So, one of the things that I am hugely interested in is steampunk, a genre of literature that has certainly caught on in recently, with people creating DIY masterpieces of all sorts of things, from laptops to guitars and games like Bioshock taking some steampunk elements and incorporating them into something new. I don’t know what it is, but the idea of all things steampunk is something that I find utterly fascinating. Maybe it was too many hours spent in front of the SNES, playing Final Fantasy 6 (another game which had a lot of steampunk elements.) Maybe it’s the whole concept of the world re-imagined into something new and fresh that seems so tempting. Maybe it is simply the DIY spirit that incorporates steampunk that makes it so appealing to me. I don’t know. Fact is, I fucking love the genre, for whatever reason.

For those that aren’t entirely familiar with what steampunk is, think (typically) Victorian-era technology and customs meets science fiction, creating all sorts of bizarre and fun stuff. Like just about anything that has the word ‘punk’ attached to it, it’s hard for fans to come to a general consensus on what ‘is’ and ‘isn’t’ steampunk and, if you were to go to the Wikipedia page for steampunk, I’m sure there is either an edit war raging right now or the ashes of one can be found in the previous changes section. Anyway, generally speaking Victorian feel + sci-fi tone = crazy mad fun. For the visually inclined:

I’ve been branching out into some steampunk fiction, some of them, such as the works of China Mieville’s Bas-Lag books, are brilliant and make me hang my head in shame at the thought of competing with someone such as Mr. Mieville. Others have been somewhat lacklustre. Still, in an ongoing quest to check out new and interesting steampunk fiction, I picked up Stephen Hunt’s The Court of the Air, as I had heard a couple of good things about it and was jonesing for a steampunk fix.

That said, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. Why? Well, there were a couple of major problems that leaped out for me. The first is one that can be problematic of most speculative fiction writers who are playing around in their own world: too much world building, not enough storytelling. It’s obvious that Hunt has put a lot of care and effort into creating his own universe and he just can’t wait to tell you all about it. Unfortunately, readers are subjected to an introduction to his world by the Micro Machines guy, where details, cultures, characters, places, cities, etc. whiz by at the speed of light. He does a good job of establishing the primary setting, the country of Jackals, which is basically playing the role of England in this story, but a lot of the smaller details are simply thrown into the mix without a lot of exploration or explanation. Sometimes Hunt will get around to explaining what certain things mean, other times he won’t. It creates a very disorienting effect and ruins the immersion. Maybe I’m spoiled by authors who do an incredible job with world building and writing about their worlds, like the aforementioned Mieville or George RR Martin, but I found the pace at which Hunt flew through things to be a little much.

The second problem I have with the story relates to the world building and it’s more of a peeve than an actual complaint. You know how in some stories where they’re talking about alternate universes and the only difference for something in the alternate universe is that the name of it has been ‘cleverly’ changed? I hate that and Hunt does it in Court of the Air. A lot. For example, there are subversive characters running around who are part of a ‘dangerous’ political group known as Carlists. You know, like Karl Marx, but with a C? He also does that a lot with places in Jackal, coming up with rather unimaginative names for existing places. It’s not a huge complaint with the story, really, but it’s something that sticks out for me and makes it hard for me to get immersed into the story.

Finally, I have a major issue with the characterization in the story. Or, rather, the complete and utter lack of it. The story revolves around two orphans, Molly and Oliver (Twist?), who are being pursued by unknown agents. Molly likes to read and is a bit of a brat, while Oliver was found in the middle of nowhere after being subjected to the something called ‘feymist.’ All Oliver wants to do is be normal. Got all that? Good, because that is ALL you learn about the characters for the entire book in terms of personality or motivation. And the story just flies, moving from action sequence to action sequence. Sometimes another character will provide exposition explaining why or who Oliver or Molly is running from, but that’s about it, really. There’s no time to build any sort of bond with the characters and the whole story almost becomes like a JRPG, as the main characters flit from locale to locale.

And honestly? I could deal with something like that, depending on the context, say like a young adult novel, where character development isn’t as important as telling an entertaining story. It still happens, mind you, but characterization/development takes a backseat to plot. But this is a 582 page book and is not marketed as a young adult novel. As a result, it becomes hard to care about the characters when they are completely devoid of any kind of personality.

That said, I liked the world that Hunt has created, I love many of the things that he introduced into his story, I simply didn’t like the execution, is all. I believe this was Hunt’s first novel, so he definitely has room to grow and improve his craft, so here’s hoping that he can do so with subsequent efforts.