Richard's bookshelf: scifi-steampunk en-US Sat, 24 Aug 2019 14:05:33 -0700 60 Richard's bookshelf: scifi-steampunk 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Hod King (The Books of Babel, #3)]]> 39717847 Thomas Senlin and his crew of outcasts have been separated, and now they must face the dangers of the labyrinthine tower on their own in this third book in the word-of-mouth phenomenon fantasy series."One of my favorite books of all time." -- Mark Lawrence on Senlin AscendsFearing an uprising, the Sphinx sends Senlin to investigate a plot that has taken hold in the ringdom of Pelphia. Alone in the city, Senlin infiltrates a bloody arena where hods battle for the public's entertainment. But his investigation is quickly derailed by a gruesome crime and an unexpected reunion.Posing as a noble lady and her handmaid, Voleta and Iren attempt to reach Marya, who is isolated by her fame. While navigating the court, Voleta attracts the unwanted attention of a powerful prince whose pursuit of her threatens their plan.Edith, now captain of the Sphinx's fierce flagship, joins forces with a fellow wakeman to investigate the disappearance of a beloved friend. She must decide who to trust as her desperate search brings her nearer to the Black Trail where the hods climb in darkness and whisper of the Hod King. As Senlin and his crew become further dragged in to the conspiracies of the Tower, everything falls to one Who is The Hod King?]]> 624 Josiah Bancroft 0316518050 Richard 4 Note: this is a collective review of the first three books in the series. If there's some chance you might click that “like� button, I ask that you click through and read the copy of the review on the first book so those are collected in one neat pile.

Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series has a broad array of well-crafted and compelling characters involved in an ever-escalating series of adventures.

Senlin Ascends starts simply, with Thomas Senlin, a clever but innocent (okay, dorky) schoolteacher, bringing his delightful young bride, Marya, on honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. The Tower is an enigma, standing taller than the highest mountains, its top shrouded in clouds. Inside, one atop another, is a series of “ringdoms�, each hosting a society different from any other, and all posing a challenge to survival. It turns out to be more than expected, with incredible chaos that separates the two almost upon arrival. Senlin, alone, must ascend the Tower — now obvious quite threatening � to the pre-arranged level to meet his wife. He makes enemies and finds friends, but does not solve his conundrum (this is a series, after all).

In Arm of the Sphinx and The Hod King, the number of friends and enemies continues to climb and Senlin makes grudging progress on his marital quest, but also acquires new responsibilities.

There’s a good reason these books are rated so highly � 4.20 out of five stars for the first, rising to 4.54 for the latest. Most first-time novelists don’t seem able to create a cast that is both individuated and engaging. (Even famous authors sometimes struggle. Which is Merry and which is Pippin?) Even one of the villains is quite deep in motivation and complexity, although most aren’t very interesting.

But I’m probably not going to read the last in the series, when it comes out.

Why?

Importantly, there’s just a lot of other stuff that I know I’ll also enjoy reading. The struggle is that so much will inevitably go unread. (The economic term “opportunity cost� is well worth considering: When an option is chosen from alternatives, the opportunity cost is the “cost� incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the best alternative choice.)

What makes this easier to dismiss is how the subgenre of steampunk has evolved. As Wikipedia puts it, “examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.� That latter is somewhat galling � to me, it’s Ada Lovelace’s Analytical Engine that provides the promise. If Babbage had agreed to her terms, it is quite plausible that Victorian England could have leapt ahead to something of an information age. How might that have played out?

Unfortunately (imho) steampunk has instead become a fantasy subgenre, with a stylistically retro technology playing the role of the magic. And, as in weaker fantasy stories, seldom is any restraint shown in the deployment of magic.

As I’ve written before (although I can’t recall within which if my reviews), I believe any author of speculative fiction gets one big lie. Maybe with a few smaller lies tucked in, but I believe that discipline is essential. Author, figure out what your big lie is, and stick with it. Don’t expand it willy-nilly as a crutch to a plot development.

One definition of “hard� science fiction is purely speculative: following all of our known laws of nature, what if this had happened instead of this? In the eternal tug-of-war between Star Trek and Star Wars, I’m firmly on the side of the former: it mostly tries to stick with known physics, while the latter relies heavily on magic, as well as technological miracles.

I don’t think I’ve read a single steampunk novel that doesn’t throw out the window any inconvenience that physics or chemistry implies, and I’m tired of it. In Bancroft’s novel, one particular sin broke the camel’s back, but that’s a spoiler.[spoilers removed]

Bancroft hasn’t written anything other than this series. Maybe I’ll change my mind and read the final book, but I hope in his next efforts he applies his skills within a less absurdly fantastical world.

Verdict: this is definitely a pleasure to read, as long as you don’t care much about such geeky things as physics.

P.S. My initial stub of a review pointed out that Senlin Ascends doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. He quite a bit better later on. If you don’t know or care what the is� well, you should be ashamed of yourself.]]> 4.46 2019 The Hod King (The Books of Babel, #3)
author: Josiah Bancroft
name: Richard
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/16
date added: 2019/08/24
shelves: scifi-steampunk, series, ebook
review:
Note: this is a collective review of the first three books in the series. If there's some chance you might click that “like� button, I ask that you click through and read the copy of the review on the first book so those are collected in one neat pile.

Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series has a broad array of well-crafted and compelling characters involved in an ever-escalating series of adventures.

Senlin Ascends starts simply, with Thomas Senlin, a clever but innocent (okay, dorky) schoolteacher, bringing his delightful young bride, Marya, on honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. The Tower is an enigma, standing taller than the highest mountains, its top shrouded in clouds. Inside, one atop another, is a series of “ringdoms�, each hosting a society different from any other, and all posing a challenge to survival. It turns out to be more than expected, with incredible chaos that separates the two almost upon arrival. Senlin, alone, must ascend the Tower — now obvious quite threatening � to the pre-arranged level to meet his wife. He makes enemies and finds friends, but does not solve his conundrum (this is a series, after all).

In Arm of the Sphinx and The Hod King, the number of friends and enemies continues to climb and Senlin makes grudging progress on his marital quest, but also acquires new responsibilities.

There’s a good reason these books are rated so highly � 4.20 out of five stars for the first, rising to 4.54 for the latest. Most first-time novelists don’t seem able to create a cast that is both individuated and engaging. (Even famous authors sometimes struggle. Which is Merry and which is Pippin?) Even one of the villains is quite deep in motivation and complexity, although most aren’t very interesting.

But I’m probably not going to read the last in the series, when it comes out.

Why?

Importantly, there’s just a lot of other stuff that I know I’ll also enjoy reading. The struggle is that so much will inevitably go unread. (The economic term “opportunity cost� is well worth considering: When an option is chosen from alternatives, the opportunity cost is the “cost� incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the best alternative choice.)

What makes this easier to dismiss is how the subgenre of steampunk has evolved. As Wikipedia puts it, “examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.� That latter is somewhat galling � to me, it’s Ada Lovelace’s Analytical Engine that provides the promise. If Babbage had agreed to her terms, it is quite plausible that Victorian England could have leapt ahead to something of an information age. How might that have played out?

Unfortunately (imho) steampunk has instead become a fantasy subgenre, with a stylistically retro technology playing the role of the magic. And, as in weaker fantasy stories, seldom is any restraint shown in the deployment of magic.

As I’ve written before (although I can’t recall within which if my reviews), I believe any author of speculative fiction gets one big lie. Maybe with a few smaller lies tucked in, but I believe that discipline is essential. Author, figure out what your big lie is, and stick with it. Don’t expand it willy-nilly as a crutch to a plot development.

One definition of “hard� science fiction is purely speculative: following all of our known laws of nature, what if this had happened instead of this? In the eternal tug-of-war between Star Trek and Star Wars, I’m firmly on the side of the former: it mostly tries to stick with known physics, while the latter relies heavily on magic, as well as technological miracles.

I don’t think I’ve read a single steampunk novel that doesn’t throw out the window any inconvenience that physics or chemistry implies, and I’m tired of it. In Bancroft’s novel, one particular sin broke the camel’s back, but that’s a spoiler.[spoilers removed]

Bancroft hasn’t written anything other than this series. Maybe I’ll change my mind and read the final book, but I hope in his next efforts he applies his skills within a less absurdly fantastical world.

Verdict: this is definitely a pleasure to read, as long as you don’t care much about such geeky things as physics.

P.S. My initial stub of a review pointed out that Senlin Ascends doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. He quite a bit better later on. If you don’t know or care what the is� well, you should be ashamed of yourself.
]]> <![CDATA[Arm of the Sphinx (The Books of Babel, #2)]]> 36120367 The second book in the stunning and strange debut fantasy series that's receiving major praise from some of fantasy's biggest authors such as Mark Lawrence and Django Wexler.
The Tower of Babel is proving to be as difficult to reenter as it was to break out of. Forced into a life of piracy, Senlin and his eclectic crew are struggling to survive aboard their stolen airship as the hunt to rescue Senlin's lost wife continues.
Hopeless and desolate, they turn to a legend of the Tower, the mysterious Sphinx. But help from the Sphinx never comes cheaply, and as Senlin knows, debts aren't always what they seem in the Tower of Babel.
Time is running out, and now Senlin must choose between his friends, his freedom, and his wife.
Does anyone truly escape the Tower?
The Books of BabelSenlin AscendsArm of the Sphinx]]> 395 Josiah Bancroft Richard 4 Note: this is a collective review of the first three books in the series. If there's some chance you might click that “like� button, I ask that you click through and read the copy of the review on the first book so those are collected in one neat pile.

Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series has a broad array of well-crafted and compelling characters involved in an ever-escalating series of adventures.

Senlin Ascends starts simply, with Thomas Senlin, a clever but innocent (okay, dorky) schoolteacher, bringing his delightful young bride, Marya, on honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. The Tower is an enigma, standing taller than the highest mountains, its top shrouded in clouds. Inside, one atop another, is a series of “ringdoms�, each hosting a society different from any other, and all posing a challenge to survival. It turns out to be more than expected, with incredible chaos that separates the two almost upon arrival. Senlin, alone, must ascend the Tower — now obvious quite threatening � to the pre-arranged level to meet his wife. He makes enemies and finds friends, but does not solve his conundrum (this is a series, after all).

In Arm of the Sphinx and The Hod King, the number of friends and enemies continues to climb and Senlin makes grudging progress on his marital quest, but also acquires new responsibilities.

There’s a good reason these books are rated so highly � 4.20 out of five stars for the first, rising to 4.54 for the latest. Most first-time novelists don’t seem able to create a cast that is both individuated and engaging. (Even famous authors sometimes struggle. Which is Merry and which is Pippin?) Even one of the villains is quite deep in motivation and complexity, although most aren’t very interesting.

But I’m probably not going to read the last in the series, when it comes out.

Why?

Importantly, there’s just a lot of other stuff that I know I’ll also enjoy reading. The struggle is that so much will inevitably go unread. (The economic term “opportunity cost� is well worth considering: When an option is chosen from alternatives, the opportunity cost is the “cost� incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the best alternative choice.)

What makes this easier to dismiss is how the subgenre of steampunk has evolved. As Wikipedia puts it, “examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.� That latter is somewhat galling � to me, it’s Ada Lovelace’s Analytical Engine that provides the promise. If Babbage had agreed to her terms, it is quite plausible that Victorian England could have leapt ahead to something of an information age. How might that have played out?

Unfortunately (imho) steampunk has instead become a fantasy subgenre, with a stylistically retro technology playing the role of the magic. And, as in weaker fantasy stories, seldom is any restraint shown in the deployment of magic.

As I’ve written before (although I can’t recall within which if my reviews), I believe any author of speculative fiction gets one big lie. Maybe with a few smaller lies tucked in, but I believe that discipline is essential. Author, figure out what your big lie is, and stick with it. Don’t expand it willy-nilly as a crutch to a plot development.

One definition of “hard� science fiction is purely speculative: following all of our known laws of nature, what if this had happened instead of this? In the eternal tug-of-war between Star Trek and Star Wars, I’m firmly on the side of the former: it mostly tries to stick with known physics, while the latter relies heavily on magic, as well as technological miracles.

I don’t think I’ve read a single steampunk novel that doesn’t throw out the window any inconvenience that physics or chemistry implies, and I’m tired of it. In Bancroft’s novel, one particular sin broke the camel’s back, but that’s a spoiler.[spoilers removed]

Bancroft hasn’t written anything other than this series. Maybe I’ll change my mind and read the final book, but I hope in his next efforts he applies his skills within a less absurdly fantastical world.

Verdict: this is definitely a pleasure to read, as long as you don’t care much about such geeky things as physics.

P.S. My initial stub of a review pointed out that Senlin Ascends doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. He quite a bit better later on. If you don’t know or care what the is� well, you should be ashamed of yourself.]]> 4.42 2014 Arm of the Sphinx (The Books of Babel, #2)
author: Josiah Bancroft
name: Richard
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/08
date added: 2019/08/24
shelves: scifi-steampunk, series, ebook
review:
Note: this is a collective review of the first three books in the series. If there's some chance you might click that “like� button, I ask that you click through and read the copy of the review on the first book so those are collected in one neat pile.

Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series has a broad array of well-crafted and compelling characters involved in an ever-escalating series of adventures.

Senlin Ascends starts simply, with Thomas Senlin, a clever but innocent (okay, dorky) schoolteacher, bringing his delightful young bride, Marya, on honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. The Tower is an enigma, standing taller than the highest mountains, its top shrouded in clouds. Inside, one atop another, is a series of “ringdoms�, each hosting a society different from any other, and all posing a challenge to survival. It turns out to be more than expected, with incredible chaos that separates the two almost upon arrival. Senlin, alone, must ascend the Tower — now obvious quite threatening � to the pre-arranged level to meet his wife. He makes enemies and finds friends, but does not solve his conundrum (this is a series, after all).

In Arm of the Sphinx and The Hod King, the number of friends and enemies continues to climb and Senlin makes grudging progress on his marital quest, but also acquires new responsibilities.

There’s a good reason these books are rated so highly � 4.20 out of five stars for the first, rising to 4.54 for the latest. Most first-time novelists don’t seem able to create a cast that is both individuated and engaging. (Even famous authors sometimes struggle. Which is Merry and which is Pippin?) Even one of the villains is quite deep in motivation and complexity, although most aren’t very interesting.

But I’m probably not going to read the last in the series, when it comes out.

Why?

Importantly, there’s just a lot of other stuff that I know I’ll also enjoy reading. The struggle is that so much will inevitably go unread. (The economic term “opportunity cost� is well worth considering: When an option is chosen from alternatives, the opportunity cost is the “cost� incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the best alternative choice.)

What makes this easier to dismiss is how the subgenre of steampunk has evolved. As Wikipedia puts it, “examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.� That latter is somewhat galling � to me, it’s Ada Lovelace’s Analytical Engine that provides the promise. If Babbage had agreed to her terms, it is quite plausible that Victorian England could have leapt ahead to something of an information age. How might that have played out?

Unfortunately (imho) steampunk has instead become a fantasy subgenre, with a stylistically retro technology playing the role of the magic. And, as in weaker fantasy stories, seldom is any restraint shown in the deployment of magic.

As I’ve written before (although I can’t recall within which if my reviews), I believe any author of speculative fiction gets one big lie. Maybe with a few smaller lies tucked in, but I believe that discipline is essential. Author, figure out what your big lie is, and stick with it. Don’t expand it willy-nilly as a crutch to a plot development.

One definition of “hard� science fiction is purely speculative: following all of our known laws of nature, what if this had happened instead of this? In the eternal tug-of-war between Star Trek and Star Wars, I’m firmly on the side of the former: it mostly tries to stick with known physics, while the latter relies heavily on magic, as well as technological miracles.

I don’t think I’ve read a single steampunk novel that doesn’t throw out the window any inconvenience that physics or chemistry implies, and I’m tired of it. In Bancroft’s novel, one particular sin broke the camel’s back, but that’s a spoiler.[spoilers removed]

Bancroft hasn’t written anything other than this series. Maybe I’ll change my mind and read the final book, but I hope in his next efforts he applies his skills within a less absurdly fantastical world.

Verdict: this is definitely a pleasure to read, as long as you don’t care much about such geeky things as physics.

P.S. My initial stub of a review pointed out that Senlin Ascends doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. He quite a bit better later on. If you don’t know or care what the is� well, you should be ashamed of yourself.
]]> <![CDATA[Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel, #1)]]> 36111562 The first book in the word-of-mouth phenomenon debut fantasy series about one man’s dangerous journey through a labyrinthine world.

The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of luxury and menace, of unusual animals and mysterious machines.

Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.

Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he’ll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the illusions of the Tower. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure.

This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.]]> 384 Josiah Bancroft 0316517909 Richard 4 Books of Babel series has a broad array of well-crafted and compelling characters involved in an ever-escalating series of adventures.

Senlin Ascends starts simply, with Thomas Senlin, a clever but innocent (okay, dorky) schoolteacher, bringing his delightful young bride, Marya, on honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. The Tower is an enigma, standing taller than the highest mountains, its top shrouded in clouds. Inside, one atop another, is a series of “ringdoms�, each hosting a society different from any other, and all posing a challenge to survival. It turns out to be more than expected, with incredible chaos that separates the two almost upon arrival. Senlin, alone, must ascend the Tower — now obvious quite threatening � to the pre-arranged level to meet his wife. He makes enemies and finds friends, but does not solve his conundrum (this is a series, after all).

In Arm of the Sphinx and The Hod King, the number of friends and enemies continues to climb and Senlin makes grudging progress on his marital quest, but also acquires new responsibilities.

There’s a good reason these books are rated so highly � 4.20 out of five stars for the first, rising to 4.54 for the latest. Most first-time novelists don’t seem able to create a cast that is both individuated and engaging. (Even famous authors sometimes struggle. Which is Merry and which is Pippin?) Even one of the villains is quite deep in motivation and complexity, although most aren’t very interesting.

But I’m probably not going to read the last in the series, when it comes out.

Why?

Importantly, there’s just a lot of other stuff that I know I’ll also enjoy reading. The struggle is that so much will inevitably go unread. (The economic term “opportunity cost� is well worth considering: When an option is chosen from alternatives, the opportunity cost is the “cost� incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the best alternative choice.)

What makes this easier to dismiss is how the subgenre of steampunk has evolved. As Wikipedia puts it, “examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.� That latter is somewhat galling � to me, it’s Ada Lovelace’s Analytical Engine that provides the promise. If Babbage had agreed to her terms, it is quite plausible that Victorian England could have leapt ahead to something of an information age. How might that have played out?

Unfortunately (imho) steampunk has instead become a fantasy subgenre, with a stylistically retro technology playing the role of the magic. And, as in weaker fantasy stories, seldom is any restraint shown in the deployment of magic.

As I’ve written before (although I can’t recall within which if my reviews), I believe any author of speculative fiction gets one big lie. Maybe with a few smaller lies tucked in, but I believe that discipline is essential. Author, figure out what your big lie is, and stick with it. Don’t expand it willy-nilly as a crutch to a plot development.

One definition of “hard� science fiction is purely speculative: following all of our known laws of nature, what if this had happened instead of this? In the eternal tug-of-war between Star Trek and Star Wars, I’m firmly on the side of the former: it mostly tries to stick with known physics, while the latter relies heavily on magic, as well as technological miracles.

I don’t think I’ve read a single steampunk novel that doesn’t throw out the window any inconvenience that physics or chemistry implies, and I’m tired of it. In Bancroft’s novel, one particular sin broke the camel’s back, but that’s a spoiler.[spoilers removed]

Bancroft hasn’t written anything other than this series. Maybe I’ll change my mind and read the final book, but I hope in his next efforts he applies his skills within a less absurdly fantastical world.

Verdict: this is definitely a pleasure to read, as long as you don’t care much about such geeky things as physics.

P.S. My initial stub of a review pointed out that Senlin Ascends doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. He quite a bit better later on. If you don’t know or care what the is� well, you should be ashamed of yourself.]]> 4.15 2013 Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel, #1)
author: Josiah Bancroft
name: Richard
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/08
date added: 2019/08/24
shelves: scifi-steampunk, ebook, series
review:
Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series has a broad array of well-crafted and compelling characters involved in an ever-escalating series of adventures.

Senlin Ascends starts simply, with Thomas Senlin, a clever but innocent (okay, dorky) schoolteacher, bringing his delightful young bride, Marya, on honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. The Tower is an enigma, standing taller than the highest mountains, its top shrouded in clouds. Inside, one atop another, is a series of “ringdoms�, each hosting a society different from any other, and all posing a challenge to survival. It turns out to be more than expected, with incredible chaos that separates the two almost upon arrival. Senlin, alone, must ascend the Tower — now obvious quite threatening � to the pre-arranged level to meet his wife. He makes enemies and finds friends, but does not solve his conundrum (this is a series, after all).

In Arm of the Sphinx and The Hod King, the number of friends and enemies continues to climb and Senlin makes grudging progress on his marital quest, but also acquires new responsibilities.

There’s a good reason these books are rated so highly � 4.20 out of five stars for the first, rising to 4.54 for the latest. Most first-time novelists don’t seem able to create a cast that is both individuated and engaging. (Even famous authors sometimes struggle. Which is Merry and which is Pippin?) Even one of the villains is quite deep in motivation and complexity, although most aren’t very interesting.

But I’m probably not going to read the last in the series, when it comes out.

Why?

Importantly, there’s just a lot of other stuff that I know I’ll also enjoy reading. The struggle is that so much will inevitably go unread. (The economic term “opportunity cost� is well worth considering: When an option is chosen from alternatives, the opportunity cost is the “cost� incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the best alternative choice.)

What makes this easier to dismiss is how the subgenre of steampunk has evolved. As Wikipedia puts it, “examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.� That latter is somewhat galling � to me, it’s Ada Lovelace’s Analytical Engine that provides the promise. If Babbage had agreed to her terms, it is quite plausible that Victorian England could have leapt ahead to something of an information age. How might that have played out?

Unfortunately (imho) steampunk has instead become a fantasy subgenre, with a stylistically retro technology playing the role of the magic. And, as in weaker fantasy stories, seldom is any restraint shown in the deployment of magic.

As I’ve written before (although I can’t recall within which if my reviews), I believe any author of speculative fiction gets one big lie. Maybe with a few smaller lies tucked in, but I believe that discipline is essential. Author, figure out what your big lie is, and stick with it. Don’t expand it willy-nilly as a crutch to a plot development.

One definition of “hard� science fiction is purely speculative: following all of our known laws of nature, what if this had happened instead of this? In the eternal tug-of-war between Star Trek and Star Wars, I’m firmly on the side of the former: it mostly tries to stick with known physics, while the latter relies heavily on magic, as well as technological miracles.

I don’t think I’ve read a single steampunk novel that doesn’t throw out the window any inconvenience that physics or chemistry implies, and I’m tired of it. In Bancroft’s novel, one particular sin broke the camel’s back, but that’s a spoiler.[spoilers removed]

Bancroft hasn’t written anything other than this series. Maybe I’ll change my mind and read the final book, but I hope in his next efforts he applies his skills within a less absurdly fantastical world.

Verdict: this is definitely a pleasure to read, as long as you don’t care much about such geeky things as physics.

P.S. My initial stub of a review pointed out that Senlin Ascends doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. He quite a bit better later on. If you don’t know or care what the is� well, you should be ashamed of yourself.
]]> <![CDATA[Manners & Mutiny (Finishing School, #4)]]> 18725742 If one must flirt... flirt with danger.

Lessons in the art of espionage aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine's floating dirigible have become tedious without Sophronia's sweet sootie Soap nearby. She would much rather be using her skills to thwart the dastardly Picklemen, yet her concerns about their wicked intentions are ignored, and now she's not sure whom to trust. What does the brusque werewolf dewan know? On whose side is the ever-stylish vampire Lord Akeldama? Only one thing is certain: a large-scale plot is under way, and when it comes to fruition, Sophronia must be ready to save her friends, her school, and all of London from disaster--in decidedly dramatic fashion, of course.

What will become of our proper young heroine when she puts her years of training to the test?

Find out in the conclusion to the Finishing School series!]]> 326 Gail Carriger 0316190284 Richard 0 4.22 2015 Manners & Mutiny (Finishing School, #4)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/07
shelves: fantasy-alt-history, fantasy-paranormal, scifi-steampunk, series-next-therein, series, to-read
review:

]]> Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 76852
But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative -- the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition with ISBN 1582344167 ahref="/book/show/3...]]> 782 Susanna Clarke 1582344167 Richard 2
You know what it seemed like? A grown-up version of Lemony Snicket's . Unfortunately, "grown up" in the world means dull and dumb, so the snarky humor is all gone, and all that is left is the mood.

Meh. Don't bother, unless you really need a big book to put you gently to sleep, night after night, for a long time.

(This is #4 on io9.com's list of , which is why I dove in. I also disagree with their #7, but agree with some of the others. So: whatever.)]]> 3.98 2004 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Richard
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/08/16
shelves: abandoned, scifi-steampunk, not-gonna-read, award-hugo
review:
I was mildly enjoying this book, but it just wasn't enough — the thing is huge, and almost nothing happens.

You know what it seemed like? A grown-up version of Lemony Snicket's . Unfortunately, "grown up" in the world means dull and dumb, so the snarky humor is all gone, and all that is left is the mood.

Meh. Don't bother, unless you really need a big book to put you gently to sleep, night after night, for a long time.

(This is #4 on io9.com's list of , which is why I dove in. I also disagree with their #7, but agree with some of the others. So: whatever.)
]]> <![CDATA[The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1)]]> 25022451 Jim Butcher, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera novels, conjures up a new series set in a fantastic world of noble families, steam-powered technology, and magic-wielding warriors�

Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion—to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.

And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake…]]> 654 Jim Butcher 0698138007 Richard 0 4.36 2015 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Richard
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/17
shelves: to-read, fantasy, scifi-steampunk, ebook
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Prudence (The Custard Protocol, #1)]]> 12799420 From New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger comes a new novel in the world of the Parasol Protectorate starring Prudence, the daughter of Alexia Tarabotti.

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (Rue to her friends) is given an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female would under similar circumstances - names it the Spotted Custard and floats to India in pursuit of the perfect cup of tea. But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis and an embarrassing lack of bloomers, what else is a young lady of good breeding to do but turn metanatural and find out everyone's secrets, even thousand-year-old fuzzy ones?]]> 357 Gail Carriger 0316212245 Richard 3
Update: ŷ told me I won this, but I never actually got it. Since I'd never "won" before, I can't tell how often that happens.

The first of the author's series that involves the descendants of characters from the previous series is a little weak. The cleverness is no longer novel, and the silliness has long since gotten quite routine.

Is it time for Ms. Carriger to find a new schtick?]]> 3.79 2015 Prudence (The Custard Protocol, #1)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2015/10/22
date added: 2015/10/25
shelves: fantasy, fantasy-alt-history, fantasy-paranormal, series, scifi-steampunk
review:
Oh, funny. The first time I enter for a free book on ŷ that I've won. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Update: ŷ told me I won this, but I never actually got it. Since I'd never "won" before, I can't tell how often that happens.

The first of the author's series that involves the descendants of characters from the previous series is a little weak. The cleverness is no longer novel, and the silliness has long since gotten quite routine.

Is it time for Ms. Carriger to find a new schtick?
]]> <![CDATA[Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, #1)]]> 77586
It is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight. It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe--London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds--risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox...and Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent a contentious continent through the newborn power of finance.

A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life--a historical epic populated by the likes of Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, William of Orange, Benjamin Franklin, and King Louis XIV--Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.

And it's just the beginning ...
(front flap)]]> 927 Neal Stephenson Richard 0 Book selection for the (aka the ) for the month of February, 2011.
­ձ> 3.84 2003 Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, #1)
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Richard
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/06/02
shelves: bookclub, scifi, scifi-steampunk, hiatus
review:
Book selection for the (aka the ) for the month of February, 2011.
­
]]> <![CDATA[Timeless (Parasol Protectorate, #5)]]> 13506189 Librarian's note: This is an Alternate Cover Edition for ASIN: B004RD853K.

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a dampener on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?]]> 400 Gail Carriger Richard 4 4.26 2012 Timeless (Parasol Protectorate, #5)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/10
date added: 2015/03/11
shelves: ebook, fantasy, fantasy-paranormal, scifi-steampunk, series, fantasy-alt-history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartless (Parasol Protectorate, #4)]]> 9855487 Librarian's note: This is an Alternate Cover Edition for ASIN: B0047Y0EZQ.

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?]]> 374 Gail Carriger Richard 3 4.11 2011 Heartless (Parasol Protectorate, #4)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/07
date added: 2015/03/07
shelves: fantasy, fantasy-paranormal, scifi-steampunk, fantasy-alt-history, ebook, series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blameless (Parasol Protectorate, #3)]]> 9011948 Librarian's note: This is an Alternate Cover Edition for ASIN: B003JTHYBW.

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.
BLAMELESS is the third book of the Parasol Protectorate series: a comedy of manners set in Victorian London, full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.
The Parasol Protectorate
Soulless
Changeless
Blameless
Heartless
Timeless


For more from Gail Carriger, check out:

The Custard Protocol
Prudence
Imprudence

Finishing School (YA)
Etiquette & Espionage
Curtsies & Conspiracies
Waistcoats & Weaponry
Manners & Mutiny]]> 400 Gail Carriger Richard 3 4.04 2010 Blameless (Parasol Protectorate, #3)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2015/02/27
date added: 2015/03/03
shelves: fantasy-alt-history, fantasy-paranormal, scifi-steampunk, series
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Changeless (Parasol Protectorate, #2)]]> 6933876
But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. So even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can. She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

CHANGELESS is the second book of the Parasol Protectorate series: a comedy of manners set in Victorian London, full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.]]> 374 Gail Carriger 0316074144 Richard 3 Same review as the first in the series:
Definitely fluff. I felt guilty reading this, but it was fun. I note that the vast majority of folks reading this are women, which makes sense. This is written from the perspective of an empowered smart-aleck struggling with fools on all sides. But there's worse: she's got mild body issues (albeit a completely enamored husband) and the constant burden of wearing Victorian clothing. Definitely a hoot.

Except: there is a nice twist at the end.]]> 3.99 2010 Changeless (Parasol Protectorate, #2)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2015/01/19
date added: 2015/01/22
shelves: fantasy-paranormal, series, scifi-steampunk, fantasy-alt-history
review:
Same review as the first in the series:
Definitely fluff. I felt guilty reading this, but it was fun. I note that the vast majority of folks reading this are women, which makes sense. This is written from the perspective of an empowered smart-aleck struggling with fools on all sides. But there's worse: she's got mild body issues (albeit a completely enamored husband) and the constant burden of wearing Victorian clothing. Definitely a hoot.

Except: there is a nice twist at the end.
]]> <![CDATA[Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)]]> 6381205 Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations.

First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire--and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?]]> 357 Gail Carriger 0316056634 Richard 4 3.90 2009 Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2012/01/30
date added: 2015/01/22
shelves: bookclub, fantasy-paranormal, series, fantasy-alt-history, scifi-steampunk
review:
Definitely fluff. I felt guilty reading this, but it was fun. I note that the vast majority of folks reading this are women, which makes sense. This is written from the perspective of an empowered smart-aleck struggling with fools on all sides. But there's worse: she's got mild body issues (albeit a completely enamored husband) and the constant burden of wearing Victorian clothing. Definitely a hoot.
]]> <![CDATA[Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School, #3)]]> 20980648
No one suspected what—or who—they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all.]]> 298 Gail Carriger 0316190276 Richard 4 4.15 2014 Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School, #3)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2014/12/20
date added: 2014/12/20
shelves: fantasy-alt-history, fantasy-paranormal, scifi-steampunk, series, silly
review:
Still delightfully silly, but the characters and plot are growing up. The series is fast and fun � recommended highly.
]]> <![CDATA[Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, #1)]]> 23037711 It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.]]> 166 Gail Carriger 0316215228 Richard 4
Definitely a hoot. Four stars for its sub-sub-sub genre; this is not to be taken as a recommendation that this is anything but a fun but silly fluff of a book.]]> 4.17 2013 Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, #1)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/15
date added: 2014/12/10
shelves: ebook, fantasy-paranormal, scifi-steampunk, silly
review:
"These ladies put the poise in poison."

Definitely a hoot. Four stars for its sub-sub-sub genre; this is not to be taken as a recommendation that this is anything but a fun but silly fluff of a book.
]]> <![CDATA[Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School, #2)]]> 15723286 Does one need four fully grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully grown guests?

Sophronia's first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has certainly been rousing! For one thing, finishing school is training her to be a spy--won't Mumsy be surprised? Furthermore, Sophronia got mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and had a cheese pie thrown at her in a most horrid display of poor manners.

Now, as she sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers' quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship's boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a field trip to London than is apparent at first. A conspiracy is afoot--one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card.

In this sequel to New York Times bestselling Etiquette & Espionage, class is back in session with more petticoats and poison, tea trays and treason. Gail's distinctive voice, signature humor, and lush steampunk setting are sure to be the height of fashion this season.]]> 310 Gail Carriger Richard 4
This is the cotton candy of reading. Light and fluffy, but fun. Well, considering how nasty we're increasingly realize that sugar is, I'm doing a disservice to Carriger, since her books won't harm you.

Because this is steampunk, it does somewhat fit into the category of science fiction, which I frequently read.

But toss in vampires and werewolves and preparatory boarding schools for boys, heading for "careers" as evil geniuses, or girls, as intelligencers and assassins, and you're in a very strange world. The book focuses on the girls, although the boys come in as secondary characters. Keep in mind that these are early Victorian girls, wearing corsets and multiple petticoats — and those petticoats are part of the story more often than you'd expect.

If you want some innocent* quick and silly reading, you could do a lot worse.

*If you want something a bit less innocent, the author's Parasol Protectorate series is similar, but with actual lust-laden adults, albeit with many more vampires and werewolves.]]> 4.12 2013 Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School, #2)
author: Gail Carriger
name: Richard
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2014/10/15
date added: 2014/12/10
shelves: fantasy-paranormal, scifi-steampunk, fantasy-alt-history, series, silly
review:
Pretty much the same thing as the first one.

This is the cotton candy of reading. Light and fluffy, but fun. Well, considering how nasty we're increasingly realize that sugar is, I'm doing a disservice to Carriger, since her books won't harm you.

Because this is steampunk, it does somewhat fit into the category of science fiction, which I frequently read.

But toss in vampires and werewolves and preparatory boarding schools for boys, heading for "careers" as evil geniuses, or girls, as intelligencers and assassins, and you're in a very strange world. The book focuses on the girls, although the boys come in as secondary characters. Keep in mind that these are early Victorian girls, wearing corsets and multiple petticoats — and those petticoats are part of the story more often than you'd expect.

If you want some innocent* quick and silly reading, you could do a lot worse.

*If you want something a bit less innocent, the author's Parasol Protectorate series is similar, but with actual lust-laden adults, albeit with many more vampires and werewolves.
]]> <![CDATA[Aurorarama (The Mysteries of New Venice, #1)]]> 10163088 A seductive and shockingly inventive literary thriller that entwines suspense, history, the supernatural, adventure, steampunk, and a wicked sense of adventure into an intoxicating new genre.EPISODE ONE IN AN ASTONISHING NEW SERIES New Venice--the “pearl of the Arctic�--is a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate sled-gondolas and elegant Victorian garb, of long nights and short days and endless vistas of crystalline ice. But as the city prepares for spring, it feels more like qarrtsiluni-- “the time when something is about to explode in the dark.� Local “poletics� are wracked by tensions between the city’s security forces--the Subtle Army--and the Eskimos who were there first; by suffragette riots led by an underground music star; and by drug round-ups led by the ruthless secret police force known as the Gentlemen of the Night.  Meanwhile, a mysterious and ominous black airship hovers over the city like a supernatural threat--is New Venice about to come under assault, or is it another government ploy?At the root of it all is an anonymous pamphlet calling for revolt, which the Gentlemen suspect was written by one of the city’s most prominent figures, Brentford Orsini. But as they tighten the net around him, Orsini receives a message from a long-lost love that compels him to radical action.]]> 434 Jean-Christophe Valtat 1935554883 Richard 4 ante bellum years were the heyday of anarchism!) and place the resulting dish on a bed of ice, to represent the arctic locale for the story.

Now, throw the whole thing away and read Valtat's Aurorarama . After all, he almost certainly writes better than you anyway, and why try to re-create what he has done so marvelously? Because he also has some wonderfully memorable characters, both at the center and the edges of his story. And he's done the research to be able to weave in those crazy decades of arctic exploration and Inuit culture.

This isn't quite at the heights of strange-fiction storytelling, like Miéville's The City and the City , but it's still an exciting yarn and a darn good read.]]> 3.43 2010 Aurorarama (The Mysteries of New Venice, #1)
author: Jean-Christophe Valtat
name: Richard
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2014/03/04
date added: 2014/03/05
shelves: scifi-steampunk, scifi-fantasy, series
review:
Take a large measure of Jules Verne, for his late nineteenth century steampunk milieu and wild, individualistic adventuring, and mix in a heap of China Miéville, to add the fantastic fabulation that he does in that weird-fiction world. Stir in the spice of militant anarchism (remember, those ante bellum years were the heyday of anarchism!) and place the resulting dish on a bed of ice, to represent the arctic locale for the story.

Now, throw the whole thing away and read Valtat's Aurorarama . After all, he almost certainly writes better than you anyway, and why try to re-create what he has done so marvelously? Because he also has some wonderfully memorable characters, both at the center and the edges of his story. And he's done the research to be able to weave in those crazy decades of arctic exploration and Inuit culture.

This isn't quite at the heights of strange-fiction storytelling, like Miéville's The City and the City , but it's still an exciting yarn and a darn good read.
]]> Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, #1) 7959236
It is the dawn of a new age. . . The Industrial Revolution has begun, factories are springing up across the country, and new technologies are transforming in the cities. But the old ways do not die easy.

Cat and Bee are part of this revolution. Young women at college, learning of the science that will shape their future and ignorant of the magics that rule their families. But all of that will change when the Cold Mages come for Cat. New dangers lurk around every corner and hidden threats menace her every move. If blood can't be trusted, who can you trust?]]> 502 Kate Elliott 0316080853 Richard 4 Why, in the dedication, do you call The Spiritwalker Trilogy a “mash-up�?
� A mash-up involves taking songs, or video clips, or bits of disparate media from different sources and “mashing� them up together to make a song of video of program or other content that is a new whole based on a bunch of different parts. So when I call Cold Magic an “Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troödons� (which were a small, intelligent, and agile species of dinosaur), I’m thinking of the novel as a mash-up of disparate elements. Since I happen to really enjoy mash-ups, it made sense for me to try one.(For all your real mash-up needs, head over to !)

The map in the front shows a Europe recognizable in its general outlines, although the continuing ice age results in a lower sea level, thus England, er, Brigantia?, is attached to the continent via a land bridge. Which is where the action takes place, oddly enough. And many of the peoples of Europe are kinda represented, including the remnants of the Roman Empire. But apparently North America is occupied by those intelligent dinosaur descendants, and “salt ghouls� have overrun parts of Africa.

Anyway, this is an alternate-universe/alternate-history fantasy story, with a huge helping of romance novel. Elliott alludes to this with the “Regency novel� bit, but Jane Austen never got quite this melodramatic. So, what makes it a romance novel, you ask? Well, couples that are clearly purr-fect for each other start off hating one another as the result of an epic misunderstanding. And then their pride keeps them apart even though both recognize that they’re stupid with lust for the other. Oh, and everybody is beautiful. Well, everybody that matters, that is. There are some dowdy servants, but they don’t count, do they? Okay, not a bodice-ripper � we’re probably still Rated G, with only hints of PG-13 in the occasional deep longing for the touch of his lips...

But don’t get me wrong! Unless you really dislike the foregoing, then this is a delightful romp. Not life changing, but Elliott might get this made into a Sci-Fi Channel series (although they’d ruin it, of course).

Oh, the other problem: yet another darn series. Some of the story arcs are just a little bit resolved in this first installment, but most are left dangling big-time. Getting kinda tired of this series shtick. Doesn’t anyone known how to write a standalone novel anymore?

This is the fantasy selection for the ŷ for the month of February 2011. Visit to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.]]> 3.62 2010 Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, #1)
author: Kate Elliott
name: Richard
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/02/15
date added: 2013/12/14
shelves: bookclub, fantasy, scifi-steampunk
review:
In the “extras� section at the end of the novel, the author answers some questions. She provides a fairly succinct description of the book:
Why, in the dedication, do you call The Spiritwalker Trilogy a “mash-up�?
� A mash-up involves taking songs, or video clips, or bits of disparate media from different sources and “mashing� them up together to make a song of video of program or other content that is a new whole based on a bunch of different parts. So when I call Cold Magic an “Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troödons� (which were a small, intelligent, and agile species of dinosaur), I’m thinking of the novel as a mash-up of disparate elements. Since I happen to really enjoy mash-ups, it made sense for me to try one.
(For all your real mash-up needs, head over to !)

The map in the front shows a Europe recognizable in its general outlines, although the continuing ice age results in a lower sea level, thus England, er, Brigantia?, is attached to the continent via a land bridge. Which is where the action takes place, oddly enough. And many of the peoples of Europe are kinda represented, including the remnants of the Roman Empire. But apparently North America is occupied by those intelligent dinosaur descendants, and “salt ghouls� have overrun parts of Africa.

Anyway, this is an alternate-universe/alternate-history fantasy story, with a huge helping of romance novel. Elliott alludes to this with the “Regency novel� bit, but Jane Austen never got quite this melodramatic. So, what makes it a romance novel, you ask? Well, couples that are clearly purr-fect for each other start off hating one another as the result of an epic misunderstanding. And then their pride keeps them apart even though both recognize that they’re stupid with lust for the other. Oh, and everybody is beautiful. Well, everybody that matters, that is. There are some dowdy servants, but they don’t count, do they? Okay, not a bodice-ripper � we’re probably still Rated G, with only hints of PG-13 in the occasional deep longing for the touch of his lips...

But don’t get me wrong! Unless you really dislike the foregoing, then this is a delightful romp. Not life changing, but Elliott might get this made into a Sci-Fi Channel series (although they’d ruin it, of course).

Oh, the other problem: yet another darn series. Some of the story arcs are just a little bit resolved in this first installment, but most are left dangling big-time. Getting kinda tired of this series shtick. Doesn’t anyone known how to write a standalone novel anymore?

This is the fantasy selection for the ŷ for the month of February 2011. Visit to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.
]]> <![CDATA[Infernal devices: A mad Victorian fantasy]]> 49806
A romp through Victorian England by an author said to have "the brain-burned intensity of his mentor, Philip K. Dick."

"This is the real thing - a mad inventor, curious coins, murky London alleys and windblown Scottish Isles ...a wild and extravagant plot that turns up new mysteries with each succeeding page." - James P Blaylock]]> 282 K.W. Jeter 031200706X Richard 2 bookclub, scifi-steampunk telling instead of showing, when other characters explain to our befuddled protagonist what was happening.

For most folks, that would probably be enough to shove this down to a one- or two-star rating, but I'm more generous. What really irked me about this book was the complete disdain for the laws of physics. Steampunk is, ideally, a subgenre of science fiction, which means it is supposed to show respect for as much of science as is possible within the bounds of the story. Want time travel? Faster than light travel? Or maybe teleporting "transporters"? Sure; but choose what you're going to mangle and keep it to a minimum. Steampunk in general doesn't deal well with this kind of parsimony, and this one is worse than most.

And how can you have a Victorian England steampunk story that appears to be completely missing railroads?!?

This is pretty vintage for steampunk � in fact, the author , however, since it was published in 1987. I found the couple that was from the future (kind of) quite entertaining, although the explanation of their origins (another of those annoying "tellings") was disappointing.

Recommended only for steampunk completists. Sorry.

(This was the book of the month for the SciFi and Fantasy Reading Group for April 2013. It was discussed ).
­ձ> 3.29 1986 Infernal devices: A mad Victorian fantasy
author: K.W. Jeter
name: Richard
average rating: 3.29
book published: 1986
rating: 2
read at: 2013/04/02
date added: 2013/04/03
shelves: bookclub, scifi-steampunk
review:
A lot of imagination went into this book, but not enough discipline or storytelling craft. For the majority of the book, the author shoves the first-person narrator through inexplicable and astonishing events, and then crams their eventual denouement into a few pages via telling instead of showing, when other characters explain to our befuddled protagonist what was happening.

For most folks, that would probably be enough to shove this down to a one- or two-star rating, but I'm more generous. What really irked me about this book was the complete disdain for the laws of physics. Steampunk is, ideally, a subgenre of science fiction, which means it is supposed to show respect for as much of science as is possible within the bounds of the story. Want time travel? Faster than light travel? Or maybe teleporting "transporters"? Sure; but choose what you're going to mangle and keep it to a minimum. Steampunk in general doesn't deal well with this kind of parsimony, and this one is worse than most.

And how can you have a Victorian England steampunk story that appears to be completely missing railroads?!?

This is pretty vintage for steampunk � in fact, the author , however, since it was published in 1987. I found the couple that was from the future (kind of) quite entertaining, although the explanation of their origins (another of those annoying "tellings") was disappointing.

Recommended only for steampunk completists. Sorry.

(This was the book of the month for the SciFi and Fantasy Reading Group for April 2013. It was discussed ).
­
]]> <![CDATA[Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)]]> 1137215
But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.]]> 416 Cherie Priest 0765318415 Richard 2 Boneshaker, I did like it. But I’ve discovered in the day or so since I read her last paragraph, most of what I recall are the disappointments. So it’s been down-graded to two stars, or “It was okay� � in other words, meh.

In fantastic fiction, I think, one should choose your lies carefully. Obviously, it wouldn’t be fiction if there weren’t some lying going on, and it wouldn’t be fantastic if some of those lies weren’t whoppers. But discerning readers aren’t going to like it if you seem to prevaricate whenever you feel like it, perhaps because you’re too lazy to do some research, or because some annoying law of physics gets in the way.

Priest starts out with two big lies � the frequent steampunk fabrication that nineteenth-century inventors start churning out stuff far beyond their historic capabilities, as well as the whole zombie thing. If she had been able to stop there, the book probably would have been much more satisfactory. But she didn’t. I could go on, probably for a long time, about the incongruous anachronisms� for those willing to peek under the spoiler curtain, here’s a taste: [spoilers removed] � oh yeah, I could just go on and on.

Apparently Ms. Priest naively believes that a fantastic enough story will shine so bright that her shoddy craftsmanship elsewhere will be invisible. That hypothesis be true, but her story isn’t any where near stellar enough.

� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �

This was the science fiction selection for the ŷ for the month of September 2010. Visit to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.]]> 3.53 2009 Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1)
author: Cherie Priest
name: Richard
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2011/03/18
date added: 2011/03/19
shelves: bookclub, scifi, series, scifi-steampunk
review:
ŷ declares that a three-star rating means “I liked it�, and while I was reading Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, I did like it. But I’ve discovered in the day or so since I read her last paragraph, most of what I recall are the disappointments. So it’s been down-graded to two stars, or “It was okay� � in other words, meh.

In fantastic fiction, I think, one should choose your lies carefully. Obviously, it wouldn’t be fiction if there weren’t some lying going on, and it wouldn’t be fantastic if some of those lies weren’t whoppers. But discerning readers aren’t going to like it if you seem to prevaricate whenever you feel like it, perhaps because you’re too lazy to do some research, or because some annoying law of physics gets in the way.

Priest starts out with two big lies � the frequent steampunk fabrication that nineteenth-century inventors start churning out stuff far beyond their historic capabilities, as well as the whole zombie thing. If she had been able to stop there, the book probably would have been much more satisfactory. But she didn’t. I could go on, probably for a long time, about the incongruous anachronisms� for those willing to peek under the spoiler curtain, here’s a taste: [spoilers removed] � oh yeah, I could just go on and on.

Apparently Ms. Priest naively believes that a fantastic enough story will shine so bright that her shoddy craftsmanship elsewhere will be invisible. That hypothesis be true, but her story isn’t any where near stellar enough.

� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �

This was the science fiction selection for the ŷ for the month of September 2010. Visit to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.
]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne, #1)]]> 8181143
Sir Richard Francis Burton—explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead.

Algernon Charles Swinburne—unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade; for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin!

They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces: Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labor; Libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behavior to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy. The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End.

Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn't exist at all!]]> 371 Mark Hodder 1616142405 Richard 4
Takes place in the middle of the nineteenth century. Many � perhaps most � of the characters are real-world historical individuals, but things are happening here that aren't quite in the history books. Is it "alternative history", like Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of al-Rassan ? (Which, otherwise, it shares no similarity with.) Actually, no: it is our history, just... something is interfering.

Definitely and clearly in the steampunk sub-sub-genre. Time-travel is also in there. Anything more would be a spoiler, and I'd recommend especially staying away from spoilers for this book, since unraveling the mystery is one of the delights of the narrative.

This is apparently a debut novel. This Hodder guy certainly has a wild imagination. As I was getting to the end I was thinking, "Hmmmm, this has indications of a sequel set-up...", and I note that book two of the "" series has been announced for publication later this year.

Despite the four-star review, I think it likely I'll never get to the sequel. I'm sure I'd enjoy it, but there are just too many books waiting to be read.

Fast read, though. I finished it in about seven or eight hours when I should have been sleeping :-)

( Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club met on Sunday, 20 February, 2011, at 6 pm to discuss The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder.)
­ձ> 3.68 2010 The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne, #1)
author: Mark Hodder
name: Richard
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/02/08
date added: 2011/02/08
shelves: bookclub, scifi, scifi-steampunk, series
review:
Well, not my usual cup o' tea, but a fun and innovative book, nonetheless.

Takes place in the middle of the nineteenth century. Many � perhaps most � of the characters are real-world historical individuals, but things are happening here that aren't quite in the history books. Is it "alternative history", like Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of al-Rassan ? (Which, otherwise, it shares no similarity with.) Actually, no: it is our history, just... something is interfering.

Definitely and clearly in the steampunk sub-sub-genre. Time-travel is also in there. Anything more would be a spoiler, and I'd recommend especially staying away from spoilers for this book, since unraveling the mystery is one of the delights of the narrative.

This is apparently a debut novel. This Hodder guy certainly has a wild imagination. As I was getting to the end I was thinking, "Hmmmm, this has indications of a sequel set-up...", and I note that book two of the "" series has been announced for publication later this year.

Despite the four-star review, I think it likely I'll never get to the sequel. I'm sure I'd enjoy it, but there are just too many books waiting to be read.

Fast read, though. I finished it in about seven or eight hours when I should have been sleeping :-)

( Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club met on Sunday, 20 February, 2011, at 6 pm to discuss The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder.)
­
]]> The Anubis Gates 142296
Caught up in the intrigue between rival bands of beggars, pursued by Egyptian sorcerers, and befriended by Coleridge, Doyle somehow survives and learns more about the mysterious Ashbless than he could ever have imagined possible...]]> 387 Tim Powers 0441004016 Richard 4 This was the SciFi selection for the ŷ for the month of November 2008. Visit to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.
]]> 3.93 1983 The Anubis Gates
author: Tim Powers
name: Richard
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2008/11/13
date added: 2009/03/23
shelves: scifi, bookclub, scifi-time-travel, scifi-steampunk
review:
This was the SciFi selection for the ŷ for the month of November 2008. Visit to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.

]]>