic style, it follows the hapless son of a famous victorian mechanical inventor. He's constantly mistaken for his rather more talented father, which ultimately puts him in the middle of a plot to destroy the planet (to clean things up of course) while riding it all out in a pneumatic carriage or some such.

More than almost any other book I've read I'd love to see this made into a feature film.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Artur rated it:

Jeter é um dos mais importantes escritores do género steampunk e creditado como o criador do termo. Confesso que influenciado pela espectacularidade estética do génereo, tinha grandes expectativas quando peguei neste livro. Infelizmente a leitura foi para mim algo decepcionante. Se Jeter brilha na inventividade e descrições de mecanismos neo-vitorianos de relojoaria, deixando muito terreno em aberto à imaginação para pensar autómatos e engenhocas, o argumento perde-se num ritmo muito rápido onde More...

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Nov 18, 2010

Michael rated it:

Infernal Devices is the first novel I've read in the now well-defined steampunk genre. Steampunk, as I understand it, is set exclusively in a Victorian setting, but contains many of the tropes of standard science fiction, including advanced technologies (though most rely on steam for energy, as opposed to electricity), time travel, alien beings, mysterious plot twists, and juvenile sexuality. While it has its roots in classic proto-sci-fi writers such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, it was refine More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2012

Corinne rated it:

It was a painful journey through that book. The first part was slow and very disturbing (I was beginning to think the author was the real mad man in all that stuff...) Past the middle of the book, it was a bit easier, either things became less weird than before, either I got used to weirdness, I just don't know (perhaps I just dropped the idea to piece the parts together). Paradoxically, the world upon wich seats this book is not really anchored in the clockwork or steam way of life, though ther More...

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Mar 29, 2011

Lily rated it:

I’ve been coming across the subject steampunk every so often while browsing through my favorite genre Urban Fantasy. It seems only appropriate that I venture for the first time in the genre with the classic Infernal Devices.

The book introduces us to Dower Junior, son of renowned clockwork maker who inherits his shop and trade, but not his skill. The visit of a mysterious client starts a most disconcerting chain of events that will lead him far from the safety of his house.

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