Category Archives: Trent Jamieson

A Review of Night’s Engines by Trent Jamieson

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Night’s Engines
Trent Jamieson
Angry Robot Books
US/CAN
29 May 2012
416pp mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN
eBook
29 May 2012
£4.49

UK/RoW
7 Jun 2012
384pp B-format paperback
£7.99 UK

This book won’t be released for another week here in the States, and later in other parts of the world, so if you haven’t read Roil yet (reviewed here), don’t worry.  You still have time before the conclusion of The Nightbound Land duology hits the shelves.

This is a science fiction novel that reads like fantasy, but a careful reading of either book shows it’s clearly science fiction (or at least science fantasy), which is why I’m reviewing it here rather than at Adventures Fantastic.  It’s different than most anything I’ve seen lately, further proof of my conclusion that Angry Robot is one of the publishers you should be reading.

Night’s Engines is old fashioned adventure, the kind we don’t see enough of these days.   One of the advantages of being in the Robot Army is getting to read some of the most exciting new science fiction and fantasy before anyone else does.  And while not every title I’ve previewed has worked for me, most of them have.  This series certainly does.

The story picks up where Roil left off.  David Milde and Margaret Penn are trying to reach the Engine of the World located in the polar city of Tearwin Meet.  Leaving their companions Buchan and Whig behind in the city of Hardacre, they travel north, pursued by the Old Men, a group of almost immortals who may be as old as the world of Shale itself.

Along the way they face treachery, betrayal, dangers, and their own flawed selves.  They change and grow and act like real people.  There’s a tendency in novels such as this one, where the setting is so far removed from what most readers experience, that the people never seem to live and breathe.  That isn’t the case here.  David, Margaret, and Kara are all fully fleshed people.  Jamieson shows us their growth, using the hardships they endure and the sacrifices they make to give them depth.

I found the books, both of them, to be a blend of steampunk and Edwardian fantasy.  Indeed the series has a feel that reminded me at times of Europe in general and England in particular in the early years of the twentieth century before two World Wars and a global Depression permanently altered the national character.  Jamieson has a clear love for the fantastic literature of the time period.  This duology has strong echoes of Hodgson’s The Night Land, and there are other homages, such as some of the place names, Mirlees in particular.

The pace is fast, the action thrilling, and the dialogue real.  I blew through this one, it moves so quickly.  It’s a fresh and original piece of work, one I recommend highly.

 

A Roiling Adventure

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Roil
Trent Jamieson
Angry Robot Books
$7.99, 432 p. mass market paperback
$5.99 ebook

The publisher’s website classifies this one as fantasy, but I’m going to pick nits and call it science fiction (which is why I’m reviewing it here rather than over on Adventures Fantastic), or as a compromise, science fantasy.  Unless I misread something, this one takes place on another planet thousands of years in the future, after at least one civilization’s global collapse.  In other words, Roil is science fiction that reads like fantasy.

I’ve never read William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land, but from what I’ve read about it, I suspect there are similarities between that work and this one.  The subtitle of the book, or rather the title of the series, is The Nightbound Land, after all.   In addition, Roil has elements of steam punk with a dash of pulp adventure thrown in.  There are airships, but they’re organic, living things.  There are examples of advanced technology in a milieu of Victorian era science.  There’s a man who is at least one thousand years old.  There are strange races that are only partly human.  And a cast of Dickensian characters.  If any of these appeal to you, then you should check this book out.

Things aren’t well when the book opens.  David has just seen his father murdered by political enemies.  One of the few remaining political allies, Cadell, is his only hope of survival.  But Cadell is the man who killed David’s uncle.

Far to the south, deep within the Roil, Margaret is the only survivor of the city of Tate.  Now she has to make her way hundreds of miles north, out of the Roil.  Fortunately, if anyone can survive the roilbeasts, she can.  That’s her on the cover.

For David, Cadell, and Margaret, things are going to get worse before they get better.  If they get better.  The Roil is a region of heat, inhabited by bizarre beasts, that has been spreading slowly northward for years.  And it’s about to pick up the pace…

Things move fast.  The roilbeasts are really unique, especially the Witmoths.  Those were just plain creepy.  And the Vermatisaur was cool.  The image of one nesting in the tower in an abandoned city was one of the strongest in the novel.  I hope one shows up in the next book.  There’s plenty of mystery about how things got the way they are, and Jamieson unveils things at a nice, steady rate, so that the reader is drawn into the story deeper and deeper the more he reads, just like being lured into a trap.  The characters grow and change, and their relationships don’t remain static.  And there’s no guarantee they will all survive, adding to the suspense.

This book was a little different from what I’ve been reading over the last few years.  It had a much more old fashioned feel to it, as though I were reading a Victorian or Edwardian novel.  That’s a good thing, and for a number of reasons.  Not least of which was the fact there were several places Jamieson could have inserted a sex scene and didn’t.  Coupled with the low amount of profanity, that makes this a novel that could be given to younger readers, building the author an audience that will probably outlive him.  While not exactly YA, it’s got enough cool stuff in it that teens and preteens would enjoy it, as well as characters they could identify with.

Intelligent, well-read adults will enjoy it, too.  I normally put up a link to Amazon when I review a book, but that feature doesn’t seem to be working at the moment.  Instead, I’ll leave you with a sample chapter, courtesy of Angry Robot Books.