Oisín McGann

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

This was a freebie on Amazon, and it turned to be the companion (read teaser) to the new book Rat Runners.

Imagine London with more cameras and observation on every street corner. Privacy has been sacrificed for the greater good of safety. Children, so-called rat runners, are observed less so they are used to do the legwork for the criminals.

Although it was quite an interesting story (not that original because it is Orwell's nightmare in London again), it was too short to get attached to any of the characters or to really get into the story. I quite liked the writing, so if I were to come across the full novel, I think I would read it.… (más)

The Wildenstern Saga, an unusual series in the steampunk tradition, reaches the climax of its Nate/Gerald thread in the third book, Merciless Reason. The Wildensterns are a powerful family living in an alternate-universe Ireland during the Irish potato famine. The family Patriarch, Nate, is missing, presumed to have taken leave of his senses, and his cousin, Gerald, a mad scientist (every steampunk story requires one), has taken over as the acting Patriarch. However, unlike Nate, Gerald is harsh and cruel and blithely squanders the family's resources in the single-minded pursuit of his research - the use of "aurea sanitas," a kind of intelligent particle found in the blood of the Wildensterns that imparts superb healing and long life. His ultimate goal is to achieve power over all of humanity through the control and manipulation of intelligent particles.

In an exciting prologue, the crew of a whaling boat off the coast of New England is battling an enormous leviathan of the deep, among the largest enigmals ever seen. Enigmals are living machines, found in the wild, but defying all attempts to explain their origins and how they operate; they also seem to be imbued with intelligent particles. The prologue reads like a mash-up of two Victorian-period novels - Moby Dick and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (later in the book, the mouth of a similar leviathan is referred to as "Moby," just to drive the allusion home.)

The energy developed by the prologue diminishes somewhat, but the tension and suspense increase as Nate prepares a return to his murderous family, which only allows ascension in its ranks through assassination of higher ranking family members (extra-long lives have a dark side!) and to face the mad genius that he once tried to kill - Gerald, who, it seems, has become extraordinarily powerful through his growing ability to manipulate intelligent particles. The energy returns in full measure in a tense, rousing, action-filled climax.

The main tropes of steampunk - science, technology, mathematics and the joy of researching and inventing in the Victorian Age - are emphasized less than they were in the first two novels in the series. Instead, the focus shifts toward a more modern problem - fear of the machines, of the possible unintended consequences of scientific research. There is much palaver and hand-wringing in today's blogs and in the popular press over the potential for AI to take over, to cost people their jobs and livelihood, maybe even to kill without feeling, based only on the logic of a strange (the unknowable, dangerous other) artificial intelligence. Gerald is the personification of this danger and he has already, in previous volumes, shown himself to be cruel and merciless, guided only by what he says is pure reason.

Allusions to Victoriana are rife throughout Merciless Reason. Character types and situations from stories by Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, as well as tropes from Victorian theater and popular themes from penny dreadfuls all play a very large role in the series. Identifying these as they occur is one of the fun parts of the novel! The humor is infrequent and understated but always elicits a chuckle. However, the action, the adventure is the mainstay of the story and it is not understated. It is violent, pounding, and totally satisfying. I whole-heartedly recommend the entire series for its skill in immersing the reader in the Victorian culture, with its fashion and mores, its fears and concerns, while at the same time evoking a thrilling science fiction adventure!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.… (más)

Not really a novella, but a short story. I actually felt that it could've stood to be longer, and more fleshed-out. Too much of the brief piece was taken up with providing a quick 'cliff's-notes-style' back story for readers who haven't yet read McGann's "Ancient Appetites." I have read the novel, so I didn't need the background; but if I hadn't, I think it still would've felt rushed and infodump-y.

The story itself is a kidnapping-adventure. An unscrupulous 'travelling salesman' takes advantage of an intriguing device to capture a woman, with the goal of finding out just what it is that makes the Wildenstern family so special.

Recommended for those who've read other Wildenstern stories, and are interested in a quick ancillary read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Open Road Media for the opportunity to read.… (más)

Steampunk in an Irish manor house...

The Wildenstern family have been a dominant force in Irish finance for generations, with investments that reach out to the UK and even America. Their power is augmented by an inherited trait that offers them accelerated healing, long life, and an affinity for controlling the mysterious engimals - mechanical beasts with an unknown origin.

They run their estates with a feudal attitude, with servants who are treated like slaves and tenant farmers who are basically oppressed serfs. The family is run by a Patriarch with the authority of a king, and inter-familial plots and assassinations are par for the course.

But now, a strange discovery has been made. Four bodies found in a bog, that seem to have been sitting there for centuries, are discovered to be inexplicably alive. These individuals may be the ancestors of the current Wildensterns. And their medieval attitudes may be, if possible, even worse than the current state of affairs.

The book has a fun, light-hearted tone, suitable for YA, with an action-oriented focus. What may disappoint some Steampunk fans is that while the genre often has a focus on tinkering, innovation and invention, all of the 'steamy' stuff here falls firmly into the trope of "Mystical Knowledge of the Ancients." Also, while the book contains the genre's seemingly-obligatory commentary on the inequities of gender, race and class, the main character is a not-very-sympathetic, self-centered upper-class brat with an unfortunate lack of awareness/compassion. The book is clearly leading him toward an 'awakening' (to happen in sequels) but although he might have a good heart, for most of the book he's pretty annoying. He's not so bad that I'm not interested in What Happens Next, however.

One thing that I particularly liked about the book is that so many 'mystery' novels feature characters working on sparse clues and coming up with intuitive conclusions that, remarkably, seem to always turn out to be correct. Unlike those, this book actually has a lot of characters looking at the clues and coming to the wrong conclusion - which I found refreshing and amusing.

Overall, I'd recommend this to fans of Scott Westerfeld's 'Leviathan.'

Many thanks to Netgalley and Open Road Media for making this book available. This novel was previously published in the UK, but this is the first time it's being marketed in the US. As always, my opinions are solely my own.
… (más)