23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Romping Good Read, September 28, 2010
This review is from: The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne in) (Paperback)
Mark Hodder, please write more, ASAP!
Okay, moving on. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is currently my absolute favorite book of the year and is going to be a tough one to unseat. This mystery steampunk action/adventure alternate history story is tight. Hodder's writing style is crisp and even and easily navigated. Other than a few sections where I bogged down in the science-y alt. history stuff, I blew threw this like it was air. Burton and Swinburne feel authentic as characters and every surrounding aspect is put together in such a way that nothing seems totally out of place even if it obviously is.
What's even more impressive is how Hodder takes a cadre of authentic Victorian personas and blends them so well together, even if they never/rarely met in real life. I learned a lot about the characters both their real selves and alternate fictional selves, as well as the era since we see the diverging paths as one thing after another is affected by the decisions of others. Because decisions matter in this book so it's not just pulp fiction. There is a point to it, but I'll leave that for you to find out as you read. But other than there being a point, the book is all grand fun. Burton is swarthy enough to appeal to action/adventure types while also being a human being. And Swinburne, whom I now poetically seem to have developed a crush on, is a nice balancing character. He needs to live unlike Burton who seems to not need to live as much as he is throughout the book.
As far as plot goes, I could barely believe how well the loose ends were tied up in the end. Even some of the smaller details in the plotting and characterisation come to be important for the climax which is at times utterly surprising. As a standalone title, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is outstanding. I can only hope it serves as a platform for more Burton and Swinburne in the future. A Must Read book for any steampunk or alternate history reader.
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Over-the-top, implausible, and at times silly, and yet..., March 30, 2011
This review is from: The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne in) (Paperback)
First-time author Mark Hodder pulls out all the stops in his revisioning of a Victorian England cursed with mysterious attacks by the quasi-supernatural creature known as Spring Heeled Jack. Based on the real tales of the mysterious assailant known to bound away from his crimes, and featuring a host of famed Victorians as well as the history of Jack's assaults, this ambitious novel will either tickle your fancy or mangle your suspension of disbelief.
Hodder imagines Spring Heeled Jack as a future historian/scientist who attempts to undo his family's sullied reputation by "fixing" the past. That historian/scientist, Edward Oxford, journeys back through time via a sophisticated time-travel suit to convince his ancestor of the same name to forgo a failed attempt to assassinate the young Queen Victoria. Wishing his lineage something better than being known for their own John Hinckley, Oxford instead creates a far worse outcome that alters all of history and traps him in the past. His many attempts to undo the damage to time prove more and more disastrous, his sanity slipping away even as the authorities attempt his capture.
Commissioned by King Albert to be his age's version of Agent Fox Mulder of _The X-Files_, former African explorer Richard Francis Burton pursues Jack. In the course of unwinding Jack's mysterious story, Burton encounters man-beasts created by the new breed of geneticists, robots with human brains, flying ships, and a timeline that he senses has gone awry. Poet Algernon Swinburne joins the creature hunt, and the story hurtles through mayhem, mystery, and one bizarre historical and technological re-imagining after another.
It's good--if highly unlikely--stuff.
PROS:
* Inventive. A more creative and ambitious novel would be hard to find.
* If you're a fan of steampunk--a science fiction subgenre that reimagines a more technologically advanced 19th century, with modern tech devices driven by steam power--this is your new favorite novel. Best of all, unlike some novels in the genre, this book makes steampunk less of an a priori assumption, with the author giving us reasons for its existence.
* Author Hodder shows complete mastery of both timeline manipulation (always tricky) and history. The book's appendix supplies backgrounds on the real Victorians who comprise the books characters, which also include Charles Darwin, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Marquess of Waterford, Florence Nightingale, Oscar Wilde, and the original police officers who worked on the real cases depicted in the novel. Adding an explanation for what Spring Heeled Jack was only reinforces the fun.
* The cover art of Spring Heeled Jack / Edward Oxford in his time suit, electricity arcing around him as Burton and Swinburne pursue, is top notch. In fact, the publisher's production values for the trade paper version of this book are outstanding from cover to cover.
CONS:
* That this is a first novel shows in the author's attempt at piling it all on. Is he writing for the reader or to impress the publisher?
* The book consists of two sections broken into 240-page and 120-page chunks. The initial, larger section could use serious trimming, as it is too long by at least 80 pages and features excess dialog that exists only to show off the author's skill with Britishisms of the era. The story bogs down several times in that section and could use a jolt from Jack's solar-powered time suit and an editor's red pen. (In stark contrast, the second section is almost perfect in pacing and length.)
* Suspension of disbelief runs to absurd levels. When Charles Darwin and his gang arrive in the narrative, readers will be left to wonder if illicit drugs were consumed in the course of writing the book.
* The foul-talking parakeets used to deliver messages were grating and unfunny. As was the use of the F-word, even if it mostly came out of the mouth of Jack / Oxford.
Overall, an interesting diversion, if mostly for science fiction fans or those who appreciate alternate histories. Hodder shows some fine skills that make up for some of his excesses. One can only hope that subsequent books featuring Burton and Swinburne will continue to build off this promising start.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reminded me of all that I love about Steampunk, October 21, 2010
This review is from: The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne in) (Paperback)
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack takes the more traditional definition of Steampunk with a Victorian setting, an altering of history, and the use of historical characters as stars and supporting cast. In fact, Hodder makes use of historical characters more than any other Steampunk novel I've read using everyone from famous explorers of the Victorian era to its Scientific geniuses and even poets of only low note and a spate of references to people, places, and events of the time. There is also an index which covers the true historical happenings of many of the people mentioned, which was a nice touch.
At its core The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is a time travel mind bender mashed up with a pulp. The beginning was a bit all over the place, but it quickly turned into a very entertaining romp with adventurer extraordinaire Sir Richard Francis Burton and de Sade follower and poet Algernon Swinburne. Like Westerfeld Hodder chooses to innovate with not only technological wonders, but also genetic using Darwin as a keystone. Everything from giant swans, coal-driven horses, odd chimney sweeps, and broomcats come into the fold in this well realized alternative England. And not since Dicken's have chimney sweeps been so well used. The Spring Heeled Jack mythos is used to great effect as Hodder unveils this mysterious hopping bogey monster. There are many groups all vying for power. Nearly too many with political, technological, and anti-tech groups all jumping into the fray as well as their offshoots.
Despite some quibbles with the first quarter of the story Hodder brings it all home and clearly shows how much fun he had writing this tale. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack pays homage to many of the forebears to Steampunk with a healthy nod to Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates. Hodder brings plenty of his own style to the table in terms of intricate plotting. There are some very complex happenings that he goes to great lengths to explain. In fact in the big reveal section it goes a little too far for me. After the first couple of examples we get the point, but that is probably a better way to go than leaving too much open. Burton comes off too distant, too perfect, and needed some sort of major flaw to make you feel he was in true danger. And the women of the story might as well not have been there given how marginalized they became. It is Algeron Swinburne that truly takes the show away when he eventually comes in to the fold. He turns out to be quite an odd and kinky fellow.
This was definitely one of those books where I connected more with the world than the characters who felt a bit distant although quite amusing and witty. Still Sir Richard Francis Burton comes out of the history books to become more than he ever was and historical figures become some very odd villains, but it was the Spring Heeled Jack storyline that will keep you vested. If you like time travel and alternative history this would definitely be worth your attention and if you are just a plain-old fan of Steampunk this is another must to add to the to-read pile. There are many good twists and some very weird ones that will give you pause. The cover is one of my favorites this year and if you haven't seen it in person go to a bookstore and check it out. It just may seal the deal with all the finishing details. This is a planned series with the sequel The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man scheduled from a release in March 2011 from Pyr. I'll definitely be back for more and hope Hodder can improve some of the pacing issues.
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