Jack Faust [Paperback]

Michael Swanwick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

Unlike the classic Mephistopheles, the seductive demon who approaches Swanwick's Johannes Faust is not the devil as we know him, but rather a representative of a mysterious race that seeks nothing less than the extermination of the hated human animal. And the wisdom this creature offers the disenchanted thinker goes far beyond anything known or imagined in Goethe's day: the secrets of flight and the cosmos, the principles of economics and engineering, the mysteries of medicine and the atom. And so begins Faust's transition from madman to savior - from Johannes to Jack - as he accelerates human progress at blinding speed, setting the mighty gears and pistons of industry in motion to first remake Germany, and then all Europe, in his own image. Ushering in a New Age of Mechanization hundreds of years before its rightful time, he is alternately adored and despised for his accomplishments, as he attempts to elevate humankind from the muck of ignorance, superstition and disease. Yet it is love that damns Jack Faust and, ultimately, humanity as well. For Mephistopheles has revealed to him the beauty and purity of innocence in the person of Margarete Reinhardt, the daughter of a struggling businessman. To win her heart, Faust will give Margarete power and influence in an age when women are powerless - and fame in a time when notoriety can be fatal - and, in the process, blind his beloved, and himself, to the horrors Faust's "progress" has wrought.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (P) (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038079070X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380790708
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Technology is the Devil..., March 16, 2002

By 

flying-monkey (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jack Faust (Paperback)

The story of Faust has ancient roots: the over-reaching anti-hero who offers the core of his being in return for material benefit is present in many folk tales and legends. In its best-known form it is a tragic cautionary tale of mediaeval Christianity: the sacrifice of the soul for wordly power and knowledge. This is how both Marlowe and Goethe presented the message.

During and after the industrial killing frenzy of the Twentieth Century it became difficult to portray evil as 'outside': Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus is a more subtle work about art and Nazism, and the very human processes of self-annihilation that lead down the road to the the concentration camps and the gas chambers. By the end of the Twentieth Century though, science and technology had become the points of contention. Though knowledge has always been key to the Faust story, Michael Swanwick puts scientific and technical knowledge at the heart of his re-telling.

It begins, as with Marlowe and Goethe, in mediaeval Germany, and a fine, dirty and pungently atmospheric Germany it is too. Swanwick's descriptive style is immensely rich and seductive and quickly pulls the reader into a world before computers, before cars, before factories, before steam, before states, before industrial warfare. Faust is desparing. He, alone of all scholars, has seen through the hypocrisy of contemporary scholarship, and he despises every bit of it. Burning his books to the dismay of his servant, Wagner, he is confronted with Mephistopheles, not a demon or a devil in the traditional sense, but a collective entity from another dimension, immensely knowledgeable (beyond Faust's wildest dreams), but also afraid of what humanity could become and unable on their own to do anything about it. Instead they intend to destroy the world through scientific knowledge. Even the name, Mephistopheles, is presented to Faust as a complex equation about quantum energy, the details of which he cannot understand, but the import - oh, is it not everything that he wants? The deal then is simple: Faust will have total knowledge, but in return, this being a thoroughly millenial retelling, that knowledge will destroy not just Faust but all humanity, irrevocably and forever. The cruelty then is not so much with Mephistopheles but with Faust from the beginning: he always knows that his knowledge will destroy and kill, and even understanding that there will be no divine salvation - one of Mephistopheles' first revelations is that there is no God - he still fools himself into believing that he can control the forces which he is about to unleash. This self-deception is only confirmed for him by the fact that he wins the heart of the one woman whom Mephistopheles tells him he cannot have: Margaret, daughter of a wealthy merchant.

At first Faust tries to spread elements of his new knowledge in pure scientific form, for free, throughout Europe, but he finds only rejection and scorn. Finding that there is no interest in 'pure science', and with the wealth of Margaret's family behind him, Faust turns to applied science: engineering and the production of new (mainly military) technologies, and starts to produce rapid changes. Mediaeval Europe industrialises at frightening speed. But the technologies are soon beyond Faust's control, and in combination with the most base human desires for power and conquest they take on a destructive logic of their own.

As in earlier tellings: the end is inevitable and tragic in the true sense of the word. Faust can see it approaching: he is destroyed as a human being and left bitter, loveless and empty long before the conclusion - his deal has left him as nothing in the face of the destructive power produced by his machines. He is left to use his knowledge to pursue petty projects of personal vendetta and to further destroy the hopes of the most hopeless. The holocaust comes earlier and more fiercely than in our own history.

The Faust story is a bleak one, and Swanwick's variation is perhaps the bleakest and most nihilistic yet, particularly because it is unclear if there is any lesson of possibility of redemption (spiritual or material). There are hints that love in its purest human form might have saved Faust if he had not abandonned it, but this is not explored. Is Swanwick suggesting that there is no future for humanity in pursuing a technology-driven society? Is he effectively casting technology as the new devil? I don't know. The cumultive effect of this book is powerful, disturbing and pessimistic especially with the curt and cold ending.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad..., January 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Jack Faust (Paperback)

...but, by the same token, not all that great, either. Michael Swanwick is one of science fiction's most accomplished literary artists, and for good reason. However, Jack Faust falls short. Mephistopheles, the classic character from the many re-tellings of the equally classic tale Faust (one of the more prominent of which was written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), can be viewed as evil incarnate. However, I would put him a notch lower than that, since his malevolence falls short much of the time. As the story goes on, though, Mephistopheles becomes more than simply two-dimensional and fleshes out into a fully realized character, his evil notwithstanding. The novel loses steam, however, when Faust begins to descend, morality-wise. The plot also begins to wind down, until we reach the horrendously predictable ending. Swanwick, I think, couldn't find anywhere else to go with the novel, so he slapped on the ending and sent it off to the publisher. Despite all the bad things I've said about this book, however, it's good and worth reading. Swanwick is clearly a good storyteller, but Jack Faust isn't up to his usual par.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You'll either love it or hate it, but you MUST read it!, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Jack Faust (Paperback)

Although not as richly rewarding and complex as "The Iron Dragons Daughter", this is another well-written, dark and ominous work by one of science fictions greatest story tellers. I have read many reviews and comments about this novel that stress (all too strenuously) the faults in Jack's character. Maybe I enjoyed the novel so much because I EXPECTED THEM!! It's a story about greed. The greed for knowledge, recognition, and power by all of the major characters. Knowing well the original tale by Goethe, I was well prepared to deal with Faust and all of his bungles.

Rather I found the true protagonist to be Mephistopheles. True he IS the "devil" in the tale, and the object of his desire IS the destruction of the human race, but he states this in the beginning and Faust still makes the pact! Who is the REAL devil there? Mephistopheles even goes so far as to warn Jack that once begun it will be unnavoidable, but Faust is so naive about human nature, and ignorant of his own faults that he is sure he can prevent it. The way that society exploits Jacks 'wonders', and its leaders wrestle over the newfound power, by the end of the novel I WANTED Mephistopheles to win. Humanity gone by-by. But then again, maybe that's because I (unlike Faust) understand human behavior all so well.

I highly recommend this book. If not for the challenging and emotional work usually derived from Swanwick's novels, then for the thought stimulation alone. Even those who disliked it have strong views about it, and anyone with an interest in history, science, sociology, (or all of the above) should read it and form their own opinion. And if that fails to stir your imagination, it is still a well-paced, fun read. And certainly worth your while.