Highfell Grimoires, by Langley Hyde

[Ulysses]

Steampunk has a strong affinity with Dickens. Surely the setting of this novel, in a fictional but oh-so-British city called Herrow, just oozes Dickens from every literary pore. But in the steampunk world there is wonderful technology (think H.G. Wells, from the end of the 19th century); and in Langley Hyde’s vision there is magic, and love between men.

So, what’s not to like?

Young Lord Cornelius Franklin arrives at Highfell, bereft of his parents, who are dead, and his sister, who has gone to live with his rich step-uncle, Lord Franklin. With everything gone but his title, Neil takes a position at the charity school founded by Lord Franklin, all wide-eyed at his luck at being able to teach malleable young minds. But, what he finds is nothing like the elegant, rich schools he attended farther up in the aether. Literally and symbolically, Highfell is beneath them.

Ever since I opened the first Harry Potter novel in my late thirties, I’ve been hooked on the idea of a world where magic is part of reality. Hyde’s world is analogous to our own, but magic is literally in the ether, and it is the ether (spelled anglophonically as aether) that powers the technology that makes Highfell Hall possible. Highfell is a school, boatlike in form, that floats on the aether high above the city of Herrow on the river Wyrd. There is magic at Highfell, as there is at every aetherium academy up in the sky.

But Highfell Hall is not Hogwarts; it is a dark, nasty, cruel place snatched from the pages of Oliver Twist or David Copperfield. It is the anti-Hogwarts.

Hyde’s narrative is rich in carefully imagined detail, giving us a full-on experience of what this crypto-Victorian world is like. But, more importantly I think, she makes the characters live on the page. Neil Franklin could have been a prig and a snob; but instead his heart opens to the desperate boys trapped at Highfell and he becomes their mentor and their protector. His initial response to the appearance of Leo – Leofa Blackwater—is every bit as snobbish and class-driven as one might expect. But Neil soon recognizes where Leofa fits into Highfell, and becomes his ally and his friend.

As is also the case with Dickens, every character, great and small, is painted in full color, and given as much detail as they need to be part of the great picture created by the author. The plot is complicated and full of action, but Hyde manages to produce a cinematic clarity that keeps things moving and prevents the surprises and off-page machinations from confusing us.

Everyone who’s read romances involving magic knows what a grimoire is, but even if this is your first such novel, you’ll understand soon enough. “Highfell Grimoires” is a captivating, romantic and fully engaging novel, and a masterpiece of the steampunk genre.