Review: Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat

Genre: steampunk/ historical fantasy
Pages: 409 (paperback)
Published: 2010 by Melville House-- originally published in French

The Synopsis:
1908: New Venice--"the pearl of the Arctic"--a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds and elegant victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice.

But as the city prepares for spring, it feels more like qaartsiluni, "the time when something is about to explode in the dark." Local "poletics" are wracked by tensions with the Eskimos circling the city, with suffragette riots led by an underground music star, with drug round-ups by the secret police force known as the Gentlemen of the Night. An ominous black airship hovers over the city, and the Gentlemen are hunting for the author of a radical pamphlet calling for revolt.  Their lead suspect is Brentford Orsini, one of the city's most prominent figures. But as the Gentlemen of the Night tighten the net around him, Orsini receives a mysterious message from a long-lost love that compels him to act.

What transpires is a literary adventure novel unlike anything you've ever read before. Brilliant in its conception, masterful in its prose, thrilling in its plot twists, and laced with humor, suspense, and intelligence, it marks the beginning of a great new series of books set in New Venice-and the launch of an astonishing new writer.

My Take: 

So as far as enticing book summaries go, that one was a tad bit confusing.  Overall, "confusing" is a very good adjective for Aurorarama.  This one had been on my radar for a long time, mainly because of: steampunk-esque Arctic setting, polar bears (!), the Gentlemen of the Night-- which sounds really cool--, and that beautiful cover.  After reading the summary, I thought "Well, of course the author will fill us in on all this alternative early 20th century stuff, the origins of this New Venice city in the northern Arctic, the mysterious airship, and all the other little details of his steampunk-esque world.  

But no.  The author of Aurorarama took the old writing cliche of "show, don't tell" a little too well, I think.  He almost expects that we know that one of his two protagonists is actually a duke and one is a quarter Scottish (and yes, that's actually relevant to the plot?)  The "long-lost love" mentioned in the synopsis is this woman, Helen, who at some point or another was in love with the protagonist Brentford and sacrificed herself for some reason, yet lived on in a goddess-like form for some reason.  There's this vast mythology, of which only the tip of the iceberg-- I went there-- is actually explained or explored.  There are mentions of popular New Venetian culture which-- while they help make this a more immersive read and the world-building realistic-- probably fall flat for most readers.  Like, there's this singer who appears out of nowhere and is apparently notorious for stirring up trouble-- oh, and she's also a suffragette for women's vote, but mostly she's an anarchist-- and yeah, a pop singer, and part of this conspiracy theory involving the "poletics" of the city.  

Which kinda brings me to the number one thing I disliked about Aurorarama.  The characterization of the few female characters in the novel is really, really horrible and occasionally, just kind of degrading.  Neither of the protagonists are, but there are three female characters in the book (not including half of a set of conjoined twins-- no, I'm not kidding).  One is Brentford's future wife, a young woman named Sybil who is a pop singer and minor star.  We never really learn why Brentford loves Sybil, if he does, or why they're going to get married at all; the scene with their wedding was the most unromantic-- no, totally emotionless-- wedding scene I've ever read.  Brentford's always thinking about how Sybil only how cares about her band and superficial things, and he feels duty-bound to marry her for some reason, and this just repeatedly got on my nerves.  Sybil also becomes the damsel-in-distress later in the novel, when a magician makes her disappear for real.  Brentford seems to hardly notice that his fiance is missing (he's too busy thinking about that long-lost love), so I'm really not sure what the point of including this subplot was, since Sybil just randomly reappears a few days later. The other woman is considered to be something of a bad-ass and a little mysterious, and is overall not as bad as Sybil.  In one scene, she leads a group of suffragettes in a revolutionary mob riot and the police can't get around to taking action against them properly, because the girls just look so darn arresting in their short skirts and suffragette banners.  So, not because they're armed and dangerous or anything. 

And then we come to Stella, the lover of my least favorite of the protagonists, and a character who I really didn't like.  The protagonist Gabriel is just obsessed with Stella, because she's just so cute and has this astronomical tattoo on her back.  Stella's official occupation is a magician's assistant, so thus far we have a tally of two pop singers and one magician's assistant as far as women go.  She also turns out to be another revolutionary, who betrays Gabriel and seems to feel somewhat bad about it-- but not bad enough that the author actually made a later confrontation between them part of the plot.  This is an excerpt from page 359 about Stella, which I thought kinda emphasizes what the female characters in this novel are like:

"'Fine,' said Stella, who looked even smaller in her thick, black, fur-lined jacket.  She took off her crocheted hat and shook her corkscrew curls out in a moment of pure terrorist eroticism.  Gabriel closed his eyes."

"Pure terrorist eroticism" is probably the weirdest of many weird phrases used in this book.  What exactly does that mean?  Is that a phrase specifically coined to describe Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta?  My best guess is that it means: OK, so she may be a terrorist, but most importantly-- she's still erotic, since she is a woman and all and women can't be too much like terrorists, since terrorism is violent and therefore a man thing.  Another gem of an odd phrase:

"...His heart was banging in his chest like a madman begging to be released from his padded cell".  

My heart was banging...like a madman, of course, that's the natural simile one tends to think of.  I thought at first that the book was translated from French, since the author is French, but, no-- it was written in English.  Still, maybe English not being his native language is some justification for the mind-bogglingly strange phrases and similes. 

So, on the positive side... the world-building in Aurorarama is well-written and complex and the political system (if you're into that sort of thing) is interesting.  The chilling prologue is cool-- maybe it would be better to just read the prologue and call it a good short story with no conclusion? The Eskimos were interesting.  BUT, the superficial and objectified nature of the female characters, the detachment between reader and the protagonists and their world/problems, the appearance of a creepy set of conjoined twin children-- all of these are very good reasons not to read Aurorarama, if you think any of them might bother you in the least.  Worst of all: there were no polar bears, talking or otherwise.  Talking polar bears have been known to make the difference in ratings between two and three unicorns, but alas, I guess.  Overall, very much not my kind of book.

My Rating:

Mega Manga Review: Fullmetal Alchemist

Artist/Manga-ka: Hiromu Arakawa
# of Volumes in Series: 25 released; 2 still to come
Genre: steampunk/ shounen/ action-adventure
Recommended for: everyone

I recently finished the 16th volume of FMA (universal nickname for Fullmetal Alchemist) and was going to review it.  Then it occurred to me: most readers won't bother reading a synopsis for a review of the sixteenth volume of a manga series they don't know the plot or premise of, and who could blame them?  So, instead of writing a typical review for that specific volume, I've decided to undertake a review (READ: total unapologetic gush fest) for Fullmetal Alchemist in general.
No spoilers follow, only lots of awesome.  You have been warned.

 My Take: 

For me, stumbling upon a tattered copy of the first volume of Fullmetal Alchemist at the local library was akin to finding a gold mine between those creased cover pages.  I devoured the manga in an hour, then passed it along to my picky sister Pinky, of guest reviewing fame, who proceeded to devour it in about ten minutes.  (Pinky reads manga FAST!)  We've since watched the anime series-- which is nearly as good, and would be as good but for the fact that it is television and we all know TV can never compete with the written (or illustrated) word.  Though FMA is one of the most popular manga series in the US and Japan, if not the world, it's also one of those mangas which can be enjoyed by readers who don't usually like graphic novels, graphic novel fans who don't usually like manga, even people who normally don't like to read at all.  It's that good, that addictive.  FMA is the most suspenseful, perfectly-crafted manga I've ever read.  Its material is often dark, yet our heroes Edward and Alphonse bring much-needed light humor and determined optimism into the mix, therefore rendering it pretty much perfect. 

the Ouroboros.. a mysterious symbol

The basic premise of Fullmetal Alchemist goes a little like this: Amestris is a country run by the military in a war-torn world which resembles a steampunkish England around the time of the Industrial Revolution.  Alchemy, advanced and complex science which seems like magic to ordinary people, is wielded by the military to keep control and protect the borders.  Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric are only children when they first discover their innate talents for alchemy.  After the sudden death of their mother, the boys use alchemy's most forbidden art in an attempt to resurrect her using alchemy.  But the first law of alchemy is equivalent exchange: you must sacrifice to obtain.  The brothers' alchemical ritual goes horribly awry.

Edward loses his leg in the process and is forced to sacrifice his arm in order to save Al from being lost altogether in the darkness beyond the mortal world.  He binds Al's soul to the only available host-- a suit of metal armor-- and hires his childhood friend Winry, an automail engineer, to forge him a new, fully automated arm and leg made of steel.  The brothers burn their small town home and set off for Central, capital city of Amestris.  Ed is determined to become the youngest-ever State Alchemists in order to find out more about the Philosopher's Stone, a mythical substance believed to give the alchemist who wields it great power.  The brothers are determined to restore their damaged and lost bodies to normal... but at what great cost?

The cast of characters in this series is beyond awesome.  In particular, we have so many people who we have so much reason to hate or dislike yet somehow worm their ways into our hearts.  We have State Alchemists who brutally murdered thousands in the name of the military; we have Scar, a refugee-turned-serial-killer who makes use of his own destructive brand of alchemy while trying to make sense of his muddled past.  And then there are the homunculi-- mysterious human-like creatures created via alchemy, convincingly human but for their lack of a soul... and their bizarre physical abilities.  The homunculi are so damn cool.  Very occasionally in fiction a villain comes along who is totally despicable, yet somehow you want to see more and more of them.  The manga-ka of FMA does an excellent job holding the identities and abilities of the homunculi over our heads, offering only occasional tantalizing glimpses of them.  And if the villains are great, the heroes are even better.
 

  Ed's the best.  He's easily aggravated, especially when it comes to his small stature and refuses to consume milk in any form (lack of calcium is probably the reason for his vertically-challenged condition ;).  He's stubborn, holds a grudge, and is a child prodigy convinced he can do absolutely anything.  Yet he's also incredibly haunted by his past, hindered by his auto-mail limbs, and suffers a ton of guilt over what happened to Alphonse.  Altogether, I pretty much love Ed to death. (So does Pinky, I feel compelled to add-- she wouldn't want anyone claiming to be a bigger Ed fan than her.)  His brother Al is in some ways the perfect contrast: Ed's genius without the infamous Ed ego, I guess.

I can see this fangirl post has definitely ran a bit long, so I'll just hastily add that Winry Rockbell, Ed and Al's neighbor, Lt. Riza Hawkeye, and her dog Black Hayate are a few of my other favorites.  If you're a fellow FMA fan, I'd love to hear from you, and I hope the rest of you will consider checking out the first volume in my favorite manga series of all time! 

Review: Perdido Street Station

Genre: fantasy-- steampunk
Pages: 623 (paperback)
Published: 2003 by DelRey
Recommended for: readers seeking a compelling if lengthy fantastical novel set in a world which is unique to say the least

Synopsis:
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.

Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger.  While Isaac's experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger—and more consuming—by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon—and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes . . . 

My Take: 


I didn't write my own synopsis for this book, which is very unusual in of itself.  To say that Perdido Street Station is an unusual book is like saying 'The Louvre Museum is big' or 'Man, that show LOST is a tad bit confusing, isn't it?'  I've read a lot of books, and I can safely say that Perdido Street Station stands out from the crowd to an enormous extent.  

The world which China Miéville has created in New Crobuzon is so vastly complex, riddled through with fantastical factions of creatures and humans alike.  It's like any other metropolis in that it has its militia and mobsters, university and bohemian community... only members of that bohemian community might be anything from Khepri-- a humanoid race similar to praying mantises in appearance if not intellect-- to Vodyanoi-- enormous beings which cannot survive out of water for extended periods of time and are skilled in magic involving water.  In Perdido Street Station, we have monstrous moths who fly amok over the city poisoning its population with horrendous dreams and draining them of hope and humanity.  We have a gigantic arachnid called the Weaver whom the militia attempts to employ as a weapon against the aforementioned moths... and who despite this generally takes whatever actions he thinks would eventually create the prettiest pattern in the web of fate.  And we have Yagharek, the Garuda, a noble yet rightfully ostracized outcast whose magnificent wings were stripped from his back by his own people.  Steampunk themes are everywhere, but I think the name Miéville and other authors have given this sub-genre of fantasy is a fitting one: the New Weird.  

The storyline is actually simple considering the complexity of the world in which it is set: Isaac, a Crisis Theory scientist, becomes inevitably involved in a crisis in motion when one of his most mysterious experiments abruptly breaks free of its cage and goes on a vicious killing spree along with others of his kind.  His girlfriend Lin-- who is Khepri and has abandoned her people's lifestyle in favor of becoming a rather unconventional type-- of artist  is held captive by a monstrous mobster suitably named Mr. Motley.  So, Isaac and a few of his friends in the New Crobuzon Underground set out to destroy the monsters.  Along the way they encounter every kind of creature and individual imaginable and many more which I doubt anyone but China Miéville could ever dream up independently of this book.  This book is an experience.  It took me a week to read, and I'm a voraciously fast reader.  But its chaotic beauty, messages of coexistence, and shocking yet satisfying ending make Perdido Street Station very much worth the read.  

My Rating: 

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

Genre: YA dystopia/ fantasy/steampunk
Pages: 462 (hardcover)

Published: December 2010 by Dial
Recommended for: only those who've already read Incarceron; steampunk fans

Summary:
The only one who escaped . . . And the one who could destroy them all.
Incarceron, the living prison, has lost one of its inmates to the outside world: Finn’s escaped, only to find that Outside is not at all what he expected. Used to the technologically advanced, if violently harsh, conditions of the prison, Finn is now forced to obey the rules of Protocol, which require all people to live without technology. To Finn, Outside is just a prison of another kind, especially when Claudia, the daughter of the prison’s warden, declares Finn the lost heir to the throne. When another claimant emerges, both Finn’s and Claudia’s very lives hang on Finn convincing the Court of something that even he doesn’t fully believe.
Meanwhile, Finn’s oathbrother Keiro and his friend Attia are still trapped inside Incarceron. They are searching for a magical glove, which legend says Sapphique used to escape. To find it, they must battle the prison itself, because Incarceron wants the glove too.

My Take:


There's really not much that can be said about the plot of Sapphique without completely spoiling everything that happens in the first book, Incarceron.  Even the summary is jam-paced with spoilers. But I'll give reviewing it (mostly) spoiler-free a go.  This was another fantastical, amazingly-imagined novel by Catherine Fisher, set in the world of the living, sentient prison Incarceron-- a world I'd been dying to return to ever since I read the first book last year.  

Sapphique is fueled by an ever-thickening, suspense-driven plot which races along at the speed of light.  The story switches frequently between Finn and Claudia, who are in the outside Realm world and struggling to secure Finn's claim to the throne despite the conniving Queen Sia, and Finn's oathbrother Keiro and Attia, the former slave girl who has now joined up with a mysterious mad magician who claims to possess the lost glove of Sapphique.  The world of Incarceron is one rich in mythology and steeped with weird allusions and stories which have been twisted over time, just as our own is.  It's nothing short of mind-blowing that Catherine Fisher can write a futuristic world as complex and crazy-real-feeling ( there's another of my lovely hyphenated words ;) as Incarceron, or indeed any of the other fantasy worlds she has written about.  It takes a while for readers, especially those who haven't read the first book in a while, to get the hang of the prison jargon and the story of Sapphique.  The atmospheres of both Incarceron and the Realm are so believable, and once again I loved the steampunk feel of everything in Incarceron.

The characters were a hit-or-miss with me as always... I loved Keiro, who's charming even for all his arrogance and self-absorbed betrayals-- he's a character who it is really hard not to love.  A warning to romance fans: there was literally almost no romance in this second book, which disappointed me very much.  I was expecting a Keira/Attia thing to get going, or a Claudia/Jared thing, but neither of these really panned out beyond a few little hints. (Though I'm sure JK Rowling would call them 'anvil-sized hints', they still weren't enough for me ;).  All that aside, Sapphique was jam-packed with surprises and shocking twists, huge revelations.  I was unable to put this (very thick) book down for a moment!  Parting with it was literally painful.  A fantastic conclusion to this steampunkish dystopian dualogy.

Cover: 4/5

Premise: 5/5

Characters: 4/5

Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4/5

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge

 (Book #1 in Iron Codex Series)

Genre: YA fantasy/ steampunk 

Pages: 492 (hardcover)

Published: February 2011 by Delacorte Books 

Recommended for: readers who like any fantasy sub-genre: faeries, steampunk, sci-fi, historical, you name it!

This is a real hodgepodge of a YA fantasy: steampunk, faeries, alternate world, ghouls, and magical powers all included!  In most any other book, I would say that's a few too many things going on at once, but The Iron Thorn pulls off the blending of fantasy spheres to create one giant, Lovecraft-inspired world beautifully.  The pace is slower than a lot of YA books, but I truly enjoyed reading every one of its 500 pages!

Aoife Grayson (somebody on Goodreads said it's pronounced 'ee-fah', and I'm going to take their word for it) resents her mad mother Neressa, locked away in a city asylum, for living in her world of fantasies and delusions.  The Grayson family is cursed to become infected with the necrovirus-- an all-consuming madness on their sixteenth birthdays--, but Aoife's determined to become an engineer, a practical, successful citizen  in the city of Lovecraft, Massachusetts, where steampunk is commonplace and anything even remotely magical is heresy.  But when a note written by her mad missing brother arrives at the School of Engines, Aoife must venture into the unknown in order to find him.  
 With her friend Cal tagging along, Aoife enlists the help of Dean Harrison, a charming and decidedly heretical young man who makes a living leading people outside the grimy city of Lovecraft.  Pursued by Proctors and horrible clockwork crows, the trio make their way to the mansion of the father Aoife and her brother never knew.  There, Aoife must decipher the age-old books in the attic of the clockwork house.  She searches the past for answers about the bizarre power-- called a Weird-- which is manifesting in her, even while her future is ridden with doubt and bleak prospects.  Her sixteenth birthday is fast approaching and when a sinister faerie approaches Aoife, threatening her family and everything she knows, she must learn to harness her great and heretical power-- or lose everyone she loves and eek out the rest of her life in a Lovecraft madhouse.    

The premise of this book and the gorgeous cover immediately seized my attention, and I knew I had to have it!  Caitlin Kittredge writes so beautifully, with prose that makes the whole book unfold like a film in your head.  I love the way she writes both steampunk and the realm of the Fey.  Tremaine is just the coolest, delightfully awful-est villain-- he's the sinister faerie guy, btw, without giving any spoilers away.  The monsters, both faerie and steampunkish, were perfectly eerie and creative.  Aoife wasn't my favorite heroine ever, partly because she was a little wishy-washy, and partly because I had to keep scanning over her impossibly name. (Every time I read it, I sort of went 'blah, blah' in my head.)  Dean, her main love interest, is just beyond awesome and incredibly charming.  I even loved the little maid girl at Aoife's father's mansion.  So definitely a 5/5 as far as characters are concerned! 

The pacing is a bit slow, particularly towards the middle, but I felt this was a story which needed to be 500 pages long, rather than being excessive.  There are plenty of plot twists and shocking revelations along the way, though I saw a few of them coming.  This is the sort of enthralling, all-consuming book which one should savor as much as possible-- perfect for reading by candlelight during a stormy night or lugging along with you wherever you go.  I absolutely loved The Iron Thorn, and cannot wait to see if there's going to be a sequel (as the major cliffhanger ending strongly suggests).    

Cover: 5/5

Premise: 5/5 

Characters: 5/5

Plot: 4/5 

Overall Rating: 5/5

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

(Book #2 in the Leviathan Trilogy)
Genre: YA steampunk
Pages: 485 (hardcover)
Published: October 2010 by Simon Pulse
Series recommended for: Uglies fans, steampunk and science fiction fans as well as history buffs

Synopsis:
The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.
Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what's ahead.
My Take: 


Scott Westerfeld is pretty much my YA literary hero.  I've never read a single one of his books that I didn't absolutely love, and Behemoth is no exception.

The book is the sequel to Leviathan, a fast-paced and infinitely clever steampunk novel set in an alternative and decidedly steampunk-ed era of World War I.  The Central Power countries are all 'Clankers'-- they harness advanced war technology in the form of enormous and sometimes android-like war machines designed to devastate their Entente enemies.  The Entente powers-- specifically the UK, Russia, France, and apparently Japan-- are the sworn enemy of all Clanker nations.  They are Darwinists, whose genius genetic scientists have engineered incredible biological weapons as in the speculations of Charles Darwin.  Cutting out all my nerd talk-- Darwinists battle using powerful and incredible animals specifically designed for war.

In this latest installment of the trilogy, our royal-born hero Alek and gutsy heroine-in-disguise-as-a-hero, Deryn, fly on the gigantic ecosystem ship Leviathan to Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire (aka Turkey).  The Empire is a melting pot of Clanker mechanics and Darwinist animals and thus far has remained neutral in the war.  But they may not remain so for long if Dr. Barlow, granddaughter of the great Charles Darwin and Alek and Deryn's fellow passenger on the Leviathan has anything to say about it.  For Dr. Barlow has a gift for the Ottomans: a triad of mysterious eggs which she believes can turn the course of the war and save the world from further destruction. But the Germans are in Istanbul, too, and they're determined to make Alek, son of the murdered Austrian archduke and heir to his empire, vanish from the eyes of the world forever.

This is another book which involves history, and, as those of you who've read my reviews of historical-type books before know only too well, I tend to go a little crazy with the political summaries and war-era rants and yada yada.  *Winces*. Yeah, I really am sorry.  All blabber aside, I really enjoyed Behemoth every bit as much as the phenomenal Leviathan.  The books have such a wide audience, from adults to kids younger than twelve.  The weight of Deryn/Dylan's secret as a girl posing as an airship man makes a reader turn the pages as quickly as the constant suspense, war action, and intrigue.  We have a new kick-a female heroine thrown in the mix in the form of Lilit, an Ottoman revolutionary's daughter who is five hundred kinds of awesome and strong.  It's easy to see a love triangle forming between Alek, Lilit, and Deryn-- and it's not the one you would expect!  I was delighted-- that's not a word I typically use, but yeah, I was delighted.  Wholeheartedly recommend this one-- and Leviathan if you haven't already read it, of course.

Cover: 2/5 (not impressed-- I'm not even entirely sure if this is Alek or Deryn, but the blush is an odd effect)

Premise: 5/5 

Characters: 5/5 

Plot: 5/5 

Overall Rating: 5/5