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The Mechanical (The Alchemy Wars, #1)

Ian Tregillis

Start date: February 1, 2016

Finish date: February 29, 2016

Discussion: SciFi

Why we're reading this: Featured Buddy Read, February 8 - 14, 2016
[close] Featured Buddy Read, February 8 - 14, 2016

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What Members Thought

Apr 01, 2015 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-shelf, sci-fi, steampunk

For the greater portion of this novel, I was sitting pretty at three stars because no matter how much action-packed escapades and beautiful worldbuilding it may have been stuffed with, I was only pretty much interested in Jax. The other two were only interesting in spurts.

That is, until they actually met one another in the denouement, and then things really picked up for me and made me feel less like I had just *wanted* to love this novel without quite liking it. After that point, though, I love For the greater portion of this novel, I was sitting pretty at three stars because no matter how much action-packed escapades and beautiful worldbuilding it may have been stuffed with, I was only pretty much interested in Jax. The other two were only interesting in spurts.

That is, until they actually met one another in the denouement, and then things really picked up for me and made me feel less like I had just *wanted* to love this novel without quite liking it. After that point, though, I loved it.

It's a shame that it took so long to get there.

The only exceptions to this was Visser's discourse on Free Will and Berenice's maiming. I liked both of them much better after all the shit got poured all over them, but alas, only so far. Oh, a little correction. I did *begin* liking Visser enough, but all that talk of martyrdom started getting under my skin in a bad way.

Of course, what made this novel shine was the beautifully thought-out world of 1926 after several hundred years of mechanical slaves had revolutionized and marginalized all but the most technologically savvy of the 18th century, leaving the Dutch and the French as the clear winners on the map of the world.

I've read Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych, so I know that the author's voice had changed fairly significantly between then and now, and I can applaud the attempt even if I was a little annoyed at the execution. There was a lot of detail and repetition of the steampunk feel that made me feel somewhat as if I was being shortchanged with the extra effort I needed to use to follow the story without glazed eyes.

I feel like it might only be me, but who knows? I kept wanting to be doing something else, even when I appreciated, intellectually, what Tregillis was doing.

I'm continuing the series because of the spectacularly strong finish, even if I wish that the finish had come by about the mid-point and then continued from *there* to some more interesting conclusion. Alas, the interesting conclusion has got to be in book two, I think. :)

...more

53 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2016 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Man I'm sick of great big books published in serial form. This isn't a trilogy. Trilogies are three novels. The format of a novel is beginning, middle, end. This is all beginning with a major event at the end that doesn't change anything for the characters and leaves great gobs of story to come.

The story itself follows three PoV characters through an alternate world where the Dutch empire became the dominant force in Europe and the American colonies through it's use of alchemically derived mecha ...more

25 likes · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2015 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

I'm really torn between two and three stars on this one but just based on my relief with being done I'm going with two. It really was more like two for the first half and three for the second.

This book never entirely worked for me. My biggest quibble - this one's going to take time - was the particular alt-history world that this guy created. There's a war going between New Amsterdam and New France but we're not given a year that it's taking place. New Amsterdam ceased to exist in the mid-17th c I'm really torn between two and three stars on this one but just based on my relief with being done I'm going with two. It really was more like two for the first half and three for the second.

This book never entirely worked for me. My biggest quibble - this one's going to take time - was the particular alt-history world that this guy created. There's a war going between New Amsterdam and New France but we're not given a year that it's taking place. New Amsterdam ceased to exist in the mid-17th century so I was thinking that this was set somewhere in there. And then there are other major timeline issues as you move forward because of the American Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase. But then they mention Louis XIV and Louis XV, followed by "first in a long line of kings". So if he died in 1774, then what freaking year is this set in? So we finally get a ballpark around 50% and an actual year at 80%. 80%!!!

His explanation for this lack of English presence? On page 1 we have a series of quotes including "His philosophical contretemps with Isaac Newton in 1675... would mark the last significant intellectual discourse between England and the continent prior to the chaos of Interregnum and Annexation". That is absolutely the only thing that is mentioned to explain the lack of an English presence. I searched all over my Kindle looking for something.

The frustrating thing (okay, clearly there was more than one) was that this could have been easily handled by giving us a time reference at the very beginning of the book and giving us an explanation for England's absence. If this hadn't been nagging at me for 80% of the book, I'm quite sure I would have enjoyed it more. By the way, just so nobody else goes through the same thing, it's 1926.

I realize that some people will think this is nitpicking but this actually caused a significant amount of frustration and annoyance. To top it off, it took 50% of the book before it got interesting and I never did warm up to one of the main characters. There are two. The clakkers themselves are interesting, especially the way that they communicate in their special language. I also liked the use of the geas to keep them in line. I liked what happened to Visser and would have liked to hear more about him. Just not enough to read the second book. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Sep 13, 2015 Suzanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, steampunk, alternate-history

This had a lot of discussion about free-will and the nature of the soul, along with tons of action. Coincidentally, I read it at the same time I read Going Postal, which explored (in a more humorous way of course) many similar ideas with golems instead of mechanicals. I'm glad the two books paired up like that. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review