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2.93 AVERAGE
2.93 AVERAGE
I bought this novel on the basis of Cory Doctorow's cover blurb, and man do I want to kick his ass. This book is horribly written. Character development is non-existent. Our hero, Hethor goes off on this quest to rewind the mainspring of his clockwork earth at the behest of the archangel Gabriel. Along the way he stops off in a sucession of thinly-imagined fantasy cities that all feel like they were cobbled together for a clockpunk D&D campaign and has sex with a tiny monkey lady. I know, I know. It sounds awesome. And maybe if home-skillet could write his way out of a wet paper bag, it would have been.
We never get any sense that Hethor is changing, that the skills and courage that he displays in facing his challenges stem from anything other than authorial laziness. The prose is stilted, the dialog pathetic. No one in Mainspring ever says anything that isn't either crudely pertinent to propping up the soggy plot or just fantastically stupid. Also, the reimagination of the earth is super sloppy. None of the cultures or settings involved seem to cohere. In a genre where world-building is usually fetishistically meticulous, this is particularly dismaying.
All in all, I have to say that I can't believe that I finished reading this steaming pile of donkey vomit. Or that this guy is getting money from me. Books like this are why people still sneer at SF.
We never get any sense that Hethor is changing, that the skills and courage that he displays in facing his challenges stem from anything other than authorial laziness. The prose is stilted, the dialog pathetic. No one in Mainspring ever says anything that isn't either crudely pertinent to propping up the soggy plot or just fantastically stupid. Also, the reimagination of the earth is super sloppy. None of the cultures or settings involved seem to cohere. In a genre where world-building is usually fetishistically meticulous, this is particularly dismaying.
All in all, I have to say that I can't believe that I finished reading this steaming pile of donkey vomit. Or that this guy is getting money from me. Books like this are why people still sneer at SF.
I discovered Jay Lake last summer, through Rocket Science, which had a slow start, but ultimately caught the pace of a good story, and satisfied me to no end. Mainspring fell along those same lines, but there was a part of me that struggled to keep up with the story until I reached the last hundred pages or so. After that, I felt that the story caught its groove, and I raced to see what was going to happen to the main characters. I don’t know if this is typical of Lake and his stories (Trial of Flowers is on my list, so I’ll find out), but so far, Lake is worth the effort that it takes me to stick with his books.
Mainspring has a wonderful premise, and a wonderful setting. The great thing is that the premise and the setting are the one and the same. I’ve heard the book described as “clockpunk,” which really means that it’s a steampunk science fiction novel, centered around clocks. The Earth is a giant clockwork mechanism, complete with tracks in the sky to carry it in its orbit, and tracks for the Moon and the other planets. The main religion of the northern hemisphere is centered on this clockwork, enough so that the characters pray to their Brass Christ. The main character, Hethor, receives a visitation by Gabriel, the brass archangel, to find the Key Perilous, to wind the mainspring of the world, because it’s slowing down. Hethor is a clockmaker’s apprentice, and is strongly in tune with time. He is so in tune with time and the Earth that he can tell the midnight is slipping; instead of falling truly at midnight, he notices as it falls seconds past the correct time. Along with the slippage of time, he notices terrible earthquakes following these errors, and realizes that he must pursue his quest to save the world.
And what a quest it is! This is a story that involves air pirates, dungeons, winged savages, a wild world in the southern half of the planet, and a quest that is half adventure, half spiritual. Where Rocket Science was a fairly traditional science fiction story, Mainspring launches itself into a fantastical world full of high imagination and daring ideas. This coming-of-age adventure may seem familiar in its structure, but that’s the only thing familiar about this story.
Lake has a knack for capturing his characters very well. I could overlook some of the secondary characters, to the point of not really caring about what happened to some of the important ones, but with Hethor and his closest companions, I was very much concerned about what happened to them. In fact, there were portions of the story near the end that nearly had me in tears, he captured them so well.
For devout readers of fantasy and science fiction, the book may be easier to digest. I’m not accustomed to having the setting of the book be so much a part of the story, and I found myself having to pay more attention than usual to a lot of the descriptions. But, as I mentioned above, I think it was definitely worth the effort to stick with it. I would recommend Mainspring to anyone who enjoys daring stories of adventure and imagination, though it’s not really intended for younger readers, despite the age of the protagonist.
Mainspring has a wonderful premise, and a wonderful setting. The great thing is that the premise and the setting are the one and the same. I’ve heard the book described as “clockpunk,” which really means that it’s a steampunk science fiction novel, centered around clocks. The Earth is a giant clockwork mechanism, complete with tracks in the sky to carry it in its orbit, and tracks for the Moon and the other planets. The main religion of the northern hemisphere is centered on this clockwork, enough so that the characters pray to their Brass Christ. The main character, Hethor, receives a visitation by Gabriel, the brass archangel, to find the Key Perilous, to wind the mainspring of the world, because it’s slowing down. Hethor is a clockmaker’s apprentice, and is strongly in tune with time. He is so in tune with time and the Earth that he can tell the midnight is slipping; instead of falling truly at midnight, he notices as it falls seconds past the correct time. Along with the slippage of time, he notices terrible earthquakes following these errors, and realizes that he must pursue his quest to save the world.
And what a quest it is! This is a story that involves air pirates, dungeons, winged savages, a wild world in the southern half of the planet, and a quest that is half adventure, half spiritual. Where Rocket Science was a fairly traditional science fiction story, Mainspring launches itself into a fantastical world full of high imagination and daring ideas. This coming-of-age adventure may seem familiar in its structure, but that’s the only thing familiar about this story.
Lake has a knack for capturing his characters very well. I could overlook some of the secondary characters, to the point of not really caring about what happened to some of the important ones, but with Hethor and his closest companions, I was very much concerned about what happened to them. In fact, there were portions of the story near the end that nearly had me in tears, he captured them so well.
For devout readers of fantasy and science fiction, the book may be easier to digest. I’m not accustomed to having the setting of the book be so much a part of the story, and I found myself having to pay more attention than usual to a lot of the descriptions. But, as I mentioned above, I think it was definitely worth the effort to stick with it. I would recommend Mainspring to anyone who enjoys daring stories of adventure and imagination, though it’s not really intended for younger readers, despite the age of the protagonist.
Only 2 stars, because it veered off into the tired theme of the Western world is evil and the native world is better great.
An interesting take on a lot of concepts. Part religious metaphor, part steampunk, part sci-fi/fantasy, an interesting read to say the least. Essentially, the world is a clock, and someone needs to wind it. I have to say, it's rare that I don't quite understand what the author is trying to say, but it didn't pull from my enjoyment of it, which was well-paced and provided more than a few bits to chew on after I put it down. At least for me, that's a success, and I look forward to seeing what else I can read by Lake.
MAINSPRING BY JAY LAKE: Mainspring is your classic steampunk novel: the world is run by machinery. The Mainspring is at the center of the world, constantly turning and working, making every other cog, wheel and spring turn and work. The world is split between the two hemispheres by a giant metal wall that reaches into space. The planet turns, and runs on an orbiting track around the sun and at midnight the wall connects with this track for one moment, obliterating everything on top of the Wall and starting anew. All this was created and set in motion by God: the Mainspring is the heart of the world and is also the heart of God.
In this world, the War for Independence never happened, and at the turn of the twentieth century, Britain still controls the colonies. Hethor Jacques is a sixteen year old boy and a clockmaker’s apprentice. He is visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told that the Mainspring is not running well and requires the Key Perilous to set it in correct motion again. This is necessary once over many generations and the time has come again and it is up to Hethor to perform this task. With lots of problems and obstructions along the way, Hethor makes his treacherous journey to Boston where he is press ganged in the British navy on Her Majesty’s Ship of the Air Bassett: an ordinary ship that is attached to a great air balloon sending the ship high into the sky. Commissioned to aid Her Majesty’s ships at the Wall, the Bassett travels over the Atlantic to the great iron curtain where they come face to face with horrors and monsters never imagined. The Wall is a place of legend and story, of fabled cities filled with jewels and ghosts.
It is in a town on the Wall that Hethor meets the Jade Priest who aids him in his quest to cross the Wall and enter the southern hemisphere. He must travel to the South Pole where he will find the entrance to the Mainspring and attempt to carry out his duty. It is here, in the last third of the book, that the plot of Mainspring devolves and becomes quite dreadful, much like the devolved and chaotic world of this hemisphere. Jay Lake takes an uncertain direction in pushing forth the religion that has been secondary to the incredible steampunk world so far, making Hethor into a messiah like character and therefore able to survive every devastating attack and tragedy that befalls him. It is here also that Hethor becomes a leader of this simian race that are between monkey and human on an evolutionary scale, known as the “correct people.” With Hethor leading the correct people south, it recalls the plight of Moses and the Israelites. Naturally there is a female in this group who has the incredibly developed and humanistic name of Arellya that Hethor becomes closer and closer to, eventually leading to a copulation scene that can only be described as bestiality: “He rubbed at her hairy back, enjoying the silky smooth feel, like petting a giant cat.”
With this severe downward turn to the novel, Mainspring was hard to finish. The failing of the book was in going from a complex and fantastic world of air ships and machinery and exotic places to a religious dogma coupled with a fascination for an ape-like race. Nevertheless, Mainspring possesses many facets of the cyberpunk novel making it a classic in some ways, along with amazing cover artwork of the Bassett at the Wall.
In this world, the War for Independence never happened, and at the turn of the twentieth century, Britain still controls the colonies. Hethor Jacques is a sixteen year old boy and a clockmaker’s apprentice. He is visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told that the Mainspring is not running well and requires the Key Perilous to set it in correct motion again. This is necessary once over many generations and the time has come again and it is up to Hethor to perform this task. With lots of problems and obstructions along the way, Hethor makes his treacherous journey to Boston where he is press ganged in the British navy on Her Majesty’s Ship of the Air Bassett: an ordinary ship that is attached to a great air balloon sending the ship high into the sky. Commissioned to aid Her Majesty’s ships at the Wall, the Bassett travels over the Atlantic to the great iron curtain where they come face to face with horrors and monsters never imagined. The Wall is a place of legend and story, of fabled cities filled with jewels and ghosts.
It is in a town on the Wall that Hethor meets the Jade Priest who aids him in his quest to cross the Wall and enter the southern hemisphere. He must travel to the South Pole where he will find the entrance to the Mainspring and attempt to carry out his duty. It is here, in the last third of the book, that the plot of Mainspring devolves and becomes quite dreadful, much like the devolved and chaotic world of this hemisphere. Jay Lake takes an uncertain direction in pushing forth the religion that has been secondary to the incredible steampunk world so far, making Hethor into a messiah like character and therefore able to survive every devastating attack and tragedy that befalls him. It is here also that Hethor becomes a leader of this simian race that are between monkey and human on an evolutionary scale, known as the “correct people.” With Hethor leading the correct people south, it recalls the plight of Moses and the Israelites. Naturally there is a female in this group who has the incredibly developed and humanistic name of Arellya that Hethor becomes closer and closer to, eventually leading to a copulation scene that can only be described as bestiality: “He rubbed at her hairy back, enjoying the silky smooth feel, like petting a giant cat.”
With this severe downward turn to the novel, Mainspring was hard to finish. The failing of the book was in going from a complex and fantastic world of air ships and machinery and exotic places to a religious dogma coupled with a fascination for an ape-like race. Nevertheless, Mainspring possesses many facets of the cyberpunk novel making it a classic in some ways, along with amazing cover artwork of the Bassett at the Wall.
I was uncertain whether I wanted to follow Hethor at the beginning of the story. He seemed a little too dumb and naive for a orphan who has been an apprentice to a man with some damn evil sons, perhaps a little too much of a Dickens good guy, which doesn’t go over so well in a modern novel even if it is set in a fantasy-steampunk 19th century where maybe God is an actual clock-maker.
Love the neolithic, small hairy, 'correct people'. Going into Africa across the equator I was worried we’d get the worst of the darkest continent pulp cliches but was pleasantly surprised. Though the book may have erred towards ‘noble savages’ instead.
The romance with Arellya, one of the tiny hairy people (small as a child) was at the same time touching and also creepy at times. I kept wondering how this would feel if I saw this couple making love on the screen where I wouldn’t be allowed to forget she was child like in size and also an ape. In the book you can sort of just give her human status, but to visualize them together was sort of a combo of bestiality and pedophilia - sort of. It didn’t put me off the book and I did find it touching much of the time, but it also kept poking at me. An interesting effect - one that if Mr. Lake intended I take my hat off to hi
Spoiler: At the end this is a Hollow Earth book! And it very much recalled to me Poe’s novel of Arthur Gordon Pym's travel to the pole. Hethor certainly goes through the punishment of the explorer - the book keeps things grounded by regaling us with all of Hector’s suffering.
I am an atheist, so take it as a compliment to the book that I found myself rooting for this God believing dope in the face of his Rational Humanist antagonists (though the books is actually pretty good a making you wonder if they are all that bad -and wow, poor William of Ghent - up until he is reveal to be clock work himself - as a I said earlier - spoiler. In a book where magic is real it makes sense for the atheist reader to take the side of the blessed by god hero. Really, it does.
I do feel that the book is slightly bloodless in its protagonist and perhaps in its restraint. I somewhat think the book needed to be more pulpy, more vigorous. I grew to love the book more and more as I read it, but the early parts were a bit of a trial to get through. So I only come out half won over.
Love the neolithic, small hairy, 'correct people'. Going into Africa across the equator I was worried we’d get the worst of the darkest continent pulp cliches but was pleasantly surprised. Though the book may have erred towards ‘noble savages’ instead.
The romance with Arellya, one of the tiny hairy people (small as a child) was at the same time touching and also creepy at times. I kept wondering how this would feel if I saw this couple making love on the screen where I wouldn’t be allowed to forget she was child like in size and also an ape. In the book you can sort of just give her human status, but to visualize them together was sort of a combo of bestiality and pedophilia - sort of. It didn’t put me off the book and I did find it touching much of the time, but it also kept poking at me. An interesting effect - one that if Mr. Lake intended I take my hat off to hi
Spoiler: At the end this is a Hollow Earth book! And it very much recalled to me Poe’s novel of Arthur Gordon Pym's travel to the pole. Hethor certainly goes through the punishment of the explorer - the book keeps things grounded by regaling us with all of Hector’s suffering.
I am an atheist, so take it as a compliment to the book that I found myself rooting for this God believing dope in the face of his Rational Humanist antagonists (though the books is actually pretty good a making you wonder if they are all that bad -and wow, poor William of Ghent - up until he is reveal to be clock work himself - as a I said earlier - spoiler. In a book where magic is real it makes sense for the atheist reader to take the side of the blessed by god hero. Really, it does.
I do feel that the book is slightly bloodless in its protagonist and perhaps in its restraint. I somewhat think the book needed to be more pulpy, more vigorous. I grew to love the book more and more as I read it, but the early parts were a bit of a trial to get through. So I only come out half won over.
Several years ago I got this book, started to read it and then just left it. I didn't remembered why, but now that I've finished it I know. For the whole book I somehow wasn't able to identify myself with the main character. Although the whole story is kind of retelling of the Jesuses story I didn't feel like there was anything that was so catchy or good. Also the detailed description of sex scene wasn't necessary in my opinion.
I think that the world of the book is interesting ant the idea itself is also good, but the way the story is told seems that author did have several good ideas that he glued together just to make some sense. The depth of characters is missing as well as a golden rule of writing (everything that happens, happens for reason). Overall not impressed.
I think that the world of the book is interesting ant the idea itself is also good, but the way the story is told seems that author did have several good ideas that he glued together just to make some sense. The depth of characters is missing as well as a golden rule of writing (everything that happens, happens for reason). Overall not impressed.
Jay Lake's "Mainspring" is a book that I have trouble comparing to anything.
It's the tale of a boy working as a clock makers apprentice until he gets a message from a metal angel telling him to rewind the spring that keeps the earth moving.
That's the sort of sales pitch that would get me to read just about anything, but the depth of Lake's idea and the extent to which he plays it out is the real show here.
The entirety of the world in "Mainspring" is clockwork. There's a series of gears visible in the sky that astute clockmakers can tell time by. The equator is a giant series of metal teeth that connect to the wider ring that keeps it orbiting the sun. They worship a metal Jesus who died on a gear-like variant of the crucifix. This is steam punk on a scale I didn't think any had the ambition to try. Having world that seems to have been created with a clock as its inspiration really helps sell the setting.
This is all told through brief, concise prose that wraps around huge ideas with an amazing amount of grace. At no time was I uncertain about what was happening or how the story was progressing, which is pretty impressive for a story taking place in an alternate Victorian setting where America is still a colony and dirigibles are a viable means of transportation.
If there is a weakness to Lake's first book, it's the structure. Sometimes I actually felt breathless because the story goes and goes and rarely stops, like the narrator isn't stopping to take a breath. As an adventure story, this has it's good qualities, but at times I wanted him to linger on the great settings he'd created instead of moving on to the next amazing set-piece.
Lake spent years writing a small library-worth of short stories, so his ease with prose makes sense, along with wobbly, uneven structure of the overall plot. As far as I can tell he has nowhere to go but up, and since the sequel was recently released, it looks like he's dedicated to tackling more angles on his ambitious world. I'm certainly looking forward to more.
It's the tale of a boy working as a clock makers apprentice until he gets a message from a metal angel telling him to rewind the spring that keeps the earth moving.
That's the sort of sales pitch that would get me to read just about anything, but the depth of Lake's idea and the extent to which he plays it out is the real show here.
The entirety of the world in "Mainspring" is clockwork. There's a series of gears visible in the sky that astute clockmakers can tell time by. The equator is a giant series of metal teeth that connect to the wider ring that keeps it orbiting the sun. They worship a metal Jesus who died on a gear-like variant of the crucifix. This is steam punk on a scale I didn't think any had the ambition to try. Having world that seems to have been created with a clock as its inspiration really helps sell the setting.
This is all told through brief, concise prose that wraps around huge ideas with an amazing amount of grace. At no time was I uncertain about what was happening or how the story was progressing, which is pretty impressive for a story taking place in an alternate Victorian setting where America is still a colony and dirigibles are a viable means of transportation.
If there is a weakness to Lake's first book, it's the structure. Sometimes I actually felt breathless because the story goes and goes and rarely stops, like the narrator isn't stopping to take a breath. As an adventure story, this has it's good qualities, but at times I wanted him to linger on the great settings he'd created instead of moving on to the next amazing set-piece.
Lake spent years writing a small library-worth of short stories, so his ease with prose makes sense, along with wobbly, uneven structure of the overall plot. As far as I can tell he has nowhere to go but up, and since the sequel was recently released, it looks like he's dedicated to tackling more angles on his ambitious world. I'm certainly looking forward to more.
3 1/2 stars.
This was an entertaining book, much better than The Court of the Air, which I read shortly before it. The author keeps the narrative tight and constantly progressing, mixing in metaphor and metaphysics in ways that work for my tastes.
Steampunk as a genre tends to fall into two camps: alternative history Earths (like Boneshaker or The Difference Engine), or fantasy worlds similar to our own (the aforementioned Court and Retribution Falls, for example). Mainspring occupies something of a middle ground within this division: it is clearly set in a world that we know from our understanding of history, yet it is not some alternative reality by way of a few changes. The world of Mainspring is alternate reality in the way that Lord of the Rings is an alternate history from A Song of Ice and Fire -- different rules are at work within the worlds, and while complementary are not truly compatible. Mainspring, therefore, succeeds on its own merits by creating a world that, while familiar, is truly fantastic beyond what reality can offer.
This was an entertaining book, much better than The Court of the Air, which I read shortly before it. The author keeps the narrative tight and constantly progressing, mixing in metaphor and metaphysics in ways that work for my tastes.
Steampunk as a genre tends to fall into two camps: alternative history Earths (like Boneshaker or The Difference Engine), or fantasy worlds similar to our own (the aforementioned Court and Retribution Falls, for example). Mainspring occupies something of a middle ground within this division: it is clearly set in a world that we know from our understanding of history, yet it is not some alternative reality by way of a few changes. The world of Mainspring is alternate reality in the way that Lord of the Rings is an alternate history from A Song of Ice and Fire -- different rules are at work within the worlds, and while complementary are not truly compatible. Mainspring, therefore, succeeds on its own merits by creating a world that, while familiar, is truly fantastic beyond what reality can offer.
I got about halfway through, but I ultimately decided that even though the zeppelins were cool, the book itself was kind of dumb.