For being a book whose cover features a shirtless guy wearing a shiny leather jacket and showing off his washboard abs, The Iron Duke was quite good!...moreFor being a book whose cover features a shirtless guy wearing a shiny leather jacket and showing off his washboard abs, The Iron Duke was quite good! It skews more towards romance than the previous steampunk books I've read this month, but it also doesn't shirk its responsibilities in the world-building department.
The world in The Iron Duke is based on a post-Industrial Revolution England, where some controlling entity, only referred to as The Horde injected the people of England with a nano virus some two hundred years ago. The nano virus lets the Horde control the people's emotions, dictating when they're passive, and when they go into a frenzy of emotion (perfect for when it's mating time.) Through some chain of events, the Horde is overthrown, the infected people, called buggers regain control of their lives back, and the book picks up from there.
More specifically, the book revolves around Mina, a police inspector in England who barely gets any respect just because she was the unfortunate product of a Horde raping her mother. She gets spit on and threatened daily because of her mix-raced features and has to work extra hard to prove that she's just as good as everyone else. She meets Rhys, the Iron Duke, they go on air ship adventures, they shag, they fall in love, etc. etc.
Yes, the book was formulaic to the paranormal romance genre even though there wasn't exactly anything paranormal going on. I guess there were zombies. Do zombies count? Even though the plot wasn't ground-breaking, the book was a joy to read and pages sped by quickly.
The Iron Duke has steampunk, romance, air pirating, evil secret cults, roguish men, strong women, and a pretty darn good world built around it. It's no wonder I liked it. The second book will be on my radar when it gets released.(less)
Short and sweet. Sometimes, that's just what I need. Fresh off my latest Steampunk Month read, Boneshaker (2/5 stars), I wanted to read an older, clas...moreShort and sweet. Sometimes, that's just what I need. Fresh off my latest Steampunk Month read, Boneshaker (2/5 stars), I wanted to read an older, classic steampunk book. After a browse through a list of steampunk books on Goodreads, I came upon The Time Machine and thought, why not?
The book, barely spanning over 100 pages, is about a man who builds a time machine, travels to the far, far, future (it's the year 820701 or something) and meets what he believes will be the descendants of man. This all sounds very been there, done that, but the amazing thing of The Time Machine is that it was written in the 1800's!
No, this isn't a review about how the book was great for its time. It's great even now. The Time Machine starts off with some gentlemen discussing ideas and theories in some guy's parlor. There's some basic exposition about fourth dimension mathematics, which will be easy to follow for anyone who's taken basic geometry. That, I think is the brilliance of The Time Machine. It has vaguely scientific explanations of how time traveling works, but it's not bogged down with the technical difficulties. Instead, it dives right into the mysterious world of the future.
The only disappointing thing I can say about The Time Machine, and this is entirely my fault, is that it's not very steampunk. Other than the time traveling device, which I guess could be vaguely steampunk in that it has mechanical components, there's not any steampunk at all. Luckily, that didn't deter me from finishing the book. It would be a shame to not finish the story and hear what the Time Traveler had to say.(less)
Leviathan, the first book fo the series, was filled mostly of fabricated animals (beasties) and going-ons on the large, beastie airship. Behemoth take...moreLeviathan, the first book fo the series, was filled mostly of fabricated animals (beasties) and going-ons on the large, beastie airship. Behemoth takes readers off the airship and filled the world full of machines and gadgets. The change of scenery, from a British airship to the Ottoman empire was great, but still felt a little shallow.
I thought that Deryn's secret was finally going to be revealed to Alek and was on the edge of my seat throughout this whole book about it. There were several times the beans were almost spilled, which was very frustrating. I don't think I've ever been in a state of tenseness about a story for a whole book like this. Very stressful.
Behemoth was a good continuation of the characters and overarching story of the series. It was a little disappointing how little more we learned of Deryn and Alek. Deryn is her usual strong, risk-taking self, and Alek is still his princeliness. I was hoping this second book would change their relationship but looks like I'll need to read the third book for that.(less)
Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan takes place in an alternate, euro-centric world where people are not only divided by their countries, but also by their s...moreScott Westerfeld's Leviathan takes place in an alternate, euro-centric world where people are not only divided by their countries, but also by their science. There are the Darwinists, scientists who manipulate and combine DNA (called life strands or something in the book) to create incredibly useful chimeras like 200-plus feet long floating whales carrying a full ecosystem. Then there are the Clankers who are more enthusiastic about machines and technology, but also have 200 feet long mechanical zeppelins.
Leviathan was mostly a world-building book. It isn't till the halfway point that our two protagonists actually meet. Alek is the secret heir to an empire and is forced to be on the run thanks to the messy politics of Germany versus Austria. Deryn is a girl who has to pretend to be a boy in order to fulfill her goal of becoming an airshipman. The two start off pretty one-dimensional, with Alek being very demanding and princely, and Deryn feeling out the proper way to act as a boy, but as the book went along, I started to like them more. I don't think it was until the two finally met that I saw how they'd changed from when they were first introduced to the reader.
There are many new, made-up words in Leviathan and usually that sort of thing puts me off on a book, but it worked well in this context. The first couple of chapters are confusing as I tried to figure out what a boffin was and what exactly was a clart, but even I have to admit it lends a certain type of whimsical air to the entire story. It definitely establishes the world as a different one that where we live.
Despite the rich world-building and the fantastic detail in describing the fabricated animals and intricate machines (including nice artwork by Keith Thompson), I couldn't help feeling that this book would have been better written as an adult book. Leviathan is more of a pre-YA book. The language (other than the made up words) is incredibly simple, and the story telling is very direct and to the point. It makes it easy to speed past chapter after chapter, but something about the writing didn't sit well with me.
That doesn't mean I won't pick up the next book, Behemoth, though. I'm a sucker for cliffhangers and I hope that we get more details on the characters and their situations. The whole impersonating another gender in order to get you want has so much potential, but is barely touched upon. I went through the entire book wondering if someone would find out Deryn's big secret.(less)
The premise of Catherine Fisher's sci-fi, dystopian, mildly steam-punkish novel is a good one. In the world outside, time has been frozen so that ever...moreThe premise of Catherine Fisher's sci-fi, dystopian, mildly steam-punkish novel is a good one. In the world outside, time has been frozen so that everyone has to follow Protocol which means living in a vaguely medieval time where most people are delegated to serfdom and a select few make up the rich gentry. The world inside, enclosed in a self-aware prison called Incarceron, is a bleak one where no one gets in, no one gets out, and men band together into thieving, murdering groups against each other.
I was incredibly fascinated by the idea of Incarceron. It was developed as a way to handle criminals, murders, and all of the scum of society. Wise men devised a self-aware world that should have been a paradise, where health care was free, food plenty, and everything self-sustaining. By some unexplained twist of fate, Incarceron changed from that idealized world into the scary, nightmarish world of the book's prison.
Unfortunately, that's not what the book is about. The book is about a privileged, spoiled girl who learns of the prison and a certain boy trapped inside of it. It's about her mission to free him from somewhere that supposedly no one escapes from. On paper, this sounds like a grand adventure, but it was hard for me to care for the main characters. Of course, I wanted the boy to escape Incarceron, but as the book went along, I began to wonder if the outside world was any better than the world inside the prison.
The novel's a strange mix of fantasy and science fiction that it's worth reading just for that. Fisher builds such strange worlds that it makes me sad to think of how good the book could have been if only her characters were just as fleshed out. Incarceron has a few "whoaaa..." moments, but towards the end, even though it was supposed to be a cliffhanger, I just didn't care enough to even read the jacket copy of the next book in the series.(less)
I very much wanted to like this book. It was recommended by many people as possibly the best steampunk book of that year. The cover is awesome and the...moreI very much wanted to like this book. It was recommended by many people as possibly the best steampunk book of that year. The cover is awesome and the title is awesome
The short review: The plot could be described as a Steam Punk Wizard of Oz with zombies. On paper, that sounds great, but after reading the book, the whole Big Problem boils down to non-communication. I hate books that rely on miscommunication (or even non-communication) to add mystery and intrigue.
Long version:
Priest crafts a bleak, dirty, wild-west type world where an evil gas called the Blight has been unleashed that can either 1) kill you or 2) turn you into a flesh-eating zombie. The Blight itself was what kept me reading. I wanted to know where it came from and if there was a way to defeat it. Unfortunately, that's not the story Priest wants to tell.
Instead, Priest tells a story about a stupid, reckless teenage son, Zeke, who goes into the heart of a city where Blight is the strongest in order to ferret out some truth to rumors of his father (who is rumored to have been the cause of the Blight) and a hard-working mother, Briar, who runs into the city after her stupid child in order to save him. All this could have been avoided if only mother had told the son the truth about what happened years ago. Her alternative to telling the truth -- living poor as dirt and as an outcast in society, doesn't seem logical or better at all. I'd understand it if keeping the truth from her child meant he'd have an easier life, but that's not it.
Although Zeke and Briar are supposed to be the main characters of the book, I couldn't relate to them at all. Zeke was stupid, mouthy, and always did the wrong thing at just the right time to foul things up. Using that as a device to move the plot around was frustrating to read. Briar, who I liked slightly better than Zeke, seems to go through the first half of the book with blinders on. Yes, it's frustrating to lose your son in a town of incredibly fast zombies, yes you've had a hard life, but stop and look at what's around you, woman. Her whole issue with keeping things a secret even from people who are attempting to help her really was a thorn in my side.
Then there's the unnecessary racism. Maybe calling Chinese workers slant-eyes and downgrading them to less than human status gives a certain dated authenticity to the world in Boneshaker, but it's hard to believe that people would be so unfriendly and hostile to the Chinese workers who are responsible for pumping clean, breathable air into the city. You'd think with the danger of getting eaten by a zombie, the people of the city would band together better.
And the ending? Well, I don't want to spoil anything, but it was pretty disappointing in a bait and switch kind of way. It was what reinforced my idea that a lot of bad things could have been avoided by something as simple as communication.
I know that it's the journey that counts and not the ending, and while the journey was thrilling at times and Priest does know how to write suspenseful scenes, the lackluster ending overshadowed any good parts I could recall of the book.(less)
Is it possible to feel nostalgia for a place in the future? The crowded, multi-factioned, multi-leveled city of Shanghai and nearby Pudong made me mis...moreIs it possible to feel nostalgia for a place in the future? The crowded, multi-factioned, multi-leveled city of Shanghai and nearby Pudong made me miss my hometown terribly. Stephenson's descriptions of brightly lit Nanjing Road and small, dim, alleys of hawkers was so spot on. The mix of high technology, the sophisticated neo-Victorians, and the Confuscians made a confusing but ultimately satisfying story.
I came to The Diamond Age with a vague idea of what the book was about. Like previous steampunk books I read, there was a combination of neo-Victorian sensibilities, technologies different than what we're used to, and a huge disparity between classes. While that may be what gets the book labeled as 'steampunk' by some people ,it surpasses that label and has so much more.
It has cyber-punk technologies. It has dystopian characteristics. It's part adventure story, part riddle, part allegory, part detective story, and best of all, it feels epic without losing its main characters in too wide of a scope.
Reading Stephenson is always hard for me but I always enjoy it. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that his books are not easy to skim through. Go too quickly in The Diamond Age and you end up in an underwater rave wondering what the heck just happened.
The book was definitely worth reading for any fan of the author. It certainly is my favorite book of his so far. My only complaint was that Nell was too perfect. While it could be said that it the Primer had something to do with that, if I take a step back and look at the character, her lack of faults is unbelievable.
Other than that one little complaint, I loved every part of the book from the heart-wrenching stories in the Primer to the action-packed lead up to the Mouse Army. I also liked all the mentions of tea.
Protip: Fountain pens were mentioned at least nine times in this book!(less)
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