The Affinity Bridge
Reviewed by Brittney
Just the Facts: by George Mann. 336 p. Published July 2009 by Tor Books. Purchased eBook through Amazon.com because my book club picked it for June’s selection.
Verdict: ★★★☆☆
Who Cares? Adult – Zombie Steampunk
Short Bio: The first “Newbury and Hobbes Investigation” book finds agents for Queen Victoria, Sir Maurice Newbury and Miss Veronica Hobbes, in Industrial Age England trying to discover the mysterious circumstances behind the crash of the airship Lady Armitage. As Newbury and Hobbes investigate the crash scene and airship company, they are drawn into the interesting world of clockwork men, the seemingly unrelated serial killings of “The Glowing Policeman”, and (of course) the underlying spread of the zombie-creating plague.
Eyewitness Account: Seriously, a ZOMBIE STEAMPUNK novel? What a way to mash genres! I have to give kudos to Mann for pulling it off way more convincingly than I expected an author could. Unfortunately, that was what he did best in this novel - mesh together the automaton and zombie plots in a rather clever way. The actual writing style and character development suffered so much that I struggled to get to the rewarding climax of the book. Newbury was a poor carbon copy of Sherlock Holmes (replacing an opium addiction with laudanum), and Hobbes was a confusing feminist character who held oddly modern suffrage ideas while concurrently distrusting progress and technology. I would have liked to see them developed more dynamically than serve to mirror past literary characters - and perhaps Mann will have the opportunity to do that in future installments of the series.
I must also admit skimming through the drawn out fight/chase scenes that really befit a movie more than a book and wondering what purpose the Jack Coulthard plot served at all – any enlightment on that front would be more than appreciated!
If you’re really into Steampunk, Sherlock Holmes mysteries, or anything with zombies in it, then you’ll probably enjoy this book; it has a twist that’s well worth wading through the rest of the book for.
Notable Quotes:
“He wanted to stay in that moment, for time to stand still so that he could lie there, basking in the firelight and watching the pretty girl who had come to his rescue – without having to face her when she woke and explain his failings. He imagined watching the light dying in her eyes as he revealed the truth: that aside from his more salubrious pursuits he was a habitual opium-eater and a dabbler in the occult.”
“And with genius comes a certain amorality that is sometimes difficult to judge. Genius is, in many ways, akin to madness. Both states of mind demand a disconnection from reality, from the real, physical world, an ability to lose oneself in thought.”
Other Books Read by This Author: None.
What are other people saying? The Book Smugglers, Strange Horizons, Flames Rising
Rating:
★★★★☆ Plot Development
★★☆☆☆ Characterization
★★★☆☆ Writing Style
★★★★☆ Original Idea
★★☆☆☆ Page Turner
Overall ★★★☆
Camera Obscura
Reviewed by Brittney
Just the Facts: by Lavie Tidhar. 416 p. To be published April 26, 2011 by Angry Robot. Advanced review copy provided courtesy of the publisher in electronic format through NetGalley.
Verdict: ★★★☆☆
Who Cares? Adult Steampunk (Victorian Era Alternate History)
Not-So-Short Bio: There is no good short bio of this book out in the interwebs . . . probably because the plot is so quirky that it doesn’t distill well into a blurb! So, I’ll give it a shot myself: Milady de Winter (of Dumas fame) serves the “Quiet Council” of the French underworld as a secret agent in an alternate Victorian era full of familiar literary figures (Viktor Frankenstein and Quasimodo to name a few) as well as characters who are rather unfamiliar (unless you’ve read Tidhar’s previous novel, The Bookman). Milady’s directive is to track down a murderer and locate an object stolen from the scene of the crime. She quickly realizes that the Council must not be telling her the entire story as other factions begin to gather in Paris who hold the same objective. Milady must ultimately decide whether to fulfill her own personal quest for vengeance or complete the task set before her by the Council.
Eyewitness Account: So, personal caveat: this is my first “steampunk” novel – if you’re new to the genre, it describes a mesh of fantasy and historical fiction (usually set in Victorian-era industrial age) with the key element of including machines/automatons/robots that rival humans. Camera Obscura is actually the sequel to The Bookman, but it can be read as a stand-alone (it took me about half the book to realize that Vespuccia was the alternate name for America, which was probably introduced in the The Bookman.)
Added to the coolness factor: strong and mysterious female protagonist, literary characters galore, alternate history revisions, eastern oriental secret societies, and nuns with guns.
Didn’t quite float my boat: female protagonist didn’t sound or act female (most male writers seem to struggle with this, especially in action/adventure stories), most characters felt shallow/underdeveloped, and plot was too slow at the beginning and too fast at the end (now don’t I sound picky?).
This was a pickle of a review for me to write. For all the clever and creative pieces of the story I liked, there were an almost equal number of things that either annoyed me or just fell flat. Ironically, the closest books I can compare them to are not steampunk at all – Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. Fforde also writes a female protagonist in an alternate history with a plot full of literary characters. However, where Fforde’s books are chock full of wit and whimsy in addition to evil villains and mass mayhem, Tidhar’s writing relies heavily on plot while skimping on dialogue and characterization.
So, if what you love is a good action film where lots of things get blown up and the superhero defeats all odds to save the day – definitely grab this book! You’ll be astounded by the unusual mix of plot elements that Tidhar throws at you, and he should really try to market it as a film script. If characters and writing style are really your thing, you should probably pick up The Eyre Affair instead.
Notable Quotes:
“The corridor was dark. As she ran ghostly figures materialised at the end.
Nuns.
Nuns with guns.”
Other Books Read by This Author: None.
What are other people saying? Traveler’s Steampunk Blog, Ramblings of a Borderline Misanthrope, Cybermage
Rating:
★★★☆☆ Plot Development
★★☆☆☆ Characterization
★★★☆☆ Writing Style
★★★★☆ Original Idea
★★★☆☆ Page Turner
Overall ★★★☆☆
Alice I Have Been
Reviewed by Brittney
Just the Facts: by Melanie Benjamin. 368 p. Published January 2010 by Delacorte Press. Read for my book club.
Verdict: ★★★☆☆
Who Cares?: Adult Historical Fic (Memoir-style)
Short Bio: Meet the “real” Alice in Wonderland – Alice Liddell, princess of Christ Church at Oxford and favorite photography subject of Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll). As an enigmatic 11 year-old defying the strict constraints for girls in Victorian England, a young lady blooming under the attentions of Prince Leopold, or as an imperial mother of three sons who worries which ones won’t return home from World War I, Alice tells the story a life that seems both completely separate from her fictional namesake, and yet forever altered by Mr. Dodgson’s story.
Eyewitness Account: Alice I Have Been seems like the perfect book club choice – the fictionalized memoir of Lewis Carroll’s real-life muse. However, this is one of the few books that I wish I hadn’t read. While the author’s voice and flow was above par, the actual content of the story and portrayal of Alice’s cast of characters left me feeling disturbed and depressed.
The main characters that Benjamin creates are not exactly stereotypical, but don’t quite make it to fully-dimensional. Charles Dodgson comes across sometimes as a gentle, lonely professor and sometimes as a creepy pedophile; Alice’s sisters are either older and bossy, or young and sweet; Alice’s future husband is the antithesis of her first-love, and even “old Alice” becomes a re-creation of her mother, Lorina.
To be fair, Benjamin stuck faithfully to all known facts about Alice Liddell’s life, but of course filled in the numerous (and sometimes very deep) holes left by historical documents. My main beef is that if you’re an author who gets to fill in the holes with your own imagination, why take it in such a dark way? Alice’s life is portrayed as one series of misfortunes and disappointments after another, until at the end of her life she gives up the memories of all the real people she has loved and resigns herself to being the “Alice in Wonderland” that she has always sought to escape. Benjamin masterfully holds your attention through the entire book by withholding the one piece of information that you want to know – what causes the breach between Alice and Mr. Dodgson? The answer is somewhat anti-climactic, and becomes the reason Alice “deserves” such a disappointing life.
As I commiserated with one of my other book club friends, I can never view Alice in Wonderland the same again . . . and it saddens me. I have no problem with learning about real historical facts, but I’d rather not believe a depressing version of history if I don’t have to. I doubt I’ll recommend this book to anyone. I will, however, still try other Melanie Benjamin books as she did prove to be a good writer in many other respects.
Notable Quotes:
“I myself suffer it each time I consult a looking glass, only to wonder how the glass can be so cracked and muddled–and then realize, with a pang of despair, that it is not the glass that is deficient, after all.”
“How could I tell her that I–seemingly alone of all the literate world–had never read the entire book? How could I tell her that I had no idea whether I was truly Alice–or Alice was truly me? For as long as I had lived with her–on the other side of the looking glass, staring back at me every day–I’d never dared to ask her how much, or how little, we were alike.”
Other Books Read by This Author: None.
What are other people saying? A.V. Club, Good Books and Good Wine, BookNAround
Rating:
★★☆☆☆ Plot Development
★★★☆☆ Characterization
★★★★☆ Writing Style
★★★★☆ Original Idea
★★★★☆ Page Turner
Overall ★★★☆☆
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