Customer Reviews

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

All right, I admit it at the start...I'm a big fan. This is the second installment of Stephen Hunt's slam bam steampunk/adventure series, and now I can't wait for "The Rise of the Iron Moon"'s American release.

The novels are character-driven adventures set in an imaginary world whose center is the nation of Jackals, a nation not unlike England. Because this is steampunk, Jackals is a coal-driven quasi-Charles Dickens era society of floating airships and gas lamps--a modern, but not too modern, society. The heroes are at once likeable and sympathetic, be they children with hidden bloodlines or strong men with anvils for hands or eccentric mechanical steammen or orphans with exoskeletons. Both novels are set in motion almost immediately--in the manner of an Indiana Jones movie--and what follows is a rich mixture of political intrigue, dark magic, and reprehensible rogues. There is almost no down time in either book--they propel themselves with the force of a steamroller until the final pages.

If there are any complaints leveled at Hunt's works, it's that he can be VERY ambitious. I thought that the climax of his first book, "The Court of the Air," was maybe too big, too spectacular. It had as many plot threads as a Tom Clancy novel, and when you marry that with a whole new planet of cultures, characters, and conflicts, it can and did get pretty hairy. But "The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" is much tighter, from start to finish. There is no shortage of action...it's rare to have a dozen pages slip by without a big revelation or a reversal of fortune, but the story is always gripping and credible--a heady task, given that earth quake-like forces can propel whole cities into the upper atmosphere: three-eyed reptiles can talk and fly; and...well, you get the picture.

In short: disgraced professor Amelia Harsh has just about given up on her father's quest--finding the ancient lost civilization of Camlantis--when a rich benefactor appears: Abraham Quest, the man who drove her father to ruin. As her options are limited, she gathers a crew composed of convicted slave traders and steroidally enhanced female soldiers and they board a refitted u-boat to sneak up the Shedarkshe river into the Daggish territory, a brutal jungle where all intruders run the risk of being forcibly assimilated into an animal-plant hive called the Greenmesh. On the way she must deal with a saboteur, a mutinous crew, and a growing awareness that secrets have been kept from her, and the true purpose of her expedition will not only endanger her life, but the lives and destiny of her entire world.

If you can't tell, Hunt's imagination is almost limitless, and there is no end of intrigue and plot twists throughout. And it's FUN to read...in fact, I had to keep telling myself to slow down, to savor. I like how he spreads it around, too: his female characters are every bit the equal of the males, and it is a mark of a gifted writer that even mechanical men are gIven as much personality and backstory as the flesh-and-blood ones. And this, I think, is Hunt's greatest strength: he has created a world that, two novels in, shows no signs of diminishment. He has so much going on in his first two novels that what I understand might be a six-book series seems entirely possible.

A note: while "The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" is a stand-alone novel, it helps to have read "The Court of the Air" beforehand. I love these books so much that I'm actually constructing a glossary of the unusual terms and phrases that might help readers a bit--it's about the only thing I thought was missing from these big, wonderful books...and I'd be happy to share it with anyone who wants it, or would like to contribute to it.

Much tighter and more linear than Court of the Air, thus easier to keep track of , and enjoy, what's happening. Two main storylines, both engaging, instead of the myriad threads that convoluted the first book. It also provides some context to some of the obfuscated elements in Court of the Air; I have a much better grip on the relationships between the various political factions. The storyline with "Furnace-breath Nick" is particularly engrossing, because the character is a beguiling mix of The Shadow, Batman, and the Scarlet Pimpernel ("sink me") with a supernatural edge, and his interactions with Abraham Quest, the central financier whose motivations are nebulous, are full of nuance, tension, and intrigue - well-written shadow boxing and verbal chess. This reads like a sophisticated and erudite pulp serial where each chapter has some astounding plot twist ending in a cliffhanger...great imaginative fun. A wonderful adult comic book written with very elegant prose.

Hunt does it again! You'll want read The Court of the Air first, since even though this is a stand-alone story, it makes numerous references to people, groups, and events in its predecessor. Well-paced and plotted, with interesting characters, esp. the villains. The reason I say "not meant for kids" is that while the marketing/covers make both books look geared to adolescents, trust me, this is not Ender's Lame, Harry Pooter, or other kiddie-trooper ilk. In particular, the violence can be quite graphic. Genre-wise, Hunt's clearly steampunk, but though his work falls a bit short of early-Mieville quality, it doesn't do so by much.

Professor Amelia Harsh has lost her tenure at the last university in Jackals that would hire her (after being fired by the other seven...). Why? Because instead of studying and writing papers like a normal university professor, she's out hunting relics of Camlantis, which everyone knows is a myth.

Enter Abraham Quest, the richest man in Jackals, who has been doing his own archaeology on the sly, and found proof that Camlantis exists. Unfortunately, the clues point the way into the heart of darkness itself, the source of the Shedarkshe river in the wilds of a jungle from which no explorer has returned. Camlantis was a utopia, with untold engineering feats, a society of pacifists, and Amelia and Abraham are convinced that it holds the key to making their own war-torn society a better place. But it means risking lives in order to see that goal realized.

Hunt spends the first half of the book setting up the story, and because there's a lot going on, several characters to introduce, and a world to build, the time it takes to do this isn't unreasonable. However, it does make the first half slow-going. His prose can be dense, which also slows down the pacing and flow, but does make for a richer world. I love Hunt's metaphors. He is truly clever with his descriptions, adding depth to the world at the same time.

Finally at about the halfway mark everything goes wrong for our protagonists. And not just wrong, I mean horribly, how in the heck are they going to get out of this without dying, wrong. It's a series of life-threatening events that lasts the entire second half of the book. Hunt spins threads between all the characters deftly, so that when everything begins to collide, the weaving stories makes sense despite the chaos. Awesomeness on many levels.

Set in an Earth that could have been, Hunt mixes machinery, magic, and a dizzying assortment of races with alacrity. There's the race of mechanical steammen, who, while they have no country to call their own, still have autonomy wherever they live. There's the amphibian craynarbians, which unfortunately don't get as much face-time as the others. Also, the flying lizard lashites, who turn out to play an important role. In a story like this the races could have been gimmicky, but the cultures of humans and non-humans alike were all integrated into the plot in satisfying ways.

Hunt's steampunk world is ambitious, and while he does an excellent job of introducing it without overwhelming the reader, about 5% of the time I didn't remember or understand a name, race, or piece of equipment. On the whole for such a steep learning curve, only forgetting a small percentage is a petty complaint, and says a lot about the author's world-building, which is complex and fascinating.

Magic plays a secondary role to the mechanical, which made me sad because Hunt hints at interesting possibilities he simply doesn't have time to explain or explore. Also, while the pacing is consistent, the flow of action can be jarring, and sometimes I had to re-read a few paragraphs to grasp everything that happens when the action switches. The biggest problem I saw, which could be minor considering the other strengths of the novel, is that with such a large cast it is difficult for the main characters to have any real depth. While the characters have their interesting quirks and motivations, there's no question that for KINGDOM, it's the setting here that's on display--and what a vision it is.

When Tolkein came out with his Middle Earth, it was complex, well-developed, and unlike anything else anyone had ever done. This is how I feel about Stephen Hunt's world in The Kingdom Beyond the Waves. Strangely familiar cultures are presented in refreshing ways, but the history and depth of the geography is mind-boggeling. Hunt's world is conceivably what ours will look like in a few hundred thousand years from now, with archeologists discovering our own artifacts and mistakes.

The characters are multi-faceted with flaws and real motivations Hunt reveals to us slowly, like opening up a present. This is the first of Hunt's books I've read, and while it stands alone wonderfully, it also makes me thirsty to go back and read them all. It is dense, so make sure you have some time on your hands before picking it up.

The Court of the Air was a massive undertaking that established the Jackelian universe and all its idiosyncracies. A fantastic tale in its own right, a lot of that book was devoted to building a world where Hunt's innovative and offbeat characters and systems could properly function and be understood.

Not so with the The Kingdom Beyond the Waves. It jumps right into a tight-knit adventure story whose gears mesh perfectly with the beautiful world Hunt has created. From the Indiana Jones-esque prelude to the smart and well-situated conclusions for each character, Hunt has definitely found a new gear with this book.

Some of the characters will be familiar to readers of the Court of the Air, but no cheesy cameos exist here. Everything and everyone is here for a reason and the entire project is woven together beautifully using a unique set of rules. Hunt is really very good at creating an original, twisty plot that takes advantage of a different look, feel and rule set.

However, because the universe is so different, I definitely would recommend reading the Court of the Air prior to the KBTW. Not only is COTA a great book, but you need to understand this universe to really get the most out of KBTW.

It's very rare for me to laugh, cry and feel this much excitement from one book, but Stephen Hunt has done it for me again. Go for it, it's an extremely rewarding piece of fiction.

I saw this book and figured it would be a good thing to read since steampunk seems to be a very neat genre and this one was not too short (550+ pages) and had a pretty cool Victorian feel to its book jacket. So I picked it up and started it pretty soon after.

The author creates a really unique world. His writing is pretty interesting in which he mentions things in passing or in the immediate conversation as if you, the reader, know these things already and as a result you learn things about the novel's world really nicely without sad and boring exposition. It is really a great way of writing and that made me enjoy the novel even more so. And to do this successfully, as the author has, is amazing since the world he creates is truly a sci-fi/fantasy world that is completely unfamiliar to the reader.

The story is about a woman professor named Amelia from a nation named Jackals in a steampunk world (Victorian era atmosphere (think of Jules Vernes) with an alternate history-like technology (steammen, airships, Capt. Nemo submarines, etc.)) who is hired by her deceased father's rival, a brilliant scientist/business man named Quest, to find the lost city of Camlantis, what is believed to be a utopian society of peace and prosperity for all. The city is known to have been lost to a self-inflicted floatquake (an earthquake but the land is sent to float in the clouds rather than necessarily destroyed). Various artifacts have been found (books that are actually hard drives) showing things of wonder about Camlantis just fuel the urge of the folks to find it. In the world that Amelia lives in having various wars between nations and the normal problems we have today (wars, hunger, disease, terrorism, etc.), Amelia and Quest (it seems) wants to see if the technology and philosophy of Camlantis (if found) would be able to solve all the world's problems. So Quest puts together a group including Amazon like women warriors as defense, ex-slavers as seamen, an old royalist submariner (hidden from the Jackal's government who overthrew the monarchy) as captain, and various individuals to fit niches within the scouting party including one of the best characters named Ironflanks, a steamman (think the Tinman from the Wizard of Oz) who knows the uncharted territory where the original Camlantis was located. Quest himself does not go but only is the hiring man.

Most of the characters are flawed individuals so we do get very real and very believable characters.

There are numerous subplots involving a wealthy shapeshifting character and his lashlite butler (a birdman). And various side stories revealing backstory of important characters like Billy Snow (the navigator), Ironflanks (the scout), and others. The novel moves along smoothly with various set pieces keeping the reader guessing who will survive the Indiana Jones adventure and who will not (since many characters of great importance do die throughout). As you can gather, the story does not slow down at all and with all the action, the book moves quickly even though it is fairly long.

If you are into Victorian sci-fi like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, if you enjoy old school stories like Hammer films or the history of Jack the Ripper, and if you are into steampunk fiction like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, then you'll absolutely love this novel. If you just like good action books and are into fantasy or sci-fi or period piece mysteries, then you'll love it as well. It is definately a good read. It is a shame the author's stories are published in England and only recently have been following here to the states (a year later unless you order from Amazon UK). But let us hope this changes soon and this book gets a look by more readers. Check it out and enjoy.

With The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, author Stephen Hunt brings us a melange of fantasy and science fiction more than a little reminiscent of `Tales Of The Dying Earth' by Jack Vance, or the `Amber' series of Roger Zelazny, but infused with the pulp sensibilities of writers such as David Gemmell. A fascinating world, riven with ancient technologies, strange alien creatures, half-human races, and a big dollop of steam-driven complexity to keep those who like to add 'punk' to the end of their genres happy.

Hunt shows a depth and understanding of motivation and character that is highly satisfying, served in between the pages of a real galloper... a neat trick, indeed. Thoroughly rewarding and highly recommended.

If you have read any of Stephen Hunt's other books then you already know he is a genius - possibly a mad one, but still a genius. The Kingdom Beyond the Waves is a better book than his first one, and the first one was so brim full of ideas that I was doubting if he'd ever be able to brings his writing talent to a 2nd novel. But he managed it, and what did he produce?

Well, certainly a more structurally pleasing novel. All the errors you so often find with first novels have been ironed out. In the same way that George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones is only 65% as good as A Clash of Kings, so The Court of the Air is only 65% as good as The Kingdom Beyond the Waves.

The world's already been built, so now it's time to explore and get into the heads of the characters and let the fun rip, and boy, does it ever rip. If you can imagine an Indiana Jones movie set in a steampunk setting with the epic flourishes of Jack Vance and some of the intellectual weight of William Gibson turning his hand to epic fantasy, than you have a little of a flavour of this one.

Then hang the whole thing in Hunt's amazing world, and see the fireworks fly.

His publisher's can't knock these beauties out fast enough for my taste!

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves is an incredibly accomplished fantasy adventure. The pace throughout gallops along, its characters are finely developed and the storyline has enough twists and turns to keep even a season thriller reader such as myself on the edge of my seat (and that takes a lot these days).

In the book, Jared Black is drawn out of retirement with the promise of the salvaging of his priceless u-boat, and sent on a mission to find the location of a lost civilisation that held the keys to the perfect utopia. The mysterious commercial lord behind the trip is not all who he seems, and Blacky and his companions have to dredge the bottom of their resourcefulness to stay alive!

Only the second in the series, it's a truly great novel that deserves all 5 stars and one of Hunt's best in my opinion.