Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

The Bookman is a steampunk/alternate history chock-full of literary characters--so full that it's surprising the book isn't overwhelmed by them. The premise: sometime in the very early 16th century, lizard-like aliens were discovered on a remote Caribbean island, and proceeded to conquer most of the western world. As the story opens, they've been ruling Great Britain for a couple of centuries, long enough that most people just accept Les Lezards as their masters. All this is background, though, because the story is about a young man called Orphan (because he's, you know, an orphan) and his marine biologist girlfriend Lucy. (She studies the whales who swim in the Thames. This is my favorite reality-change in the whole book.) When Lucy is killed by a terrorist attack, Orphan turns his life into a hunt for the mysterious attacker--the Bookman.

There's a lot to like about this novel, though I think the sheer overabundance of literary references may overwhelm some readers. Tidhar does a good job of integrating all of those characters out of literature, mainly by not having them play the roles they do in their own stories; Irene Adler is chief of police, Moriarty the Prime Minister. Tidhar's writing style is engaging, and in general this book feels like a Jules Verne novel written in contemporary prose.

Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed the background, I never warmed to the central plot. Orphan's quest is centered on his love for Lucy, his grief at her death, and his hope to get her back somehow, but since she dies very early in the book, she isn't much more than a handful of characteristics to the reader. Orphan cares way more about her than I did, so I didn't care about what motivated him, and by extension I didn't care that much about his quest or its outcome. It probably didn't help that Orphan is a character type (idealistic young man with mysterious past) that I don't generally care about either.

Oddly, I think I'd like the sequel, Camera Obscura, better, now that Orphan's quest objectives in The Bookman have been resolved. The big question that's always danced around here is--why on Earth are the English so passive about being ruled by intelligent lizards? Anglo-Saxons accepting the Normans, yeah, but lizards? I'd like to see this question answered.