The Mechanical
I find it a little odd that the whole central point of argument in a game I'm playing (the synths in Fallout 4) should also be mirrored in a book I pick up. But there it is.
The Mechanical is the start of a series depicting an alternate history pitting mostly the French-in-exile against a Dutch nation that's taken over most everything else (Europe anyway?) by virtue of their alchemy and the artificial beings, Clakkers, powered by it. In a lot of ways, though, it could be any two fantasy nations. While some real names and religions and such are tapped, the whole thing feels pretty skewed away from historical basis to me into the realm of fantasy.
Overall, I enjoyed. The writing does spend a little too much time being descriptive at point, and the book contains what has got to be the most horrifying and haunting scene I've witnessed in years (if perhaps for personal reason), but it's still good. The story primarily follows three main characters, intersecting but not really joining them for long at this point: a French noblewoman/spymaster, a strongly-religious French spy, and a Dutch Clakker who gains free will. Jax, the last one of those, is probably the most compelling story to me, as he's forced to learn quickly the repercussions of his sudden ability to choose.
Really, free will is a central idea in the story - what does it mean to have it, lose it, or gain it? This brings up questions of life and "soul." This book doesn't really answer any of that, nor does it get too deep into the origins of the setting's "alchemy" which is clearly a fantastical force.
The Mechanical is the start of a series depicting an alternate history pitting mostly the French-in-exile against a Dutch nation that's taken over most everything else (Europe anyway?) by virtue of their alchemy and the artificial beings, Clakkers, powered by it. In a lot of ways, though, it could be any two fantasy nations. While some real names and religions and such are tapped, the whole thing feels pretty skewed away from historical basis to me into the realm of fantasy.
Overall, I enjoyed. The writing does spend a little too much time being descriptive at point, and the book contains what has got to be the most horrifying and haunting scene I've witnessed in years (if perhaps for personal reason), but it's still good. The story primarily follows three main characters, intersecting but not really joining them for long at this point: a French noblewoman/spymaster, a strongly-religious French spy, and a Dutch Clakker who gains free will. Jax, the last one of those, is probably the most compelling story to me, as he's forced to learn quickly the repercussions of his sudden ability to choose.
Really, free will is a central idea in the story - what does it mean to have it, lose it, or gain it? This brings up questions of life and "soul." This book doesn't really answer any of that, nor does it get too deep into the origins of the setting's "alchemy" which is clearly a fantastical force.
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