Customer Reviews

The Court of the Air

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I sort of liked this book. Orphans are always good. So are flying ships. Robots. Underground cities. Ancient civilizations. War. Guns and swords and exploding tree sap. Magic mind bullets (or something like that). Crab people. Communism. Mutants. Evil insects from another dimension. From the outset I thought it was going to be a twisted Dickensian romp through filthy streets and cloudy skies. What I got was a book so full of good ideas that it didn't have the time to develop anything before rushing off to the next good idea. It was sadly lacking in character growth (which was unfortunate, considering it was about 2 kids growing into their destinies) and the conclusion was fairly predictable. Not a lot in the way of suspense or emotion or comedy. If you like those old Edgar Rice Burroughs books where every story is the same, just set in a new locale(be it Barsoom, a jungle, Pellucidar or Venus), and you never have to worry about what anyone is thinking or if the protagonist is going to survive, you'll probably like this book. A sweeping, sophisticated epic it most surely is not. I enjoyed parts of it, but I think I read it mostly because I needed something to do on my lunch breaks.

It's not bad. Just don't pay full price.

Among his many literary contributions, Charles Dickens may also go down as the man who made it hip to be an orphan. Or at least, hip to write about orphans as main characters. It's become so overused that it's now a Victorian cliché. (That is good heroic orphans are cliché; evil orphans are still an underrepresented minority.) So if you are reading a fantasy novel with strong Victorian overtones, you'd expect to see at least one orphan. If not: shame on you, Victorian-inspired fantasist.

Not to disappoint, Stephen Hunt gives us two orphans, Oliver and Molly, as main characters in "The Court of the Air". Hunt also gives us a well-imagined and innovative Victorian-inspired fantasy world populated by a menagerie of stunningly developed characters. The novel mixes together disparate elements like living machines, Loas, dirigibles, parliamentarianism, underground cities, Big-brother inspired eyes in the sky, insect gods and mysticism. Slow to start and get into mainly due to its wide focus, the novel really hits it stride about halfway through as everything comes together beautifully.

Molly Templar lives at the Sun Gate workhouse, a poorhouse that apprentices its residents to local merchants. Far from a conscientious or good worker, Molly finds herself fired from a variety of jobs until she finally is apprenticed to a brothel. On meeting her first client, Molly finds herself inexplicably attacked by the man, and witnesses the murder of another prostitute by her assailant. Only her resourcefulness saves her, but on her return to the workhouse, tragic events make her realize that something dark and sinister may be afoot. Molly flees, only steps ahead of her assailant, an assassin named Count Vauxtion. This starts Molly off on an adventure that will take her to a rebel city deep in the bowels of the earth, and then back above ground, as she continuously struggles to understand the mystery surrounding her.

Oliver Brooks lives with his uncle, who has cared for him since the death of his parents. In surviving the accident that killed his parents, Oliver suffered a prolonged exposure to feymist, an experience that usually transforms the individual into a superpower-enhanced being. However, Oliver remains surprisingly normal. Quite suddenly, Oliver finds his uncle has been murdered and he is being framed with the deed. Only with the timely assistance of Harry Stave, an agent of the mysterious Court of the Air, does Oliver escape imprisonment. Harry and Oliver flee to evade capture, seeking help from a variety of Harry's friends along the way. But when Oliver is given an unusual gift, his whole world changes, thrusting him headlong into a battle not only for his life, but also for his homeland.

Hunt crafts a story rich in detail and complexity. At times, the complexity of the story distracts from the flow of the narrative, overcomplicating the book with unnecessary additions. One example of this is the muddied presentation of the various political philosophies of the major factions. These political systems are less black and white and more varying shades of gray which gives the overall effect that all forms of government are imperfect and susceptible to abuse. While it's a realistic vision of government, it isn't the clearest. The characters and setting are the real strength of "The Court of the Air". An innovative mixture of diverse elements successfully accomplishes the world building, creating a setting that is original and fresh. The characterizations are extremely well done as all the characters, human or otherwise, are quite intriguing.

Last Word:

"The Court of the Air" is a well-crafted, original and fresh story that I found more enjoyable the further I read. Though uneven overall, the amazing conclusion definitely makes up for the slow start, and Hunt definitely left me wanting more. And it is this tantalizing promise of more to come that makes Stephen Hunt an author to watch for in the future and "The Court of the Air" a worthwhile read.

Where to start with The Court of the Air? Perhaps by saying that I stayed up most of the night reading this fantasy novel straight through. It's written at an epic scale, and reminds me a little of George RR Martin when he was starting out with the Game of Thrones series, sharing some of the writer's errors in the early stages - Martin's gentle over-reach and cramming too many ideas into the pages. This also shares many of the same strengths, though, with a world that's as real and fully developed as Middle Earth, albeit a strange twisted Victorian-level society with many of the trappings of the fantasy. The author does a fantastic job of presenting a large set of well-developed and convincing characters. Let me finish by saying I am really looking forward now to reading the next novel in the Jackelian series. A gripping novel for fans of the fantasy genre.

I am in full agreement with science fiction writer Jay Lake when he described The Court of the Air as being a cross between Jack Vance and Charles Dickens. It is basically a steampunk novel with swords and sorcery. What makes it different is its setting. Instead of taking place during the Victorian Era, it is set in a far future in which several civilizations (our own included) have collapsed and others have taken their place. A phase transition has rendered electronics useless; making virtually everything steam powered, with the exception of transaction engines (supercomputers) and other more complex machinery that utilize crystals. Adding to that, magic (or remnants of a superscience that appears to be magic) is commonplace. Yet the world in most ways seems to be firmly entrenched in the 19th Century with its hansom carts, penny dreadfuls, and labor-management disputes.

Most of the story takes place in a nation called Jackals, which bears a very close resemblance to England. There are two orphaned young protagonists that the story alternates between. The first being young outcast Oliver Brooks, who lives with his uncle because his parents died in an accident in which his own survival resulted in his social stigma. When his uncle and their housekeeper are murdered, Oliver is framed for the crimes. His only ally is a government agent named Harry Staves, who might be as untrustworthy as the murderers pursuing him. The second is Molly Templar, whose disposition is as fiery as her red hair. She is a poorhouse ward who loses every job that she is assigned to until she is apprenticed into prostitution. Of all the dumb luck, her first customer is paid a monumental fortune to kill her. She is able to barely escape, but her luck is not shared by the children of the poorhouse to whom she regards as her family. Both of these orphans seem to be insignicant and powerless against the vast conspiracy that seeks to destroy them, but they soon learn about the incredible world saving power that they contain that levels the playing field so to speak.

There are a lot of interesting things going on in this book. One of which is how much of the history of Jackals is dealt with. They have a parliamentary government in which royalty are mere figureheads and scapegoats if public approval is low, thanks to a revolt that echoes Oliver Cromwell. In fact, once a Jackelian prince goes through the coronation process to become king, he has to have his arms amputated so he can no longer "raise his arms against the people". There is also a political philosophy called Carlism that is much like Communism due to its disdain toward religion and the wealthy. Here some devotees take its tenets to rather macabre extremes such as taking a bright child and turning him into a drooling vegetable so he will be "equalized" and no better than anyone else. Basically, people are liberated from being themselves. Furthermore the book is fantastic in addressing how corruption cannot be solved by creating new government functions or ideologies, for they can be corrupted just as easily as any apparatus that were created to correct. I could go on all day.

Consider me impressed. From what I have read on various science fiction websites, this is the first of seven books that deal with this steam powered future. I am not one to usually follow a series since most of them can be told with one book when twelve to fifteen are written. Here, I think I'll make an exception.

This is a charming and clever novel, with endearing characters and a wildly imaginative world (that develops further with each successive novel in the series). The author has a unique and appealing voice that touches lightly upon Dickens and Edgar Rice Burroughs, with perhaps a dash of the young Michael Moorcock thrown in. Solidly written and vastly entertaining.

I've just tried my first Stephen Hunt novel and I can tell you now, it's going to be the first of many, as I see there is an entire series stretched out in front of me.

One of the best fantasy novels I have read in a long time, is The Court of the Air. It is obviously very influenced by manga/anime style, and that really comes across in the beautifully written prose packed tight into this one's pages. I can see why opinion is divided on this book to such an extreme, as basically Hunt has filled the plot with a lot of the anchor points you would find in a literary novel. To simplify this for readers who don't get it, just stick to simpler novels with less twists and cleverness - or read wider outside the genre to appreciate this man's genius.

The basic plot is that of the standard quest novel, but calling The Court of the Air that is like saying Charles Dickens just wrote Melrose Place-style soap operas. The fare is standard, the recipe is mind-bogglingly brilliant and will blow you away.

I'll be back for another serving of this - and so should you...

I love steampunk. The mix of mechanical and magic fascinates me. This novel was full of both. Molly and Oliver are lovable characters, whose struggles tugged at my heartstrings and kept me reading until past my bedtime. In the midst of a civil war, in which they are both valuable commodities, these orphans are struggling to find a purpose for their lives. Molly searches for meaning with the mechanical men that she has a mysterious affinity for and Oliver struggles to accept his forbidden magic.

The Court of the Air is one-part coming of age story and one-part adventure. Because of the multiple story lines and the introduction of a vast new world this novel is both rich and complex. The complexity of this novel was both fascinating and distracting, at times I found myself going back and rereading sections because I felt I had missed something. Despite this, I loved this book, and look forward to reading more of Hunt's novels.

I won't go into much detail, but I'm fairly surprised this has gotten such generally dismal reviews here. No, it wasn't groundshakingly great, but it was coherent, well-written, and never dull. Neither did it strike me as terribly derivative: the closest parallel for me, I suppose, would be Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep (Zones of Thought) (the quasi-medieval parts of the story); maybe some of Schroeder's (underrated) Ventus too. Anyway, there's a lot of promising stuff in this book, and I, for one, look forward to reading more by Mr. Hunt.

I trust reviewers more when they reveal their bias, so here's mine: I really like steampunk, and I REALLY like Stephen Hunt.

"The Court of the Air" is a blast. It has so much going on that it's like Dickens on steroids: fantasy, magic, dirigibles, steam-driven machines,under-appreciated orphans, kind benefactors, corrupt officials, squalid living conditions, sentient mechanical beings, and so much imaginative mayhem that it's difficult to catch your breath at times.

That's why I picked it off the shelf and, wow, did this deliver on those promises.

Be prepared: there are those who complain about the "weight" of its imagination -- that it's TOO full of plot twists and story lines. You can't turn the page without encountering a new crisis or a betrayal or a revelation. Stephen Hunt is an author who doesn't believe in downtime...there is action on practically every page. Don't get me wrong: I can understand why some people make these complaints, but I'm not one of them. I've read all three of Hunt's novels in this series -- "The Court of the Air," "The Kingdom Beyond the Waves," and "The Rise of the Iron Moon" -- and I have absolutely LOVED them. I continually wonder how he will top the last page, or chapter, or even novel, and he hasn't disappointed me yet.

It isn't essential you read these books in order, but it will help. There are a lot of intruiging and original characters in each novel, and a few have made it from one book to the next. One, Jared Black, makes an appearance in all three novels, and he is an absolute hoot. Hunt's a genius at fleshing out their personalities, and it makes for compelling storytelling. It's not just that they are unique species -- one's got an exoskeleton, for example, another's infected with a powerful magic, and another's blood is literally filled with microscopic gears -- but their unique makeup helps propel the story.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot, and I hate reviewers who do. Suffice it to say there is are a couple of plucky orphans whose humdrum and paltry existences are suddenly shattered, and their ability to overcome to the deviousness of others drives the story along. As you might guess, their stories end up being instrumental to the success of the very societies that have previously victimized them, and this plays out in tremendously interesting ways.

What is truly amazing about author Stephen Hunt is his imagination, and now that he has reached the midpoint of the six novels he has said he plans to write I can truly tell you he shows no signs of slowing down. And at the heart of every book lies the clever, vivid characterizations that drive the many threads of the story, Hunt has peopled each one with rich personalities, and you'll find it's hard to be indifferent to them -- each has a strength or weakness or quirk or power that fits the adventure his or her portion of the tale.

More to the point, "The Court of the Air" creates a world in which anything can happen and, due to Hunt's powerful imagination, usually does. Buy this book up if you want a great book built upon fantasy, an intricate, wide-ranging plot, intriguing characters, magic, and a lot of action. I highly recommend it.

For a first novel, The Court of the Air is a truly arresting work. It takes all the usual genre clichés of young ingénues in trouble on a quest to save the land, and turbo-charges the whole concept, plonking the heroes, one Molly and Oliver, in a stunningly realized world which has echoes of all the best anime/manga series, but grounded in a historical parallel/future(?) universe of Victoriana and nineteenth century level technology, which holds the (very) big tent of Hunt's imagination down like pegs on a bivouac. Genius!!

It is written at pace which is nothing short of hyperspeed, and is clearly intended to hook and drag the reader along in a page-turning state of bliss. There are some faults with the book, but they are, I suspect, first novel faults, and I believe that in time, Hunt will become one of the masters of the fantasy field. Buy it in paper for your collection, while paper books still exist!