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Actually started this one about six weeks ago but forgot to add it. Unfortunately neither of us are really digging it and we're more than half way through.
If anything it got worse. I know that Mr. Lake has a reputation for great short stories and I would like to check some of those out but this novel didn't do anything for me. The main character seemed to have a personality in the beginning of the book but lost it somewhere around the middle. His ill-defined powers made everything seemed like dues ex machina. There was a problem, he waved his hand and it was solved.
The main character's choice of bed companions was kinda disturbing on a bestiality/pedophilia level and I sometimes just couldn't picture the descriptions of the environments.
If anything it got worse. I know that Mr. Lake has a reputation for great short stories and I would like to check some of those out but this novel didn't do anything for me. The main character seemed to have a personality in the beginning of the book but lost it somewhere around the middle. His ill-defined powers made everything seemed like dues ex machina. There was a problem, he waved his hand and it was solved.
The main character's choice of bed companions was kinda disturbing on a bestiality/pedophilia level and I sometimes just couldn't picture the descriptions of the environments.
I loved the setting and overall "feel" to this book, but unfortunately the characters and adventure itself fell flat. The story borrows heavily from classic adventure stories, and falls into a lot of the same problems those stories have - "noble savage" stereotypes, world-wide misogyny, action over characters. The main character is propelled relentlessly along the plot's track, and it does not help that the plot feels overly padded for length. Things happen which do not seem to serve any purpose other than to fill more pages, and the ending, which has an awesome build-up, winds up feeling tacked on. Overall, a decent debut novel and a fascinating premise that just doesn't pull through with the needed tight plotting and interesting characters.
This book took a little bit to get into, partly because the science fiction universe it was set in was very strange. It wasn't totally different than reality but was a blend of Victorian history (set in a British colonial America) with a mechanistic (literally) divinity. Once I got into it, the story was interesting although I didn't empathize with the main character all that much.
I mostly wanted to know how it ended, and I think that's why I continued reading it.
I mostly wanted to know how it ended, and I think that's why I continued reading it.
I have to say, the opening chapter put me off. Especially the last page or so, I was like really? Really? Not only do the apprentice’s master’s sons hate him, but one happens to beat him up and steal the last of his father’s money on the way out of town? Ugh. Are we back here again? I get that this is probably a retelling of the classic poor/apprentice/beggar boy rises to the task of being a hero via steampunk BUT don’t overdo it. Please. There are other ways to stack the deck that aren’t so obvious.
Anyway, that aside, I enjoyed the book. It wasn’t awesome, but it did pull me through it – and that’s the real test. The characters were engaging enough to keep me reading – although there was really only 1 actual character – the others all lacked in depth. We don’t even get a proper motivation for the semi-villain other than a general philosophy (an actual philosophy) that he ascribes to that, by definition, is against what the hero is trying to do.
The world Lake paints here though is crazy interesting. I mean, the Earth literally moves through space along a GIANT track….the gear teeth form a wall miles (?) high along the equator. That wall divides the Earth in half (how could it not?) – the north is the more “steampunky” side, complete with dirigible airships, clocks and a funky religion that’s a mashup up of Victorian Christianity and uhh… gears. Or something. And the south is the more “magical” side, peopled with a ton of not-exactly-human humanoids, functional magic and other bits and pieces. So yeah, very visually interesting.
There is a scene or two that wow umm, some people will not be cool with. Maybe because they are old fashioned or maybe because [SPOILER]. It surprised me, I’ll admit. But maybe I’m just a [SPOILER]. At the core, it’s a simple journey/quest story. That’s it. But the journey takes the lead through interesting terrain… potentially interesting terrain at least. Much of it is just skipped/skimmed/flown over and ignored. Lake throws out so much stuff here that the majority of it gets basically ignored, and we’re left none the wiser.
The ending was… to be expected I suppose given the angelic/deity involvement but still… it was kinda lame.
THREE STARS
I wanted more than it had to give, but what it had was ok.
Anyway, that aside, I enjoyed the book. It wasn’t awesome, but it did pull me through it – and that’s the real test. The characters were engaging enough to keep me reading – although there was really only 1 actual character – the others all lacked in depth. We don’t even get a proper motivation for the semi-villain other than a general philosophy (an actual philosophy) that he ascribes to that, by definition, is against what the hero is trying to do.
The world Lake paints here though is crazy interesting. I mean, the Earth literally moves through space along a GIANT track….the gear teeth form a wall miles (?) high along the equator. That wall divides the Earth in half (how could it not?) – the north is the more “steampunky” side, complete with dirigible airships, clocks and a funky religion that’s a mashup up of Victorian Christianity and uhh… gears. Or something. And the south is the more “magical” side, peopled with a ton of not-exactly-human humanoids, functional magic and other bits and pieces. So yeah, very visually interesting.
There is a scene or two that wow umm, some people will not be cool with. Maybe because they are old fashioned or maybe because [SPOILER]. It surprised me, I’ll admit. But maybe I’m just a [SPOILER]. At the core, it’s a simple journey/quest story. That’s it. But the journey takes the lead through interesting terrain… potentially interesting terrain at least. Much of it is just skipped/skimmed/flown over and ignored. Lake throws out so much stuff here that the majority of it gets basically ignored, and we’re left none the wiser.
The ending was… to be expected I suppose given the angelic/deity involvement but still… it was kinda lame.
THREE STARS
I wanted more than it had to give, but what it had was ok.
I didn’t like this book. I did not enjoy reading this book for multiple reasons, which I will detail here. The first is that the author tends to write like Gene Wolfe, the author of The Wizard, which I also did not enjoy. It employs a very dry writing style purposefully, which resulted in me often losing focus while I was reading and having to re-read sections. I want my fantasy/science fiction/steampunk to have depth, but I also want it to hold my interest. There were several moments throughout the book where I would think “Wait. How did I get to that point?” and I would have to re-read several pages because I missed an important point. I think that is a fault with the writing, when it fails to hold the concentration of the reader during important climactic events. I never have that issue.
Too literal: One of the things I didn’t like about this was that I thought the author took the steampunk element a little too literally. Everything was run on clockwork. There was the mechanical sky, and the world had to be re-wound. They even had a brass Christ. It felt like it lacked a necessary subtlety. I also don’t like it when authors make the focus of their book a philosophical one, to the point that the book feels more like a treatise than like a work of fiction. This book focused on belief in Christ versus rational humanism. In the end, the character comes to a point somewhere in the middle, but the point felt so belabored, I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t want to read your arguments; I want to read a good story. If you can combine the two, then that is excellent. If not, why don’t you write non-fiction? I find this a frustrating trend in this type of literature. Its as if authors think they can sneak things by since it is in an alternate realty.
Too literal: One of the things I didn’t like about this was that I thought the author took the steampunk element a little too literally. Everything was run on clockwork. There was the mechanical sky, and the world had to be re-wound. They even had a brass Christ. It felt like it lacked a necessary subtlety. I also don’t like it when authors make the focus of their book a philosophical one, to the point that the book feels more like a treatise than like a work of fiction. This book focused on belief in Christ versus rational humanism. In the end, the character comes to a point somewhere in the middle, but the point felt so belabored, I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t want to read your arguments; I want to read a good story. If you can combine the two, then that is excellent. If not, why don’t you write non-fiction? I find this a frustrating trend in this type of literature. Its as if authors think they can sneak things by since it is in an alternate realty.
Was not overly impressed with this one, it started strong and then faded. The concept of the clockwork universe was good, the second half of the book only two star material.
It had all the right elements of an awesome steampunk/clockpunk novel but many of the characters made choices I didn't understand and thus I felt less sympathetic towards their actions and the book. It may just be a style thing so I think if you enjoy the genre you should give it a shot.
Excellent premise and wonderful start. it got confused and messy at the end with a pat Deus ex Machina ending.
I had to read a steampunk book and used this list to pick several books from my library. http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2010/02/collection-development/steampunk-20-core-titles/
I read Mainspring, and perhaps I would have been happier with a different choice from the list, but I did not enjoy this book.
Neither the alternate history nor the competing philosophies are completely developed, and the ending is both unbelievable and unsatisfying, leaving a lot of unresolved issues, not as a set up for a sequel but because the author was too lazy to track and follow up on his ideas or characters.
I kept reading to see if the unlikely hero would complete his quest, but the dangling story lines, unnecessary and illogical violence and extremely juvenile fantasy approach to sex wore on my nerves.
I'm not in any hurry to read more steampunk, but perhaps there are more sophisticated or better executed books on the list.
#Read a steampunk novel # ps-ultimate-book-challenge-2017
I read Mainspring, and perhaps I would have been happier with a different choice from the list, but I did not enjoy this book.
Neither the alternate history nor the competing philosophies are completely developed, and the ending is both unbelievable and unsatisfying, leaving a lot of unresolved issues, not as a set up for a sequel but because the author was too lazy to track and follow up on his ideas or characters.
I kept reading to see if the unlikely hero would complete his quest, but the dangling story lines, unnecessary and illogical violence and extremely juvenile fantasy approach to sex wore on my nerves.
I'm not in any hurry to read more steampunk, but perhaps there are more sophisticated or better executed books on the list.
#Read a steampunk novel # ps-ultimate-book-challenge-2017
I enjoyed reading Mainspring but it had some flaws that detracted from my enjoyment.
Mainspring takes place in an alternate universe with a Clockwork Creator. The religion bears similarity to the Christian tradition but the actual differences are never explained to my satisfaction. Some of that may be due to trying to only reveal what is known to the main character but it leaves the reader's understanding of the world lacking. It was clear that there was some really interesting world-building being done behind the scenes but it would have been nice to see more of it.
One of my biggest complaints was that until the last quarter of the story, the main character was just being carried along by events. He wasn't making any choices about what was happening in his life and once he starts making choices it's because there's no one left to make the decisions for him. None of the small conflicts seemed to have any effect on the greater story arc
Mainspring had really interesting world-building that I would have liked to see more fully developed and revealed. The main character had an interesting journey both physically and character arc-wise but it felt like there was something missing. I probably won't read Mainspring again and I might recommend it based on the world-building but I'm not sure that the strengths outweigh the flaws. It was an interesting look into a Steampunk world but there wasn't enough tension for my tastes.
Mainspring takes place in an alternate universe with a Clockwork Creator. The religion bears similarity to the Christian tradition but the actual differences are never explained to my satisfaction. Some of that may be due to trying to only reveal what is known to the main character but it leaves the reader's understanding of the world lacking. It was clear that there was some really interesting world-building being done behind the scenes but it would have been nice to see more of it.
One of my biggest complaints was that until the last quarter of the story, the main character was just being carried along by events. He wasn't making any choices about what was happening in his life and once he starts making choices it's because there's no one left to make the decisions for him. None of the small conflicts seemed to have any effect on the greater story arc
Mainspring had really interesting world-building that I would have liked to see more fully developed and revealed. The main character had an interesting journey both physically and character arc-wise but it felt like there was something missing. I probably won't read Mainspring again and I might recommend it based on the world-building but I'm not sure that the strengths outweigh the flaws. It was an interesting look into a Steampunk world but there wasn't enough tension for my tastes.