{"id":50,"date":"2011-09-16T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T03:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/a-roiling-adventure\/"},"modified":"2014-05-23T10:30:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T15:30:06","slug":"a-roiling-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/a-roiling-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"A Roiling Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roil<\/i><\/a>
\nTrent Jamieson<\/a>
\nAngry Robot Books<\/a>
\n$7.99, 432 p. mass market paperback
\n$5.99 ebook<\/p>\n

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<\/i>)<\/a>, or as a compromise, science fantasy.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In other words, Roil <\/i>is science fiction that reads like fantasy.<\/p>\n

I’ve never read William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land<\/i>, but from what I’ve read about it, I suspect there are similarities between that work and this one.\u00a0 The subtitle of the book, or rather the title of the series, is The Nightbound Land<\/i>, after all. \u00a0 In addition, Roil<\/i> has elements of steam punk with a dash of pulp adventure thrown in.\u00a0 There are airships, but they’re organic, living things.\u00a0 There are examples of advanced technology in a milieu of Victorian era science.\u00a0 There’s a man who is at least one thousand years old.\u00a0 There are strange races that are only partly human.\u00a0 And a cast of Dickensian characters.\u00a0 If any of these appeal to you, then you should check this book out.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Things aren’t well when the book opens.\u00a0 David has just seen his father murdered by political enemies.\u00a0 One of the few remaining political allies, Cadell, is his only hope of survival.\u00a0 But Cadell is the man who killed David’s uncle.<\/p>\n

Far to the south, deep within the Roil, Margaret is the only survivor of the city of Tate.\u00a0 Now she has to make her way hundreds of miles north, out of the Roil.\u00a0 Fortunately, if anyone can survive the roilbeasts, she can.\u00a0 That’s her on the cover.<\/p>\n

For David, Cadell, and Margaret, things are going to get worse before they get better.\u00a0 If they get better.\u00a0 The Roil is a region of heat, inhabited by bizarre beasts, that has been spreading slowly northward for years.\u00a0 And it’s about to pick up the pace…<\/p>\n

Things move fast.\u00a0 The roilbeasts are really unique, especially the Witmoths.\u00a0 Those were just plain creepy.\u00a0 And the Vermatisaur was cool.\u00a0 The image of one nesting in the tower in an abandoned city was one of the strongest in the novel.\u00a0 I hope one shows up in the next book.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The characters grow and change, and their relationships don’t remain static.\u00a0 And there’s no guarantee they will all survive, adding to the suspense.<\/p>\n

This book was a little different from what I’ve been reading over the last few years.\u00a0 It had a much more old fashioned feel to it, as though I were reading a Victorian or Edwardian novel.\u00a0 That’s a good thing, and for a number of reasons.\u00a0 Not least of which was the fact there were several places Jamieson could have inserted a sex scene and didn’t.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Intelligent, well-read adults will enjoy it, too.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Instead, I’ll leave you with a sample chapter, courtesy of Angry Robot Books.<\/p>\n

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