London, 1893. Airships sail serenely across the skies, mechanical carriages (Baruch-landaus) transport the rich across the city, and the launch of the first robot probe to Mars is imminent. So far, so standard steampunk from Israeli-born author Lavie Tidhar. But Angry Robot Books have unearthed a jewel with this debut novel (Angry Robot Books, 416pp, ISBN 978-0007346585) from an author that Locus has described as 'an emerging master.'
Steampunk
The book's hero is Orphan: "His father was a Vespuccian sailor, his mother an enigma; both were dead...[his] skin was copper-red, his eyes green like the sea. He had spent his early life on the docks, running errands between the feet of sailors....[he] learned poetry in the gutter...and from a sword-wielding girl from France." (pp.14 - 15)
It is Orphan's presence that transform's the normal eclectic higgeldy-piggeldy that is the ordinary steampunk novel into something quite different, and far superior. Apart from the opening Delany-esque description of Orphan, the section titles, Orpheus & Eurydice, The Odyssey, and Prometheus Unbound make it clear that there is a deliberately mythic quality to the text: "Oh, Orphan. This is the time of myths." (p.14)
Books
At the novel's opening Orphan admits to being a member of the notorous Persons from Porlock, who dress as clowns and surrounding public figures such as Oscar Wilde, shout random lines from Edward Lear at their victims. This innocent tomfoolery contrasts sharply with and foreshadows the real acts of terrorism that follow.
The second element that lifts the book above the steampunk norm is the recurring presence of books, from the Bookman, the book's titular villain, with his lethal volumes, to the bookshop, Payne's Booksellers in which Orphan works. Tidhar's one self-indulgence is to list so many of the titles, and their authors --including Jubal Harshaw (Stranger in a Strange Land), Princess Irulan (Dune) and Thibaut de Castries (Our Lady of Darkness), as well as Kurt Vonnegut and Dorothy L Sayers. But as a pecadillo it's a minor one, and gives the book an added richness.
Les Lizards
It is quickly revealed that the London of The Bookman is far stranger than first appears. There are frequent references to the Quiet Revolution in France, and that Britain is ruled over by a race of aliens, the lizards known as Les Lizards having staged a coup centuries earlier.
It is the revelation of the creatures' back-story, and of their relationship to the Bookman and his twin, the Binder, which ultimately defines The Bookman as a properly authentic SF novel, rather than the quasi-fantasy mash-ups that define most steampunk.
Orphan
When Orphan's beloved Lucy is killed in a terrorist attack, his desperation to bring her back to life takes him on a quest, first across the English Channel, where he teams up with Jules Verne, before battling with pirates in the Caribbean and landing on a remote island; it is there that he discovers his own origins. If there is a weakness to The Bookman, it is in the unlikelihood of a deposed royal family being allowed to live out in exile as being a tad convenient, but this is a minor quibble.
Nonetheless, overall The Bookman is a great read, with well-drawn characters, a richly-textured world and some genuine devotions toward a genre that Tidhar clearly loves being a part of. It's a bonus that what is the first volume of a trilogy feels like a stand-alone novel, with an entirely satisfying conclusion to Orphan's story. The Bookman is an early but genuine contender for the Best Novel of 2010, and a good bet for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. It would be entirely deserved.
Colin Harvey - Author six novels, and editor of four anthologies; professional reviewer since 2003, including six years at Strange Horizons. Member of ...
