Just Finished Reading: The Rising by Ian Tregillis (FP: 2015) [443pp]
Jax was free. After over a hundred years of servitude to the Brass Throne he was free. After the iron grip of his programming was inexplicably broken he has been free to follow his own path, to chart his own destiny. Unfortunately for Jax his freedom is not something his masters celebrate. Rather when they catch him, and catch him they will, he will be treated for the abomination he is – a rogue clacker. A malfunctioning device that needs to be corrected, which needs to be scrapped. So Jax is following a rumour, a rumour of other free clackers living far to the north, north of the remnants of Free France now under the final assault of a Dutch clacker army bent on their ultimate destruction. There, Captain Longchamp, defender of the last French city, prepares their meagre defences for the coming attack. Knowing full well that he might die in the attempt he is determined that he’ll take as many of the metal monsters with him into the forges of Hell before he goes. Meanwhile the French spy Berenice (Berenice Charlotte de Mornay-Perigord, former vicomtesse de Laval) is on the trail of information that could turn the tide of the endless war finally in the favour of her beloved France. Through guile, ingenuity and a fair amount of luck she is closing in on the method the Dutch alchemists use to programme their machines. With that knowledge she can subvert them to fight against their previous masters and restore France to its rightful place on the European continent. As a tasty side-dish she is also on the track of the traitor who gave secrets to the Dutch and who caused the death of her husband. Revenge will be definitely not be served cold….
This is the second book in The Alchemy Wars trilogy (3rd
book presently on order!) and moves the plot forward in leaps and bounds. We
find out a great deal more about this alternate reality – taking place in the
late 1920’s – where a Dutch technological breakthrough in the 18th
century allowed them to build unstoppable machines to conquer most of the known
world along with hints of where this enormous power came from (which I won’t
reveal here). Moving at pace we follow the intertwined paths of the mechanical
Jax (who gained his free will in the first book), the bear of a soldier Longchamp
(who is quite brilliant and completed dedicated to protecting the last bastion
of France in the New World) and my particular favourite Berenice driven by her
twin desires of understanding clacker (mechanical) technology and revenging her
dead husband. To say that I completely lost myself in this immersive novel is
an understatement. I don’t think that I could find a single fault in the
plotting, pace or characterisation. More than once I found myself gasping at an
event that I didn’t see coming and was equally thrilled to find out how, or if,
those involved coped with it. A total delight from start to finish. After the
brilliant last sentence (again which I won’t reveal here) I MUST know what
happens next! Completely original and highly entertaining. Highly recommended.
Oh, almost forgot... 10 more Man Vs Machine books to come!
3 comments:
Fabulous!!
i remember this during the first world war... pretty exciting stuff... (just kidding; not quite that far gone...yet... altho sometimes it does feel like i'm living in a parallel world...)
@ Judy: Oh, it was. Definitely the best novel so far - except I actually read it before Christmas. The 3rd book is in the post so I'll be scheduling it later in the year. He's also penned a alt-WW2 series where they use occult weapons which should be 'fun'!
@ Mudpuddle: I think that people who haven't read much SF must really struggle with the present sometimes. As almost every day feels like a SF novel I feel pretty much right at home myself!!
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