Mainspring - Jay Lake

Mainspring

Author: Jay Lake

Genre: sci-fi, steampunk, fantasy

Back-cover blurb:

“Her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria still rules New England and her America Possessions; the Royal Navy rules the skies with its mighty Airships; and Earth still turns on God’s great brass gears of Heaven as it makes its orderly passage around the Lamp of the Sun from Midnight to Midnight and Year to Year

In the town of New Haven, a Clockmaker’s young apprentice is visited at midnight by a brass Angel, and told that he, and he alone, can find the Key Perilous to rewind the Mainspring of the Earth. If he does not, the planet will wind down, and life will cease”.

Orion's review:

Jay Lake’s new novel, Mainspring, “revolves” around the notion that that the universe really is a manufactured clockwork in which the Earth revolves around the lamp of the sun on giant gears just like a medieval clockmaker’s orrey. It also, seemingly incidentally, features a Victorian setting where the Northern hemisphere is still ruled by England. The concept is interesting, if slightly odd, but Lake really does nothing with it. The complexities of the clockwork world are only vaguely explored, especially the barely-hinted-at mysteries of the Southern hemisphere and the great Wall (where the Earth meshes against it’s gears) that divide North and South. Mainspring also blurs the lines between the retro-tech of steampunk, and religious/supernatural elements, which leaves the reader puzzling over how this Universe is supposed to work. As for the Victorian setting, maybe this is just a requirement for steampunk, but the politics of how America did NOT become independent are never explored, nor are any of the other geo-political implications of Rule Britannia other than the occasional mention of China, which seems to be a rival super-power.

But the real failing is that the main character, the clockmaker’s apprentice Hethor, isn’t really very heroic. While he may have a stubborn perseverance, his trek across the world from New Haven to the South Pole is more guided by Deus ex Machinas and random (and dubious) coincidences than any heroic actions of his own. Plus, “Hethor” is a really dull name for a hero…

This edition of Mainspring closes with a sample from Lake’s next novel, Escapement, which continues the story of the Mainspring universe. Maybe the workings of this universe will be better explained therein.

Review grade: C-