The Company Man [Paperback]

Robert Jackson Bennett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2011

The year is 1919.

The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built the guns that won the Great War before it even began. They built the airships that tie the world together. And, above all, they built Evesden-a shining metropolis, the best that the world has to offer.

But something is rotten at the heart of the city. Deep underground, a trolley car pulls into a station with eleven dead bodies inside. Four minutes before, the victims were seen boarding at the previous station. Eleven men butchered by hand in the blink of an eye. All are dead. And all are union.

Now, one man, Cyril Hayes, must fix this. There is a dark secret behind the inventions of McNaughton and with a war brewing between the executives and the workers, the truth must be discovered before the whole city burns. Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must uncover the mystery before it kills him.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[A] gritty crime thriller' SUN --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Robert Jackson Bennett was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the Sydney J. Bounds Award, and an Edgar Award, he is the author of the novels Mr. Shivers, The Company Man, The Troupe, and American Elsewhere. Find out more about the author at www.robertjacksonbennett.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (April 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316054704
• ISBN-13: 978-0316054706
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.3 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #590,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Jackson Bennett was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but grew up in Katy, Texas. His interest in writing came from hearing about the books his older brother was reading and then attempting to mimic them on paper, though when his brother became interested in Stephen King and the stories written for Robert's elementary school class developed a correspondingly high body count it did cause something of a ruckus. He later attended the University of Texas at Austin and, like a lot of its alumni, was unable to leave the charms of the city and resides there currently. His first novel is "Mr. Shivers."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An odd mixture of sf, noir, and social realism April 14, 2011

By TChris TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

If Upton Sinclair and Philip K. Dick had collaborated to write a Sam Spade novel, they might have produced The Company Man. Poor working conditions and inadequate wages cause conflict between labor and management, leading to murders in the slums that are investigated by a noir-coated private detective, and it all takes place in an alternate history where mysterious machinery seem to be speaking to those who toil or dwell beneath a vast city. I'm not sure when I've read a science fiction novel quite as odd as The Company Man.

The company in question is McNaughton Western Foundry Corp. which, by 1919 (when the novel takes place) has become the world leader in technology. It is so powerful that it averted World War I by threatening to cut off production of products (like airships) that could be used militarily. Credit for McNaughton's innovative technological breakthroughs is given to Lawrence Kulahee, an eccentric inventor who died in 1904. The company continued to grow despite his death, as did the former fishing village of Evesden, near Puget Sound, now a thriving metropolis with smokestacks and slums and dozens of murders each month. One of the murders -- of a man found floating in a canal -- prompts police detective Garvey to contact Cyril Hayes, who plays a murky role in McNaughton's security force. As Hayes tries to determine whether the nameless corpse is affiliated with McNaughton, he's assigned to investigate the union movement, which is suspected of sabotaging the corporation's factories. The lovely Samantha Fairbanks is asked to keep an eye on Hayes, who has a problem with opium and alcohol. Notwithstanding his addictions, Hayes has an unusual talent: he can establish a telepathic connection with people that grows stronger the longer he's in contact with them. Hayes' twin investigations of the murder and union violence eventually converge but only after he begins to believe all the underground workers who claim that McNaughton's mysterious machinery is trying to talk to them.

Hayes has the kind of troubled soul that's standard for genre heroes, but Bennett managed to give him an interesting background and enough personality to make him memorable. The other characters aren't particularly special yet neither are they trite. While Hayes is hardly the first science fiction character to be blessed (or cursed) with some form of telepathic power, Bennett's description of its operation places it outside the ordinary. The story is, at times, surprisingly poignant, although it's generally quite dark. Perhaps at the novel's end Bennett tries to do too much, giving the story an almost mystical quality, an upbeat tone that seemed out of place in a decidedly downbeat novel, but that didn't impair my enjoyment of the strange story that Bennett concocted. There's room for a sequel here; if Bennett writes it, I'll read it.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Sci-Fi Noir Falters in Final Third June 6, 2011

By A. Ross HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I have to admit, this book's gumshoe pulp fiction-style cover art caught my attention immediately. And once I skimmed the jacket copy and realized that it had a science-fiction element to it, I was hooked. The story takes place in 1919, in a world where a single company based on the coast of Washington State has developed leading technology in every field important to mankind. From airships to advanced weaponry to wireless transmitters, the McNaughton Corporation is powerful enough to direct the course of nation-states. An entire metropolis has risen around its humble initial facilities, and Evesden is now the largest city in the world.

However, despite the untold power and wealth residing in the company, the city has a seedy and destitute side to it. And down those dark streets walks the company's odd fixer Cyril Hayes. He possesses the power to create a kind of telepathic bond with anyone he spends time with, eventually being able to charm them and more or less read their thoughts. In the past he's ferreted out industrial spies and secret-sellers, and now he's trying to figure out both how and why a trolly car of eleven unionists pulled into a station with everyone on board completely slaughtered. Helping him is his new organizer/researcher/librarian/assistant, Ms. Fairbanks, and together with Cyril's policeman friend, Detective Garvey, they form a very odd heroic trio.

Unfortunately, about halfway through, the inventiveness starts to wear thin on the book, and the supernatural element starts to become more and more prominent. The mystery of the union murders starts to shift into a kind of X-Files conspiracy and before too long, the hint of alien mumbo-jumbo starts to poke though. I definitely started to lose enthusiasm for the book as the science-fiction elements grew more and more prominent, and by the end I was close to just skimming to see how things turned out. Cyril is the one really interesting character, by turns cantankerous and crafty, and his telepathic ability is described and handled really well. Some of the supporting characters, like his boss, and an underworld contact, come across vividly on the page, but his friend Garvey and assistant Fairbanks are both kind of cardboard types.

The writing has a very rich visual style to it, and to a certain extent I wonder if the story might have worked better in a more visual medium, like a graphic novel, or a film. Still, if you like offbeat crime stories or real-world based science fiction, or genre-blending of the two, this might be worth your time to check out.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Conspirational Science Fiction Noir July 20, 2011

By DC

Format:Paperback

This is the second novel by Robert Jackson Bennett. His first, the excellent Mr. Shivers, was a dark supernatural horror/fantasy hybrid played out against the backdrop of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. For his sophmore, Bennett has ventured into science fiction territory and created a steam punkish, noir mystery set a decade earlier than his previous.

The story begins with Hayes, an idiosyncratic investigator for the McNaughton Corporation, brought in by his friend inspector Garvey to assist with an inquiry into a recently discovered body found floating in the city canal. In a city where a new body is hardly a discovery, something doesn't seem quite right here and Garvey is determined to find out the truth behind the man's demise. Was this man a company man? Did he work for the mighty McNaughton? As Garvey together with Hayes make their enquiries, the reader is slowly introduced into the nature of the city of Evesden. We learn of its spectacular rise on an unprecedented scale to become a technological marvel, and an economic powerhouse fuelled by the discoveries of the enigmatic company at its heart.

Firstly, I loved the setting for this book: the rapidly developed city of Evesden, with its irregular and confusing layout. The shanty towns down by the canal, the looming skyscrapers in the business district; the airships navigating overhead, and the whispering voices in the catacombs beneath, all contribute to a vividly realized backdrop to the story.

Then there is the hardboiled presentation of the characters, combining into something which reads like an anti-corporate version of a Raymond Chandler novel or the musical Chicago (minus the songs) collided with Jules Verne.

Conspiracy is everywhere in Evesden and I relished the sense of corruption and collusion as it unfurled, drawing the reader ever deeper into the intriguing mystery surrounding the McNaughton Corporation. What is the source of the amazing technology they have developed? What are they now working on in secret? What lies deep in the catacombs and tunnels beneath Evesden? Why do people employed by the company keep dying in unusual circumstance...?

The action itself unfolds slowly at first, with the narrative building towards a number of key set-pieces throughout. Such as the one mentioned in the book blurb, which doesn't actually happen until about 100 pages in. Initially, perhaps due to this slow build and also because of Bennett's pragmatic writing style, I found it a little difficult to empathise emotionally with the characters. In particular, the belligerent and wayward Hayes is a difficult character to like. Crucially as the story developed, I found this less of an issue and I became more and more connected to the characters. By the second half of the novel I was thoroughly invested in them. In particular I was drawn to detective Garvey's unflinching sense of duty and honour - something which Bennett uses to great emotional effect later in the novel - but I also warmed to Hayes, and to Samantha, the sidekick appointed to Hayes by the corporation to help keep him focused on their work.

Bennett is an interesting and imaginative writer. It's very early days in his career, but it doesn't take too much to imagine him developing into a writer along the lines of Neil Gaiman or China Miéville. Based on his first two novels, he clearly has wide ranging literary interests across the speculative fiction genres and outside them. As such it is difficult to pin his work down. His first novel was largely considered to be a horror title, and whilst he certainly has a healthy dose of horror DNA in his writing genes, it's clear his work will not be confined to any one genre label. In The Company Man, Bennett has fashioned a tense mystery that could appeal equally to fans of Horror, Crime, Thrillers and Science Fiction.

As The Company Man reaches it's final quarter and ultimately the mystery begins to clear, all the disparate elements combine to reveal a novel with a grand and slightly melancholy vision. Unlike some reviewers whose reviews I have read, I was not particularly surprised to learn the origin of McNaughton's tech. The conclusion to this book was in some ways what I expected, but the deeper explanation, the why rather than the where, is what lifted the ending for me. This whole picture combines to reveal a novel with a fine coherent vision. The Company Man further highlights Bennett's gift for redefining the mythic canon of US history into beguiling contemporary fables. If like me you never trust those damn corporations anyway, and you love original speculative fiction, I think you'll love The Company Man. I know I did.