Morlock Night [Kindle Edition]

Like many firsts, "Infernal Devices" is not at all typical of the steampunk genre. But it's a fun read, written with sly humor.

K. W. Jeter coined the term "steampunk" to describe his and his friends' postmodern neo-Victoriana writings. "Infernal Devices" is a convoluted mystery with wickedly subtle humor narrated by George Dower, a hapless and rather unlikeable heir to the workshop and clientele of his genius watchmaker father, who taught him nothing and abandoned him at an early age.

Dower is dragged from his quiet, impoverished life into schemes involving absurd secret societies, his father's leftover devices, a plot to destroy the world, a clockwork double, and a hidden race of London-dwelling fish-men. There are outrageous coincidences and a recurrent theme of deceptive appearances.

There are a couple of con artists whose language is so distinctly modern I expected them to be time travelers. But no, in actuality it's weirder and more interesting than that.

Frankly, the motto of this book should be "in actuality it's weirder and more interesting than that," as absurdity piles on top of absurdity and people, events, and devices are shown to be not what they seemed.

A few aspects nagged at me. None of the characters rise above stereotypes, most glaringly the women. The whole book has a winking feel of farce, although the narrator's earnest Victorian voice keeps it amusingly deadpan. It's amusing, but a little distanced.

Also, Angry Robot did a terrible job copy-editing this edition. There are little typographical errors all through the book. If that does not bother you, then this is an amusing read from the dawn of steampunk.

This book is a complete masterpiece, I dont know how I havent seen it in the Sci-Fi Masterworks series or just why it happens to be so peripheral.

I bought the book second hand as I needed some light holiday reading and have read it in under a week, it was absolutely unputdownable and while I usually read a number of books simultaneously it demanded my full attention.

The story opens with a character from the original time travel novel by HG Wells which introduced the morlocks being accosted by a stranger who he suspects has given him drugged tobbaco, from there the same character is transported first to a war torn future london and then a desolate london were all life is extinct and everything in decay as a consequence of Time Travel itself.

As online reviews and the wiki on this book state it does indeed feature Merlin/Ambrose, Merlin's evil twin, Atlantis, Mayhew's sociological sketches of the London poor but it is all handled in such a was to avoid appearing absurd.

I've also read that Jeter's novels feature dark paranoid and unsympathetic personas, not so this book at all and if you appreciate a book brimming with the patently crazy written well, like Philip K Dicks books, then you'll be in for a treat with this book.

Also if you're new to steampunk as a genre I absolutely recommend this title, I wasnt that familiar with the genre either but liked HG Well's books before reading this one, now I'm a confirmed fan of the steampunk genre. Retro-tech, anachronistic expressive style or perspectives mixed with nostalgic prose. Hard to beat.

Although certain elements of the plot are very predictable , this is a classic, easy to read steampunk novel that you do not want to put down. Characters not too deep, story line not too deep, just lots of fun...... a great book.