Infernal devices: A mad Victorian fantasy (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The devices of the titlea TV set that tunes in the future, a machine that can split the earth in twoare the inventions of a Victorian genius who dies without divulging their secrets. His respectable, unimaginative son George thinks he's inheriting a simple watchmaking shop, but soon the real nature of his father's work becomes clear. Because none of his father's clientele believes George's protestations of innocence and ignorance, he's caught between the free-thinking tinkerers of the Royal Anti-Society and the repressive zealots of the Godly Army; he's hung in effigy by the Ladies Union for the Suppression of Carnal Vice and pummeled in person by "brothel bullies"; he even meets a clockwork man with his face. Jeter works strenuously to live up to his subtitle but his book is neither mad nor fantastic enough to be anything but a pale followup to the work in this vein by Tim Powers and James Blaylock.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 282 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031200706X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312007065
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,380,407 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Started out dark then got funny, March 28, 2001

By	Shane Tiernan (St. Petersburg, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book had the potential to be one of my favorite books in the first 50 pages - but then it got to be more funny than scary. I still enjoyed it, but it just wasn't 'dark' enough. The use of slang from the future made it kind of ridiculous and the fact that the book is really just one continuous chase scene with a helpless hero is pretty absurd too.

You'll need to stretch your imagination quite a bit on some of the ideas but all in all it was fun. Jeter is very creative and original, this is kind of a funny version of _The Anubis Gates_ and also similar to Gaiman's _Neverwhere_ and _The Physiognomy_ from Jeffrey Ford.

5.0 out of 5 stars Victorian Romp!, December 7, 2007

By	Bruce Boston (Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An over-the-top mad Victorian romp that is both very funny and very imaginative. If you are expecting dark horror from Jeter, which is what he often delivers, not for you.