Customer Reviews

Whitechapel Gods

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I finished reading Whitechapel Gods over the weekend and was generally satisfied, but ultimately underwhelmed.

Taking place in Victorian England, and borrowing *heavily* from the plot of The Matrix, Whitechapel Gods depicts an England that is threatened from within by two modern age deities, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock, who have taken up residence in Jack the Ripper's hunting grounds and rule over their kingdom with fear, paranoia, and brute force....employing steampunk cyborg turncoats known as black and gold cloaks to police the streets, and the fearsome robotic Boiler Men as their stormtroopers. The residents of Whitechapel, after staging an unsuccessful rebellion against their oppressors, now live quiet lives of desperation, and are either controlled in mind by the hypnotic machinations of Grandfather Clock, or in body by fueling the furnaces of Mama Engine's Stack.

We come into this world through Oliver and his small band of insurgents, including Missy, the prostitute with a dark secret, and Tommy, the gentle giant who's been infected with a technovirus that converts the human body into mechanical parts. His is one in a number of terrorist cells in Whitechapel that are all fighting this industrial regime from the shadows as they develop a secret weapon capable of destroying these dark gods.

First time author S.M. Peters is clearly trying to channel the Weirdness of authors like China Mieville and Grant Morrison, and succeeds in the small details, such as his descriptions of Tommy's technovirus, or the grimy, soot-choked, steel prison that Whitechapel has become. However, I feel that he struggled in tying the little ideas into the Big Picture. Things like how Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock came into existence (I *think* they're ideological expressions of the 20th Century more than actual, physical entities...?) what the purpose of the third god is, and what Oliver's Macguffin weapon do are either never fully explained or abandoned all together. This is the kind of story that I think would have had much more success as a comic book, where a visual sense of the narrative would have been a huge help in telling the story and keeping the plot moving. Additionally, the Uprising seemed very unimpressive....maybe because by the time Peters finally moved all the characters into place and was ready for the final act to begin, I was ready for the book to end. Two-thirds of the book was spent in anticipation of this battle, and yet it all kind of came and went without much fanfare.

Ultimately, I would rather read an ambitious book that doesn't quite succeed than one that doesn't even attempt to try. Whitechapel Gods imagines The Matrix in Victorian England and almost does a great job of making that transition work. This was a solid first effort and I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes out with next.

In a somewhat steampunk Victorian London gone very much awry, Whitechapel has been walled off from the world outside, presumably by the "gods" of the title, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock, or their minions. The people of this sealed-off bit of London are kept quite firmly in their place by the gold cloaks (minions of Grandfather Clock), the black cloaks (minions of Mama Engine), and the Boiler Men, whose precise allegiance I did not determine, but are definitely not on the side of humanity. A disease is sweeping the people, infecting them with a machine plague entirely unlike those the term is usually used to describe by nanotech-era writers - this causes people to bleed oil, and grow gears, and become virtually unkillable. And eventually, they lose themselves in the machine...

The plot here follows an underground group, each with his own reasons for disliking the status quo, in their attempt to bring down the powerful creatures ruling Whitechapel. The plot is fast-paced and fairly gripping, and one does come to be fairly invested in the plucky rebels and their battles. The structure of the thing is a little flimsy, but I'm not so sure that really matters so much in this case, given that it's a fast read, and the pace doesn't really leave one much chance to dwell upon the possible plot holes. Recommended as a vacation book or for other circumstances in which entertainment is key. Not recommended for critical reading practice.

In case you were wondering, "Whitechapel Gods" is a steampunk book. The first 5 words of the story are, "With a hiss of steam..." Glad the author got that out of the way right up front.

I'm 2/3 through this book and decided to check out the Amazon reviews to see if I'm the only one who thinks it's an underwhelming, derivative effort. I'm not. Someone here noted that it rips off "Matrix." It also seems to rip off Joe Kelly's "Steampunk: Manimatron" comics (2000), and even Joss Whedon's "Firefly" TV show (Oliver, like Mal, was involved in a failed rebellion against the powers-that-be and now heads a "crew" that includes a whore and a strongman and who takes on illegal jobs to make a living; there are certain lines or moments in the book which remind me a lot of Firefly, but the book lacks Whedon's excellent storytelling skills, plot, and character development).

Not to say that being derivative is necessarily bad -- J.K. Rowling became the richest person in England that way. But the writing in "Whitechapel Gods" is not that good. It's difficult to follow, especially when it starts going into dream sequences and surreal meanderings (I'd compare it to H.P. Lovecraft, but it's not that good). The story lacks character development (if Dickens had written something like this, it would have been stunning), and I wonder if the author's ever been to England at all -- the story seems to lack the richness of personal experience in that regard. As someone else here noted, it could have been anywhere in England, or anywhere in the world.

As a fan of the steampunk style, Michael Moorcock (sometimes referred to as the "grandfather of steampunk") and various steampunk movies -- and as an adornment artist who's been making and selling steampunk and Victorian inspired jewelry for a few years -- I thought I should read some of the fiction, too. Well, this isn't the best book to start with. But, it's still an interesting read. As I turn the pages, I keep thinking over and over how this -- in the right hands -- would make a great movie.

I recently finished reading Whitechapel Gods, a decently entertaining fantasy novel with a hint of fabulism. Victorian London's Whitechapel district is tormented by not the Ripper, but rather two mechanical Gods, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock. After coming to existence on earth, which is never fully explained, we just have to accept it, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock seal Whitechapel off from the rest of the world making it a soot-filled mechanized nightmare. The sky is hidden by a vast canopy of steel, and monolithic metal towers loom haphazardly, casting ominous shadows over everything. The air in Whitechapel is thick with factory smoke, barely battled by dimly lit street lamps. Some citizens voluntarily give up their bodies and souls to the Gods. Their hearts are replaced with coal-burning furnaces, their limbs torn off and replaced with mechanical facsimiles. Other citizens are afflicted with "the clacks," a disease in which mechanical parts grow spontaneously from human tissue, usually resulting in death. The book does an amazing job of creating a dark and truly claustrophobic atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the story itself isn't anything spectacular, even a little muddled at times. A group of rebels banding together against impossible odds to topple their malevolent oppressors, we've read it before. The book's characters are a little flat and not particularly engaging. While definitely a fairly fun read, I see Whitechapel Gods as a great deal of wasted potential.

I love the idea of Steampunk, unfortunately I rarely like the execution of Steampunk. I felt that Whitechapel Gods was better than average overall but not significantly better than average. The real genius of the book is making the technology organic. The Gods and edifices of Whitechapel grow organically. They even grow as a disease within the populace, so average people just have rivets and other mechanical parts grow out of themselves. Sadly, that is the secondary idea in the book. The primary idea is rebellion against the nearly unstoppable forces of the machine technocracy cum theocracy which is done familiarly but passably.

The beginning of the book is very jerky and it is hard to figure out who you are supposed to be centering on. It takes several chapters to realize who the main character is, and he frankly wasn't the character I was most interested in - his love interest felt much better developed and more original. I wasn't sure I was going to finish the book until I got into it on page 50 when we got into her mind. On the opposite end of the book, I found the ending very satisfying when I got there, so that pushed my rating up that half a star which I can't input into Amazon. My only other gripe is something I would regularly ignore but, as it is in the title, I feel I do have to bring up Whitechapel. The city that the characters inhabit really could be any city of that time and place with a significant margin of error. If the characters had declared that they were actually in modern Manchester instead of Victorian Whitechapel It wouldn't have invalidated much else in the book. The connection to Victorian England is only a few recurring anecdotes (Gee, London was really nice back when), what is considered risque (i.e. a flash of neck/ankle), and references to the fiction of the time (i.e. Colonel Sebastian Moran works for the antagonist). Since it was in the title I did feel a bit cheated that the setting, outside of the fantastic elements, wasn't more specifically developed.

I'd be very interested to see another book set in the same universe where the organic nature of the technology was center stage. As for this book, if you are already a fan of Steampunk Science Fiction you'll probably like this book since it does the genre well enough and has plenty of neat ideas. If you aren't already into it I recommend giving this book a pass because I don't think this book will get you into it since it has many of the faults of the genre.

First, let me say that I wanted to love this book. From its awesome cover art and the summary on Amazon, it looked interesting enough. Authored by S.M. Peters, this debut is a Steampunk-themed story where two mechanical gods, Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock, rule London. You follow the rebels of an uprising who live in this dirty, dystopian city and who only want to free themselves from these mechanical monsters and their murderous henchmen.

It took two months for me to read Whitechapel Gods, and I struggled the entire way, mostly out of disinterest. The prose was easy enough, but the storyline switches gears so many times, it was really hard to follow. I lost interest, forcing my way slowly, until about 2/3 of the way through when it seemed like the characters were actually about to do something important.

The characters seem very interesting, but their individual lives seem to overtake the book, making the plot lose its momentum. Have I mentioned just how many players there are in this drama? There's Oliver (the protagonist), and Missy, Tom, Aaron, Scared, Penny, Bergen, Heckler, Bailey, etc. Delving into so many lives, it's no wonder I got lost. Their abstract dream and drug sequences proves nothing but to confuse more than reveal anything plot-worthy.

In saying all that, though, I believe that my favorite characters are Tom, half man and half machine, and his pet clickrat Jeremy Longshore (who we later find out is embodied by Aaron). Tom is a large man-machine who, yes, takes a licking and keeps on ticking, but his demeanor is gentle and that of a small child. His pet Jeremy is very faithful and turns out to be pretty useful. He convinces metal hounds, through a series of clicks and nods, that his friends are not a threat. Their relationship shows us more humanity than the real human beings in the story do, which might be a point the author is trying to make, but it gets lost in the muddle.

By the end of the story, I was left very unsatisfied. The underwhelming finale and odd change of personality for two of the characters seems a little forced for a "happy ending." Maybe I can give it another read in a year or so to see how I feel about it. Until then, I don't think I can offer any mind-blowing review. It is not a bad book, by any means. It just needs to be more reader-friendly.

S.M. Peters really impressed me with his weird first novel.

I'd picked this one up because I wanted to try a steampunk novel (and the cover really grabbed my eye). I think this is not really a steampunk novel (or at least not what I was expecting one to be). I guess if I had to categorize it as something I would say it's a Weird Tale.

Peters has created a unique world where the district of Whitechapel has been cut off from the rest of the world. A cancer-like disease (the clacks) is turning people into machines and steel girders seem to grow like trees.

His dialogue and narration worked pretty well. I thought he did a nice job of evoking his quasi-Victorian era of the story with just the right turn of phrase or bit of slang (or unusual character name). He was able to lace enough of this in to feel natural without hammering me over the head and breaking my suspension of disbelief.

His characters were also handled well. I thought for a first time author he did a good job at creating believable characters with some depth to them. His main characters were very well realized, three dimensional people. His secondary characters also came off as more than just sketches.

I would like to have a bit more description though. I admit I like description more than most. It wasn't bad, but his description was a little too vague for me. Especially when he was describing some of the more esoteric settings, creatures and devices in his world, things would be a little fuzzy around the edges. The setting was so outlandish that I think some real, detailed and concrete description was called for.

Also there are several threads and characters to follow and the novel jumps rapidly back and forth between them. None of the threads were dull or irrelevant to the plot. But I did lost track a couple of times of who was who, but was able to catch up. For a first time author to try something so out there, I give him a lot of credit.

I was also happy to see that the novel seems to stand alone I appreciate him putting so much creativity into his first novel without (as far as I know) intending to milk it forever in book after book.

I am very curious to see where S.M. Peters will go from here.

Part Steampunk and Steam- Fantasy, `Whitechapel Gods' takes place within the confines of the titular London neighborhood. Two supernatural entities, referred to as Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock, have somehow seized control of Victorian Whitechapel and closed it off from the surrounding cityscape by erecting a large, almost impenetrable wall around its environs.

Whitechapel has been transformed into an unpleasant Piranesi -meets - Dore landscape of titanic steam- and gasoline- driven machineries, tended to by a dwindling population of servile humans. The air is so polluted that early death from various lung ailments is common; to make things worse, a new disease, in which humans are slowly converted to the Victorian equivalent of cyborgs, has arisen among the populace and threatens to extinguish humanity from Whitechapel altogether.

Periodically, the humans attempt to overthrow their masters, but Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock maintain control by fielding armies of vicious robots ("Boiler Men") and human / machine hybrids ("Gold Cloaks"). Also maintaining the status quo is one Baron Hume, formerly an eminent engineer, now a cyborg, and someone who may have played a role in the arrival of Mama Engine and Grandmother Clock to Whitechapel.

The narrative centers on yet another effort by the downtrodden humans of Whitechapel to seize control of their city and eliminate the tyrants. The plot follows the adventures of a number of characters, such as Missy, the Fallen Woman; Bailey, the mastermind of the latest uprising; Oliver, Tom, and Hew, participants in a failed earlier effort at Liberation; Jack the Scraper, a nasty criminal mastermind who looks solely to his own welfare; and Bergen, a former Big Game hunter who is dispatched to retrieve the critical information that will enable the humans to overthrow their rulers.

The narrative unfolds over the course of several days, as the band of human saboteurs struggles to penetrate the core installations of Whitechapel and bring down the source of the Gods' powers.

First-time novelist Peters obviously derives some of his inspiration from Gibson and Sterling's "The Difference Engine". This is not a bad thing. However, "Whitechapel Gods" is a middling success. The setting and atmosphere are certainly well envisioned and memorable. However, the overall narrative is disappointing. The novel is a good 100 pages too long and could have benefitted from better editing. The initial chapters fail to provide adequate exposition on the world and geography of Whitechapel, leaving it to the reader to try and infer these features as the storyline unfolds; this is unhelpful.

Another problem lies with the author's decision to regularly interrupt the narrative to indulge in purple-prosed descriptions of phantasmagorical visions endured by several characters who have a kind of `psychic' link to the minds of the Gods.

The author also can't resist stuffing many chapters with confusing internal dialogues between some of the characters and Mama Engine; these dialogues are rendered in italics and clog the narrative so often that it makes reading these chapters a tedious and boring task. Also of dubious value are the epigraphs leading off each chapter; these obtuse musings, presumably originating from Baron Hume, shed no light on the story and should have been jettisoned by the editor.

The narrative regains momentum during the last 30 pages, as the struggle to overthrow the Gods enters a violent and desperate phase; the book is at its best here. It's just unfortunate that getting to those rewarding last pages requires plodding through some rather inert chunks of storyline.

While "Gods" has its weaknesses, it shows promise, and author Peters' next book may be something worth keeping an eye on in the field of SF / Fantasy writing.

To close, a Soapbox Moment: the paperback version has a very nice, attention-getting cover illustration; unfortunately, the artist is uncredited. This omission occurs too often with too many paperback SF books. I hope the ROC editor(s) will try and correct this defect in future printings !

It is Victorian London and the Whitechapel section has been cut off and overtaken by two steamwork machines. There is Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock who rule and oversee all that happens in Whitechapel.

Bailey and Oliver were once part of a rebellion but it failed and now quietly try to avoid being found by the gods and plan a new one. They want out of the grime and filth of the underbelly and into the blue sky and the world outside of Whitechapel.

I admit that part of my rating is probably influenced by the fact that the steampunk setting of this book was very hard for me to get into. I also felt there were gaps about past events that often left me wondering what as going on with the characters. Many of the characters are unlikable and those that you may like don't play any part in the book until the last 1/8th of it. Throughout most of the book the characters do not develop beyond a flimsy first description. Even after finishing the book, I could still not explain who is on the cover of the book (which is what attracted me to this book to start with). I thought the story line could be very interesting but nothing really develops ever in this book. I felt it had potential and then nothing would happen and the writing just fell flat.

Caught my attention from the beginning with ambitious ideas and plans. Such big ideas left a few under developed trains of thought, but the fairly unique and unexpected story more than makes up for any deficiencies. I even enjoyed the style of some internal character narrative.