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Archive for Steampunk

Maximum Weird – Perdido Street Station

Aug06

Title: Perdido Street Station

Author: China Miéville

Genre: Gothic Steampunk Fantasy Scifi Horror

Length: 710 pages and  lots of words

Read: July 16-24, 2012

Summary: Astonishingly Imaginitive

 

I am in utter awe with regard to the creativity oozing from this novel.

While perhaps not for everyone, and not perfect, this is a  first rate work of fantasy. And I mean that in the broadest sense because the book is set in a unique milieu that is part Dickens, part steampunk, part fantasy, part Blade Runner, part Lovecraft and a whole lot more. As one agent said of my first novel’s early drafts: Perdido Street Station suffers from an extreme case of too-much-ness. It has too many words, too many characters, too many points of view, too much description, too many subplots, too many races, too many kinds of magic, too many villains, too many heroes, too many really really big words, or old words (I had to use the dictionary every couple of pages). Still, it works, even rises to greatness.

Amazing things about this book:

1. The prose: which is highly descriptive, deft, and subtle, building elaborate piles of intricacy out of slashes of words.

2. The main characters: Isaac, Yag, and Lin all have some real depth.

3. The world: is just so creepy, slimy, and cool — although not for the faint of heart. This book is dark. It makes The Darkening Dream seem like vanilla icing.

4. The monsters and the weird: nice and creepy. This is a book where human on bug sex is the sweet part!

5. The clarity: for all its length and bewildering array of everything, the book is easy to follow and read (provided you have a dictionary handy).

6. Imagination: No shortage of amazingly cool ideas, images, races, monsters, technologies, places, etc. in this puppy.

Things that aren’t as strong:

1. Pacing: the masses of description, which while evocative, effective, and downright creepy, are constant and unrelenting. The city itself is a character and this slows things down a bit. It doesn’t drag, but it isn’t lightning fast either.

2. The tangents: there are more than a few here, and not all of them worth it.

3. The minor points of view: A number of characters pop in, have their couple POV pages in the sun, and then vanish (usually into  the deadpool). This isn’t always maximally effective.

4. The baroque plot: The story is easy enough to follow, but it does take A WHILE to get going and is not always full of classic drama created from thwarted desire. In fact, the first third or so is distinctly short on that, but is fast paced mostly because the world is so fascinating.

5. Actions of the government and other non-protagonist forces: There are some big chunks in here where the government is trying to do stuff, and only indirectly involves the regular characters. This stuff is less effective because of the emotional disconnect.

6. Deus ex machina: oh-too-coincidental happenings and escapes occur a number of times.

Overall, in the same way that Vegas transcends cheese by way of pure magnitude, Perdido climbs to greatness on the strength of its positives, rising above any petty flaws. If you appreciate flights of imagination, good writing, and the weird, it’s required reading. No question. Not for the square, the staid, the boring, or the grounded who do not at least dream of flying.

For more book reviews, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Ford’s Filling Station
By: agavin
Comments (5)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Arts, Bas-Lag, Book Review, China Mieville, Fantasy, Perdido Street Station, Science Fiction, Steampunk

Big Giveaway!

Jun25

This week, Monday June 25 through Friday June 29, the Kindle version of my novel The Darkening Dream is on sale for just 99 cents!

Buy it on Amazon!

Check out what you can win and how:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

As you can see, there are lots of ways to earn points, and since it’s a random drawing (done by Rafflecopter.com) those with the most points have the highest chance of winning.

So tweet, share, like, follow, blog and grab a copy of my book to enter to win.

About The Darkening Dream

As the Nineteenth Century gives way to the Twentieth, modern science and steel girders leave little room for the supernatural. But in dark corners the old forces still gather. God, demon, and sorcerer alike plot to regain what was theirs in Andy Gavin’s chilling debut, The Darkening Dream.

1913, Salem, Massachusetts – Sarah Engelmann’s life is full of friends, books, and avoiding the pressure to choose a husband, until an ominous vision and the haunting call of an otherworldly trumpet shake her. When she stumbles across a gruesome corpse, she fears that her vision was more of a premonition. And when she sees the murdered boy moving through the crowd at an amusement park, Sarah is thrust into a dark battle she does not understand.

With the help of Alex, a Greek immigrant who knows a startling amount about the undead, Sarah sets out to uncover the truth. Their quest takes them to Salem’s brutal factory workrooms, on a clandestine maritime mission, and down into their foe’s nightmarish crypt. But they aren’t prepared for the terrifying backlash that brings the fight back to their own homes and families. Can Alex’s elderly, vampire-hunting grandfather and Sarah’s own rabbi father help protect them? And what do Sarah’s darkening visions reveal?

No less than the Archangel Gabriel’s Horn, destined to announce the End of Days, is at stake, and the forces banded to recover it include a 900 year-old vampire, a trio of disgruntled Egyptian gods, and a demon-loving Puritan minister. At the center of this swirling conflict is Sarah, who must fight a millennia-old battle against unspeakable forces, knowing the ultimate prize might be herself.

“Gorgeously creepy, strangely humorous, and sincerely terrifying” — Publishers Weekly
“Wonderfully twisted sense of humor” and
“A vampire novel with actual bite” — Kirkus Reviews
“Steampunk Lovecraftian Horror by way of Joss Whedon”

Buy Sample Characters Reviews Reviewer Info

Related posts:

  1. The Darkening Dream in Publishers Weekly
  2. Hardcover Proof & Paperback Giveaway
  3. First Pro Review
  4. Untimed – Two Novels, Two Drafts!
  5. The edits are all in!
By: agavin
Comments (10)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: 99 cents, Andy Gavin, Fiction, Giveaway, Novel, sale, Steampunk, The Darkening Dream, vampires

The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack

Jan24

Title: The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack

Author: Mark Hodder

Genre: Steampunk

Length: 376 pages

Read: Dec 29, 2011 – Jan 23, 2012

Summary: First rate steampunk!

_

This is certainly not your everyday read, although it’s certainly a good one. Set in 1861, the protagonist is Sir Richard Francis Burton, the explorer, not the actor. The first fifty or so pages feel like engaging historical fiction.

Then all hell breaks loose. In a good way. This version of 1861 isn’t what we read in the history books. It includes steam powered flying chairs, insulting messenger parakeets, genetically engineered werewolves, robotic street cleaners and all sorts of goodies. Most of the characters are famous Victorians, or in this world Albertians given that Victoria was shot to death in 1840 (a real life attempt that was fatal in this alternate history).

The voice of the novel is third person, medium tight and usually riding with Burton. It does, however, jump over to some others occasionally like his side kick the Marquis-de-Sade-loving poet Algernon Swinburne and the title character. The tone is slightly flip, as the inventions and wackiness is just left of possible. Yet things remain consistently period and the characters are well researched and full of era-appropriate dialog, but also clever and engaging.

About midway, the book, already getting weird, goes totally off the the deep end. Enter Spring-Heeled Jack, crazy time traveler, and a host of steampunk altered villains including a double-brain grafted Charles Darwin and an Iron Golemized Isambard Kingdom Brunel. But this zaniness only makes the novel better. I’m reminded of one of my all time favorites, The Anubis Gates, but TSAOSHJ is less magical, more grounded in technology.

Bravo! This book really shows off tremendous world building and research while remaining fast paced and easy to read. If it has anything that holds it back from being a complete classic, it’s that the characters, while well developed, don’t really illicit any significant pathos. Things are just a little too distant and weird for that. It’s not a huge book, and Hodder crams in an enormously distinct world, so it’s no surprise this isn’t a character study. Still, I do feel that the complex character of Burton was well profiled, almost like in a good biography. Impressive.

I read this right after putting down another steampunk book, Clockwork Angel, just 20% in. Wow, what a difference. Both are set in alternate 19th century Londons, but other than a couple random “period words,” CA feels exactly the same as the author’s contemporary paranormal YA, with all its forced faux-romance. TSAOSHJ, on the other hand, is an adult book, and makes use of one’s babbage augmented, steam-powered, glass jar encased, cybernetic brain.

For more book reviews, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
  2. Sophomore Slump – Delirium
  3. Book Review: Switched
  4. Book Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
  5. Book Review: Lost It
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Books
Tagged as: Algernon Swinburne, Anubis Gates, Book Review, Burton, Charles Darwin, Clockwork Angel, Literature, London, Mark Hodder, Marquis-de-Sade, Paranormal, Richard Francis Burton, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Spring-Heeled Jack, Steampunk, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, Victorian era
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