"The Iron Thorn," Caitlin Kittredge, is worth it's weight in gold, even though it's a decently heavy book.
Aofie Greyson is going to go mad when she turns 16 years old. It happened to her mother and it happened to her brother. They say it's because of a necrovirus that came into the world years ago. It creates such creatures as the nightjars and the shaggoths . . . and for some unknown reason, it's going to drive Aofie mad. But when Aofie gets a cryptic message from her mad brother that takes her on a journey beyond all that she ever imagined knowing, she realizes that there might be more to the madness than a simple virus. A journey between the dimensions forces Aofie and her companions that what is rational may not be what's right.
If you know me at all, then you know that my three literary loves are steampunk, Faeries, and creepiness. Believe it or not, this hits three out of three. On the head. It's really quite extraordinary, the way that first two are woven together, with the third as a result.
There are three main characters: Aofie, Dean, and Cal. Aofie is a well-defined character. She has her edges and her ripples, and even though she's constantly changing you know where she is, in the metaphorical sense, all the time. I would've liked it if we were shown that Aofie is good with machines. I mean, yes, she is in engineer school, and it says about a dozen times throughout the book that the only thing that had "ever felt real to her were machines" or the whatnot, but we don't really see her in action until she's fixing the clock. Maybe show her fixing some clockwork before she drags Cal off to the night market or something. I don't know. But it's always best to show, not tell, in the story sense, and this story does a bit more telling than strictly wanted.
Dean Harrison is to "The Iron Thorn" as Jack is to "The Blood Red Road." The lovable rouge who comes in the nick of time, always manages to find a way out of scrapes, and manages to win the tough maiden's heart (even though it's never that hard, as seeing they have little to none competition). Yes, I know this is a stereotypical character for the adventure genre, but Jack and Dean could be the same exact person, save for the name. Not that that's a bad thing. I like rouges. If I was a character in an adventure story, I would be the rouge. But, you know. Every genre has it's stereotypes, so, I was just pointing that out. Playing devil's advocate over here.
Cal . . . *sigh*. Cal. Um, well, let's just say that Cal is an interesting character. I am not pleased with how he was built up, but I am pleased with the problems he presents. You won't follow me until you read the book. And I can't tell you until you read the book. Because I'd hate to ruin the surprise of it all.
Now . . . The plot! The real gold of this endeavor! Oh, I can't gush enough over the plot. There are things you don't see coming, things you do see coming and cringe when they do come, and things that are so inevitable, but so well done. There is the romance plot, of course, which you can spot coming from a mile off because it's like "duh". That one is pretty well done, but it's not the best. I like the Faerie plot the best. Of course, they don't call them Faeries, exactly, but if you've ever read a contemporary fiction book, you can tell what they are. And of course, you know what's going to happen just after the people close their mouths', but it's like a train wreck. You can't stop yourself from reading it, even though you know it's going to be horrible.
Also, I love the steampunk world. Love, love, love. It's a completely believable world, one where they live and love and breath and it's all too real. The detail is incredible, and what detail you aren't given isn't hard to fill in on your own. The politics of cities and the rules of life are completely relatable, even though they don't apply at all to real life. It takes true talent to make a make-believe world real, and this one has it all.
There are also several things that have been given a new face. Most importantly, Weirds. In most books they're called 'affinities.' Or, at least, I would call them affinities, but then again, I do live in my own special universe. So, I guess I wouldn't know what they are called, generally. But this, again, is one you can see from miles away. I'm just glad that she doesn't make some sort of big deal out of it. Because if it was half the book, just trying to figure that out . . . that would be boring. Half a book spent doing anything, really, is pretty boring.
This one might be the first one in the series. Something about the "Iron Codex" was in the author's bio, but I'm not so sure.
Aofie Grayson: Torn between the iron and the wild. She must figure out where she fits in before it destroys her and everyone she's ever cared about. And even though her tale might be one of tragedy, she and her folk will always survive and prosper in my heart.
www.caitlinkittredge.com She generally writes adult books, that's my impression, but it might be worth a shot. Uh, and her "books" page isn't up and running, so go to the "blogs" tab, then go to "caitlin's books." Not a lot of information there, but just if you were wondering.
Showing posts with label Steampunk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steampunk. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Railsea
Railsea, China Mieville, is sort of a steampunk/sci-fi take on the fate of a world with a twist of Moby Dick.
Sham ap Soorap is a doctor's apprentice on the moling train the Medes. The captain, Captain Naphi, has a philosophy: A big, ivory colored mole. The Medes and crew search the southern part of the Railsea, searching for the captain's philosophy and moles that they can hunt for blubber. Sham ap Soorap has higher aspirations, though. He wants to be a salvor.
To be a salvor is to be one of the courageous few who prowl the the Railsea, looking for train wrecks and other ruins to discover and sell. Trying to prove himself to his crew, Sham does a bit of salvage work and he finds a roll of old camera film hidden in a train that has been destroyed. The contents of that roll of film means different things to different people: To Captain Naphi it means the end of her search for her philosophy, to Sham it means something that he cannot even begin to comprehend, to the Rumour Sellers of Manihiki it means that there might be treasure, and the the Shroake siblings it means that they have to finish the work that their parents started.
One of the things that really bugged me about this book was the fact that ampersands ( '&') were used instead of the word 'and'. Around chapter 45 you get an explanation of the symbolism, and eventually you get used to it, but it took a while to re-train my brain.
The author is almost conversational in part of his writing, and that's sort of comforting. It's like he's reaching out of the pages and actually telling you the story. He also refers to the Railsea and the lands around like it is the only time period anyone has ever known, and like you've grown up going to school there. It makes everything seem more real, that Sham might not be some figment of imagination, he might've been an actual kid who actually lost his parents who really does want to be a salvor.
China Mieville is also very humorous, in small ways. Like, I won't go into fine detail, but Sham was stranded somewhere and it said something like "He dug around in the wreck, found himself some boards, and built himself a house. After that, he was lucky to find some seeds so he planted himself a garden and ate the food that grew. When he grew up he went back to Streggeye with the wind blowing in his hair." I don't know, it was longer than that. But I stared at the paragraph for a minute or so because I was only on, like, page 300, and the book was nowhere near done. The next line, though, was "That didn't really happen." It was sort of funny.
The reason why that stood out is because some of the writing, to my opinion, is detailed. Not dry, per say, but very detailed. And sort of roundabout. Maybe it's just that I'm reading too fast and I keep skipping over stuff, but it seems that there is almost as much detail in this book as there is in A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.
For the first fifty pages, at least, I was a bit lost. This seems to be the point, but I couldn't tell you exactly why. When it does get explained, 'it' being the Railsea and what it connects, the various layers of this world, the moling business, and salvage, sometimes it makes even less sense than before it had been explained at all. You have to sort of think yourself through it. It eventually makes sense. Sort of.
This book could be classified as steampunk. The trains are windup, diesel, windblown, or something else, and the dress described of the salvors could very well be what they wore on the Everness (Planesrunner, Ian McDonald).
Technology, pirates, mystery, gypsies, chases for ivory-colored beasts, a boy who wants to be something else, and children who want to be exactly who they are combine to create a noise you won't forget: the sound of a train running over the endless rails of the Railsea.
Sham ap Soorap is a doctor's apprentice on the moling train the Medes. The captain, Captain Naphi, has a philosophy: A big, ivory colored mole. The Medes and crew search the southern part of the Railsea, searching for the captain's philosophy and moles that they can hunt for blubber. Sham ap Soorap has higher aspirations, though. He wants to be a salvor.
To be a salvor is to be one of the courageous few who prowl the the Railsea, looking for train wrecks and other ruins to discover and sell. Trying to prove himself to his crew, Sham does a bit of salvage work and he finds a roll of old camera film hidden in a train that has been destroyed. The contents of that roll of film means different things to different people: To Captain Naphi it means the end of her search for her philosophy, to Sham it means something that he cannot even begin to comprehend, to the Rumour Sellers of Manihiki it means that there might be treasure, and the the Shroake siblings it means that they have to finish the work that their parents started.
One of the things that really bugged me about this book was the fact that ampersands ( '&') were used instead of the word 'and'. Around chapter 45 you get an explanation of the symbolism, and eventually you get used to it, but it took a while to re-train my brain.
The author is almost conversational in part of his writing, and that's sort of comforting. It's like he's reaching out of the pages and actually telling you the story. He also refers to the Railsea and the lands around like it is the only time period anyone has ever known, and like you've grown up going to school there. It makes everything seem more real, that Sham might not be some figment of imagination, he might've been an actual kid who actually lost his parents who really does want to be a salvor.
China Mieville is also very humorous, in small ways. Like, I won't go into fine detail, but Sham was stranded somewhere and it said something like "He dug around in the wreck, found himself some boards, and built himself a house. After that, he was lucky to find some seeds so he planted himself a garden and ate the food that grew. When he grew up he went back to Streggeye with the wind blowing in his hair." I don't know, it was longer than that. But I stared at the paragraph for a minute or so because I was only on, like, page 300, and the book was nowhere near done. The next line, though, was "That didn't really happen." It was sort of funny.
The reason why that stood out is because some of the writing, to my opinion, is detailed. Not dry, per say, but very detailed. And sort of roundabout. Maybe it's just that I'm reading too fast and I keep skipping over stuff, but it seems that there is almost as much detail in this book as there is in A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.
For the first fifty pages, at least, I was a bit lost. This seems to be the point, but I couldn't tell you exactly why. When it does get explained, 'it' being the Railsea and what it connects, the various layers of this world, the moling business, and salvage, sometimes it makes even less sense than before it had been explained at all. You have to sort of think yourself through it. It eventually makes sense. Sort of.
This book could be classified as steampunk. The trains are windup, diesel, windblown, or something else, and the dress described of the salvors could very well be what they wore on the Everness (Planesrunner, Ian McDonald).
Technology, pirates, mystery, gypsies, chases for ivory-colored beasts, a boy who wants to be something else, and children who want to be exactly who they are combine to create a noise you won't forget: the sound of a train running over the endless rails of the Railsea.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories.
Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories was cobbled together by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, with contributions from M.T. Anderson, Holly Black, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Shawn Cheng, Cory Doctorow, Dylan Horrocks, Kathleen Jennings, Elizabeth Knox, Kelly Link, Garth Nix, Christopher Rowe, Delia Sherman, and Ysabeau S. Wilce.
Fourteen short stories that fall under the category of steampunk that delight and entrance. From automatons who can love, to 'summer people' who make wonderful things out of cogs and scrap bits of metal, to a boy who wants to travel the United States in his own, private car these stories take you past the basic definition of steampunk, showing you what machines can do to the human soul: they can free it or destroy it, sometimes both at the same time.
It was the title that got me. Well, actually, the call letters which, in my library, are YASTEAMPUN. I had to take it off the shelf after I saw that. And I am so, so glad I did.
There are a few authors and their stories I want to point out:
Holly Black is my idol, and her story "Everything Amiable and Obliging" is a great example of why. It brings up the age old question, and the one that would eventually follow: Can machines really love? And how would we deal with them if they could?
Libba Bray's "Last Ride of the Glory Girls" was also different. Sort of creepy, but then again, most of the stuff of hers that I've read is.
"Some Fortunate Future Day" by Cassandra Clare provoked a reaction of extreme disgust and another of extreme morbid fascination at the same time. Who in their right mind would do that?
I did not like "Seven Days Beset by Demons" by Shawn Cheng. It is a short story written in graphic form, and I didn't like it because, well, I was just disgusted by the character, frankly. I think that was the point of the whole thing, but I don't like stories in which I despise the characters so much I don't want to read the story. Thankfully it was only fourteen pages.
Kelly Link put in "The Summer People" which was wonderfully haunting as well. My three loves in fantasy are steampunk, Faerie, and endings that leave you slightly off kilter. Kelly Link has hit all three.
I could comment on all of the stories, but I'll do just two more: Christopher Rowe's "Nowhere Fast" came with mixed messages. Which is more important: Our planet or the open road? And Garth Nix's "Peace in Our Time" was wonderfully demented.
Really, this anthology is a treasure, in my opinion. First off, each story looks at steampunk in a different way. It wasn't all about cogs and gears, steam and the Victorian Era. There were plenty of stories with no visible clogs or gears, stories with electricity and modern times. Plenty of characters who had their own dreams, their own lives, their own hates.
Sure, it was pretty stereotypical that nearly every main character in the stories aspired to be an engineer, but I guess that's the whole thing about machines: you have to be an engineer to work them.
Truth to be told, I'm going to be wanting some books made out of these stories. What happened to the Glory Girls? Did Luz ever get to surf in California? Did Fran ever go back and rescue Ophelia? How will it work out for Amelia and Nicholas? Will Rocket Boy ever get to see Mars? Will Rose ever get to the Capital? I want to know all the answers, and sadly, I don't think I'll ever get to. It's worth dreaming about it, anyways. The dreams in this book should be enough to sustain me for a while, though, and I'll feed off them like they're azoth. (Reference to the book: I'm not out of my mind and just randomly making up words, thank you very much.)
Fourteen short stories that fall under the category of steampunk that delight and entrance. From automatons who can love, to 'summer people' who make wonderful things out of cogs and scrap bits of metal, to a boy who wants to travel the United States in his own, private car these stories take you past the basic definition of steampunk, showing you what machines can do to the human soul: they can free it or destroy it, sometimes both at the same time.
It was the title that got me. Well, actually, the call letters which, in my library, are YASTEAMPUN. I had to take it off the shelf after I saw that. And I am so, so glad I did.
There are a few authors and their stories I want to point out:
Holly Black is my idol, and her story "Everything Amiable and Obliging" is a great example of why. It brings up the age old question, and the one that would eventually follow: Can machines really love? And how would we deal with them if they could?
Libba Bray's "Last Ride of the Glory Girls" was also different. Sort of creepy, but then again, most of the stuff of hers that I've read is.
"Some Fortunate Future Day" by Cassandra Clare provoked a reaction of extreme disgust and another of extreme morbid fascination at the same time. Who in their right mind would do that?
I did not like "Seven Days Beset by Demons" by Shawn Cheng. It is a short story written in graphic form, and I didn't like it because, well, I was just disgusted by the character, frankly. I think that was the point of the whole thing, but I don't like stories in which I despise the characters so much I don't want to read the story. Thankfully it was only fourteen pages.
Kelly Link put in "The Summer People" which was wonderfully haunting as well. My three loves in fantasy are steampunk, Faerie, and endings that leave you slightly off kilter. Kelly Link has hit all three.
I could comment on all of the stories, but I'll do just two more: Christopher Rowe's "Nowhere Fast" came with mixed messages. Which is more important: Our planet or the open road? And Garth Nix's "Peace in Our Time" was wonderfully demented.
Really, this anthology is a treasure, in my opinion. First off, each story looks at steampunk in a different way. It wasn't all about cogs and gears, steam and the Victorian Era. There were plenty of stories with no visible clogs or gears, stories with electricity and modern times. Plenty of characters who had their own dreams, their own lives, their own hates.
Sure, it was pretty stereotypical that nearly every main character in the stories aspired to be an engineer, but I guess that's the whole thing about machines: you have to be an engineer to work them.
Truth to be told, I'm going to be wanting some books made out of these stories. What happened to the Glory Girls? Did Luz ever get to surf in California? Did Fran ever go back and rescue Ophelia? How will it work out for Amelia and Nicholas? Will Rocket Boy ever get to see Mars? Will Rose ever get to the Capital? I want to know all the answers, and sadly, I don't think I'll ever get to. It's worth dreaming about it, anyways. The dreams in this book should be enough to sustain me for a while, though, and I'll feed off them like they're azoth. (Reference to the book: I'm not out of my mind and just randomly making up words, thank you very much.)
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Planesrunner
Planesrunner by Ian McDonald combines my two favorite science-fiction elements: quantum physics and steampunk.
Everett Singh is a decently happy kid. His mother and his father are divorced, and even his father often has his head in the world of quantum physics while his mother spends most of her time with Victoria Rose, Everett's little sister, Everett has plenty of friends owing to his superior skill as a goalie and a gamer. But his life is shattered into a million pieces when his father is kidnapped . . . and the police try to cover the whole thing up.
After receiving a map of all the alternate realities in every universe, Everett has definite proof that things really are fishy. He meets up with the people who control the gates that lead to the other universes, the Planitplatories, and, against their wishes, jumps into and earth that hasn't left the steam age yet. With the captain and crew of the Everness, a flying steamship of sorts, Everett must race against time to reunite his family, save his new friends aboard the Everness, and escape from the members of the Planeplatory who want him gone.
For starters: Excuse me if I spelled anything wrong. I don't have the book in front of me while I'm typing this, and I don't really know how to spell Planitplatories.
Now, I don't believe I've mentioned this, but steam punk is my favorite genre. It involves Victorian-era clothing and flying steamships. In this book it also includes a United States that has been divided into three parts: Amexica, The Confederate States, and the United States, a race of people who are widely discriminated against, the Airish, the people who fly the ships, and a lot of age-old customs and traditions.
Quantum physics is the next best thing, because I love to imagine all the possibilities and 'could've happens' that could be represented in an alternate universe. I try not to, though, because it would drive me mad.
The characters in this book don't meet any of their alternate selves, and for the better, because that would've complicated the plot line a bit more than it needed to be complicated. It is funny, though, when Everett brings out the different types of technologies he's brought from this world, an iPad, a bluetooth system, and shows them to his new friends who don't really know what to make of them. I also love the mix of old and new: the people on E3 have elevated trains and flying ships, but they've never heard of a telephone.
I do love the characters in this book as well. Sen, the captain's daughter, is a bit of a devil, but you love her all the same. Everett is passionate about his heritage and his family but he, like any other kid of his age, is exhilarated to find himself in a place where no one from his world has ever gone before. Captain Anastasia seems hard and cold at first, but as the story progresses you come to see that she might just be a woman who loves what she's doing, but who might be trying to balance too much at once.
This book was written in England, so there are some terms and punctuation differences that I really had to think over. It a part of a planned trilogy, but it was published in the states in 2011, and I haven't been able to find any other of the books yet, so I don't think they've been published. But they better be . . . the ending was a real cliff-hanger. :)
Everett Singh is a decently happy kid. His mother and his father are divorced, and even his father often has his head in the world of quantum physics while his mother spends most of her time with Victoria Rose, Everett's little sister, Everett has plenty of friends owing to his superior skill as a goalie and a gamer. But his life is shattered into a million pieces when his father is kidnapped . . . and the police try to cover the whole thing up.
After receiving a map of all the alternate realities in every universe, Everett has definite proof that things really are fishy. He meets up with the people who control the gates that lead to the other universes, the Planitplatories, and, against their wishes, jumps into and earth that hasn't left the steam age yet. With the captain and crew of the Everness, a flying steamship of sorts, Everett must race against time to reunite his family, save his new friends aboard the Everness, and escape from the members of the Planeplatory who want him gone.
For starters: Excuse me if I spelled anything wrong. I don't have the book in front of me while I'm typing this, and I don't really know how to spell Planitplatories.
Now, I don't believe I've mentioned this, but steam punk is my favorite genre. It involves Victorian-era clothing and flying steamships. In this book it also includes a United States that has been divided into three parts: Amexica, The Confederate States, and the United States, a race of people who are widely discriminated against, the Airish, the people who fly the ships, and a lot of age-old customs and traditions.
Quantum physics is the next best thing, because I love to imagine all the possibilities and 'could've happens' that could be represented in an alternate universe. I try not to, though, because it would drive me mad.
The characters in this book don't meet any of their alternate selves, and for the better, because that would've complicated the plot line a bit more than it needed to be complicated. It is funny, though, when Everett brings out the different types of technologies he's brought from this world, an iPad, a bluetooth system, and shows them to his new friends who don't really know what to make of them. I also love the mix of old and new: the people on E3 have elevated trains and flying ships, but they've never heard of a telephone.
I do love the characters in this book as well. Sen, the captain's daughter, is a bit of a devil, but you love her all the same. Everett is passionate about his heritage and his family but he, like any other kid of his age, is exhilarated to find himself in a place where no one from his world has ever gone before. Captain Anastasia seems hard and cold at first, but as the story progresses you come to see that she might just be a woman who loves what she's doing, but who might be trying to balance too much at once.
This book was written in England, so there are some terms and punctuation differences that I really had to think over. It a part of a planned trilogy, but it was published in the states in 2011, and I haven't been able to find any other of the books yet, so I don't think they've been published. But they better be . . . the ending was a real cliff-hanger. :)
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