Wrath of the Lemming Men
Toby Frost
Myrmidon Books, 320p,
$12.95 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-905802-35-7
Series: Chronicles of Isambard Smith 3
Genre: Humorous SF, Steampunk
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Science fiction, like most areas of human endeavor, has its fashions. Across the history of the field, individual fashions go through a fairly consistent progression. First, someone writes a groundbreaking new story that becomes hugely popular. Then other writers jump on the bandwagon, at first mostly producing imitative and derivative stories to fill the demand created by the seminal work. This goes on for a while. Then, more and more writers explore the new territory, blazing their own trails and taking the original story in different directions. What was a bestseller-and-follow-ups becomes a full-fledged movement. For a time, it seems that everything published is part of the movement.
Eventually the new movement attenuates, like the shell of gas around a nova. Other types of SF reappear, the field returns to its pre-movement diversity . . . but the movement’s influences remain. The movement has become a fashion. Then, slowly, the fashion fades as other things take its place—although its impact remains and the field is stronger for it. After a decade or so, everyone wonders what all the fuss was about.
Take, for instance, one of SF’s first fashions: the “super-science” stories of E. E. “Doc” Smith, of which The Skylark of Space (1928) was the seminal work. It didn’t take long for other writers to join the fun. Before he became editor of Astounding/Analog, John W. Campbell, Jr. made his name with his Arcot, Wade, and Morley stories, which were firmly in the Smith style. Edmond Hamilton was another major writer of Smith-like super-science epics.
After a while super-science stories morphed into what we now call “space opera,” and a movement came into being. Many of the big names of the field wrote space opera: Ray Cummings, Raymond Z. Gallun, P. Schuyler Miller, and Jack Williamson were particular favorites.
Then, as space opera became a full-fledged fashion, its elements spread as all manner of writers took them up in stories that went far afield. Galactic Empires, universe-spanning wars, powerful technologies, multitudes of aliens, swashbuckling adventure—all elements that continue to appear in SF to this day.
The most recent fashion in science fiction—well on its way to also being a fashion in larger society—is steampunk.
As with most fashions, there’s no authoritative definition of exactly what constitutes steampunk. That’s entirely fitting, as steampunk is in a period of flux, on the brink of the stage when it will begin to disperse itself across the whole field. But as commonly understood, steampunk involves stories set against an anachronistic quasi-Victorian or—Edwardian background. Steampunk stories may take place in the past, present, or future—but it’s an alternate universe in which the primary technology is steam power. It’s a world in which Jules Verne and H. G. Wells would be entirely at home.
The first steampunk books, published in the early-to-mid 1980s, were categorized as fantasy rather than science fiction: novels by James Blaylock, K. W. Jeter, and Tim Powers. In fact, it was K. W. Jeter who gave the movement its name, in a tongue-in-cheek letter in 1987.
Steampunk, however, straddles the already-indistinct line between fantasy and science fiction. Since steampunk stories are alternate-universe fiction, a case can be made for considering them to be SF unless they include overt magic or other supernatural elements (which some do). Perhaps the best answer is to categorize steampunk as science-fantasy. Or to simply say that if they read like science fiction, then they are science fiction.
The first steampunk novel acknowledged as SF was The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (1990), set in an alternate history in which Charles Babbage’s steam-powered analytical engine brought about the computer revolution a hundred years early.
By now, as I said, steampunk has passed beyond the boundaries of SF, fantasy, and even literature itself. Steampunk has become an art form, a musical genre, even a distinct culture. There are steampunk conventions, steampunk dances, and steampunk stores selling all sorts of steampunk merchandise: costumes, goggles, clocks, and assorted objets d’art.
In reality, of course, the aesthetic that we call steampunk has been around since . . . well, since the Victorian Age itself. Verne and Wells were writing steampunk a century before steampunk existed. Harry Harrison, Keith Laumer, and Michael Moorcock all wrote stories that would definitely be considered steampunk if they were published today. (Analog did its part: Harrison’s 1973 pre-steampunk novel A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! was serialized starting in the April 1972 issue.)
In media, George Pal’s 1960 film The Time Machine had a definite steampunk look and feel. The TV show The Wild, Wild West had a steampunk aesthetic; even Doctor Who had its steampunk-ish moments.
So in one sense, steampunk is the newest fashion in SF; in another sense, it’s been part of SF since the beginning.
This month I have an assortment of steampunk books to show you the current variety of the fashion.
Wrath of the Lemming Men
Toby Frost
Captain Isambard Smith, of the British Space Empire, is a steely-thewed hero in the model of Horatio Hornblower or Honor Harrington . . . at least, if you believe his press releases. He is the commander of the good ship HMSC John Pym, the fastest ship in the fleet. His retinue includes his best friend, alien warrior Suruk the Slayer; android Polly Carveth, a former pleasurebot and the only entity who can pilot the John Pym; Rhianna Mitchell, a hippie-like free spirit who is a constant thorn in Captain Smith’s side (not least because of his mad, unrequited love for her); and Gerald the hamster.
In two previous books, Space Captain Smith and God Emperor of Didcot, Isambard defended the Empire against dire threats, but now he faces his biggest challenge: the lemming-men of Yull. On the orders of their insane war god, these ruthless warriors attack the Empire, meeting Imperial forces on the planet Varanor. The Imperial army, consisting of humans and Suruk the Slayer’s fellow warriors, handily defeat the lemmings.
Into the breach come Captain Smith and his valiant crew. Their assignment: to civilize the brutal lemming people and end their assault on the Empire. Isambard has no doubt that he’ll succeed, but he isn’t counting on the defeated lemming commander, who has sworn vengeance against Suruk and all who travel with him.
Oh, and there are the Empire’s primary foes, the merciless Ghasts, who are close on Isambard’s trail. And Leighton-Wakazashi, an evil robotics company that just might be in league with the Ghasts. Yet Isambard has an ace up his sleeve: an age-old society of Morris dancers who hold the key to universal peace. . . .
Wrath of the Lemming Men is a hilarious read, filled with references to science fiction and other pop culture. It more than lives up to the publisher’s tag line: “An epic tale of war, honour, and suicidal rodents!”
Pinion
Jay Lake
Tor, 448 pages, $26.99 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2186-2
Series:Clockwork Earth3
Genre: Steampunk |
On the definite science fantasy side of steampunk is Jay Lake’s Clockwork Earth. In Lake’s alternate nineteenth century, the universe is quite literally a clockwork construct: driven by an enormous mainspring at the Earth’s center, huge gears turn the planet and the entirety of creation. The Northern Hemisphere is dominated by two empires, the British and the Chinese. Around the Equator is a gigantic wall, along which run the giant gears that rotate the world. The largely-unknown Southern Hemisphere, beyond the wall, is home to mysterious societies and horrifying creatures.
In the first book, Mainspring, clockmaker’s apprentice Hethor Jacques went on a quest to find the key that would rewind the Earth’s mainspring. He was assisted by librarian Emily Childress. In Escapement we met Paolina Barthes, a budding genius pursued by secret societies scheming to use her abilities for their own nefarious purposes. Paolina fled toward the equatorial wall and the safety of the South; Emily is taken onto a British ship that’s attacked by a renegade Chinese submarine. She then works her way into a position of influence aboard the sub.
Now, in Pinion, we rejoin Paolina and Emily on their different journeys. The rival secret societies of the North—the Silent Order and the White Birds—are pursuing both women. Meanwhile, a mysterious power from the South has taken an interest in Paolina: they do not want to allow her to bring the North’s turmoil into their realms.
Airships, submarines, mechanical men, planet-girdling gears—Lake presents all of these magnificently. Along with generous helpings of adventure comes some truly stunning world building. If you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Lake’s Clockwork Earth, you owe it to yourself to redress that omission.
Ghosts of Manhattan
George Mann
Pyr, 240 pages, $16 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-61614-194-3
Genre: Steampunk, Superhero
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In George Mann’s steampunk world of 1926, prohibition-era New York teems with coal-powered cars and swooping biplanes. The United States and the British Empire are locked in cold war. Queen Victoria, her life extended by artificial means, has just died at the age of 107. Times are dark and dangerous.
A serial killer is loose in the city, one who leaves ancient Roman coins on the eyes of his victims. The police are baffled.
Enter the Ghost, a Batman-like hero who moves like a shadow through the dark night of the city. Following obscure leads and shady informants, he begins to pick up the trail of the killer, known as the Roman. Yet the Ghost discovers that there’s more to the Roman than a mere serial killer—indeed, the man is part of a plot to unleash powers that could destroy the city.
Meanwhile, there’s another story here: the story of what makes a man become the Ghost, and how both man and Ghost can come to terms with the double life they lead.
The superhero genre always provides a quandary for SF readers. Many of the conventions of the genre seem more fantasy than SF, and The Ghosts of Manhattan is no exception. Steampunk muddles the picture even more.
Still, George Mann does a great job of presenting his story in such a serious, compelling way that he makes suspension of disbelief easy. It reads like SF. If your tastes run toward superhero fiction or steampunk, you’ll have no problem with the book. If not, you’ll definitely want to approach it with an open mind. And if you’re violently allergic to any fantasy elements in your SF, you might want to give this one a miss.
Ares Express
Ian McDonald
Pyr, 388 pages, $16 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-61614-197-4
Series: Desolation Road 2
Genre: Mars, Steampunk |
Nothing says steampunk quite as much as a train pulled by a steam engine. And nothing says science fiction quite as much as a story set on Mars. Mix the two together, and you have Ares Express.
This is the same Mars as in McDonald’s 1988 novel Desolation Road, which Pyr brought back into print last year. It’s a Mars that’s partially terraformed; artificial intelligences called Angels are in charge of the terraforming, and in the meantime they are messing around with time and space and alternate realities. Meanwhile, railroads carry passengers and freight across the planet, and hardy settlers carve out marvelously eccentric settlements in odd corners of the rust-red deserts.
It’s a Mars composed of equal parts of Ray Bradbury and Kim Stanley Robinson, with a generous helping of a wonderful insanity that’s uniquely McDonald.
Ares Express, first published in the U.K. in 2001, is finally available in this U.S. edition. The wait has been too long.
The book tells the story of a young woman named Sweetness Octave Glorious-Honeybun Asiim Engineer 12th. She is the daughter of the Engineer of the great train Catherine of Tharsis, and her desire is to become an Engineer like her father. But on the great trains, women are not allowed to be Engineers. Instead, Sweetness faces an arranged marriage into a clan from another train.
What sort of an SF heroine would Sweetness be if she didn’t run away from this awful fate? With her friend Serpio Waymember (a totally unsuitable boy from a low-class family of trackbuilders), she flees into the desert in search of the ghost of her twin sister. It turns out that the ghost is in the possession of a con man named Devastation Harx, who wants to use it to gain power over the Angels.
What follows is a fascinating journey across this wonderful Mars and various alternate realities, as Sweetness and Serpio, eventually aided by Sweetness’s family, try to foil Harx’s scheme and save the world.
McDonald’s visions are grand and his prose is lyrical enough to depict them the way they deserve. Ares Express takes the reader to a new and delightfully wonderful world; you’ll decidedly want to go along for this ride.
The Science of Doctor Who
Paul Parsons
Johns Hopkins University Press, 320 p., $24.95 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9560-9
Genre: Popular Nonfiction |
Doctor Who is the best science fiction on television today. Don’t believe me: just look at the Hugo Awards, where the show has garnered ten separate nominations and three wins in four years.
It had to happen that someone would write The Science of Doctor Who, and we’re all very fortunate that Paul Parsons was the one who did it.
First, his qualifications. Parsons is not only a science journalist, he also describes himself as a “lifelong Doctor Who fan.” It shows. Although he certainly has a light tone with a fair amount of humor, he never falls into the trap of disrespecting or ridiculing the source material. And believe me, with some of the early Doctor Who episodes, disrespect and ridicule would be completely understandable.
Instead, Parsons gives us an entertaining and educational look at both 45 years of Doctor Who and cutting-edge science. After a brief introduction to the Doctor Who phenomenon, he uses various elements of the show as jumping-off points to discuss scientific research that’s somehow related. For example, he considers the evolutionary biology behind the title character’s altruism, uses the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver to speculate on the use of sound in materials science, and considers what sort of genetic engineering could bring about an emotionless cyborg species like the Daleks. And he does all this on a level a little above the usual Discovery Channel or PBS documentary. The average Analog reader won’t feel talked-down-to.
Don’t worry if you’ve never seen Doctor Who (but why not?): Parsons explains the relevant parts of the show and its back-story in easy, entertaining prose. But if you are familiar with the Doctor from the planet Gallifrey, you’ll find many delightful touches and in-jokes that will make the book even more fun.
If you only read one Science of XYZ book this year, make it this one.
Don Sakers is the author of A Rose From Old Terra and Dance for the Ivory Madonna. For more information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.
