Mainspring

I am in love with this book. The mechanical technolgy, high adventure, spiritual overtones, and very empathetic characters really held this all together. I loved the world, the characters, and high adventures, filled with strange creatures, and stranger still world machines. If you don't like 19th century technology, you will not like this book. If you read the Difference Engine and felt it was sidetracked by dumb political overtones rather than focusing on the impact of technology, you will LOVE this book. Jay Lake integrates the spiritual, human elements, and technological themes all into one very awesome tale. It is hard to convey what this book means to me, but a book like this is extremely rare. The story raises many questions about my own spiritual beliefs, and I found myself having a completely different view of the "mechanisms" which we daily take for granted. In Jay's world, the earth has a gear which spins on an orbital track around the sun. We know there's no visible gear or track for our world, but his conversion of the unseen into the seen, and integrating other such prinicples into the story was extremely thought provoking and satisfying. There's also a stark reality in his social creations. In some ways the society operates on a Victorian era rigidity with a highly-defined social structure whith the standard destruciton of anyone who doesn't fit in. He contrasts this Victorian Era with the Southern Earth, which operates on completely different ideas. I think some of the social interactions between the protagonist human and animals has made some people very uncomfortable. Jay unflinchingly calls into question a lot of social mores and is a free thinker. This book is not for the feint of heart--the situations are sometimes violent, both spiritually and materially, as well as very erotic and beautiful. This book somehow fills a longing deep inside. If you find yourself questioning reality, questioning the rules, churches, and institutions, while at the same time having a deep love of technology and adventure, you will love this book. I think this book will appeal only to a very specific reader where it won't have a "mass" appeal since it challenges many beliefs and belief systems. Jay seems to do this, however, without judgment--you have to make your own. TOTALLY EXCELLENT!!!

The review title says it all. Nice to just sit back,relax, and thoroughly enjoy a very creative story. A little let down at the ending - I expected more!

Suppose Descartes was literally correct about the clockwork universe and further suppose that a save-the-world adventure was set in this universe in the delicious prose of short-story master Jay Lake. Well, you don't need to suppose. You merely need to read Mainspring to enjoy it to the full. It's so rich, you probably should read it one chapter at a time--but you probably won't be able to.

I dove into this book, and didn't surface until I finished it. The characters are well-drawn and engaging, and the world they move through is fascinating. Flying savages, magic, zeppelins, oh my!

Mainspring is one of those books that you know is 5 stars within a few pages and the impression never leaves. It puts you in to the story immediately without a boring introduction. Even at the end, which I feel some ambivalence towards (having just finished it an hour ago), I felt I had read a particularly good book worth recommending to others. The book is in its essence a clockpunk heroes journey through a deeply imagined setting. If you have a love for any of the cyberpunk descended genres this book should satisfy you. But unlike most of the punk genres, faith is on the side of the heroes, since the hero is on a journey given to him by the archangel Gabriel. In many instances it is the faith of the hero and his allies that provides for them in crisis. Much of the story felt like it would have been a masterwork of counter-cultural critique at the height of the British Empire which initially made it feel written too late, but on consideration seemed to apply just as much today to the casual hubris of modern empire. All of this makes the book sort of a slow read as I often felt compelled to think on what I had read rather than to keep reading. Don't mistake this for the book being preachy, it is not, it merely gives the amorphous feeling of meaningfulness and import. This might be due to how well the hero has been characterized. Since his entire journey is full of import and meaning to him, it passes that impression to the reader. While there are a few tried and true recyclings in the book, most notably the discovery of sex leading to the realization that this is what has all the preachers angry on sunday, the book in the main avoids dully repeating what we have all seen before, even in other genres. It does follow the hero's journey, but Jay lake has definitely flexed his imagination in the execution of it. This book strays pleasantly from the beaten path and ends up being a true pleasure to read.