Mainspring (Hardcover)

by Jay Lake (Author) "The angel gleamed in the light of Hethor's reading candle bright as any brasswork automaton..." (more)
Key Phrases: winged savages, peacock gentlemen, ropes division, Master Bodean, New Haven, Key Perilous (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Lake (Trial of Flowers) envisions the universe as an enormous clockwork, put in motion by God, complete with gears and a mainspring hidden at the Earth's center, in his intriguing first trade hardcover novel, a fantasy set in the magic-tinged late 19th century. Archangel Gabriel charges clockmaker's apprentice Hethor Jacques with a quest: he must find the lost Key Perilous so that the Mainspring of the World can be rewound. Hethor leaves New Haven, Conn., for Boston, where he boards Her Imperial Majesty's Ship of the Air Bassett and travels south to the towering Equatorial Wall, along the top of which run the great gears that rotate the earth. Hethor soon discovers opponents who don't want the mainspring rewound. He must deal with dark magicians, monstrous winged savages, mechanical men and other wonders during his epic journey, which takes him over the wall and into a land of wonders. The author of more than 200 short stories, Lake demonstrates his enormously fertile imagination in this unusual book, marred only by some sluggish pacing. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* In a visibly clocklike world, a clockmaker's apprentice with an excellent ear for the meshing of time at midnight is visited by the angel Gabriel, who tells him he must seek the Key Perilous, travel to the Earth's workings, and wind the mainspring, or disaster will ensue. Hethor, the apprentice, has no idea what the Key Perilous is, so he goes to his master's son, Pryce, who ridicules him and accuses him of stealing the feather the angel left as proof of the visitation. Fortunately, the librarian Hethor meets next is more sympathetic and provides him with guidance and a pass code that serves him well in the adventures he has after Pryce's accusation gets him kicked out of town. Imprisonment, impression into the royal navy, in which he learns the art of navigating an airship, and a final plunge into and beyond the wilds of the equatorial wall on the southern continents highlight the journey, during which Hethor meets all sorts of fascinating people and members of the more mysterious races living on and over the wall. Lake's steampunk-esque alternative nineteenth century is an astonishing, marvelous place, and the quest for the world's mainspring is a fascinating fable of a young man's sudden, unexpected education out in and about the great world. Schroeder, Regina
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765317087
• ISBN-13: 978-0765317087
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #207,214 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bait-and-switch at its best, November 2, 2007

By	Tom Dullemond (Brisbane, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'll start it short: This is a terrible book.

The premise is excellent, as is the cover. The execution, however, is amateurish at best and laughable at worst. There were some 4 star moments, though - the journey, to be fair, proceeded as follows:

3 stars, 4 stars, 3, 4, 2, 2, 1...

The second half of this book is so unsatisfying, and the ending so trite and faux-didactic that I had trouble not throwing it across the room. As a massive sf/fantasy literary snob (China Mieville is my hero), I was actually insulted to have been conned into buying and reading this book.

The premise is classic steampunk/clockpunk - what if the solar system were a giant clockwork mechanism, and the planet was winding down and needed to be rewound? The book, however, is classic bait-and-switch. There is no steampunk here beyond the premise, and after the halfway point the book just becomes tiresome and tedious. The main character is uninteresting, his 'perils' uninspiring, and we are never concerned that he is in any danger of failure on his quest. Actions, scenes, characters and ideas are thrown around, but the author never does us the courtesy of explaining them. The message of the entire book seems to be 'trust in god' which never sits well with me anyway, but this message isn't even delivered in an interesting way. A massive, massive disappointment, and I should probably give the book away to someone I don't like.

Have I mentioned how terrible this book is? Well, let's ignore a pointless sex scene thrown in randomly later in the book to establish a growing bond between the main character and his nominal girlfriend; let's ignore the impossible nature of the equatorial gear crossing (Imagine the worst possible writing mistake about a world where the baseline earth is a giant clockwork mechanism and the concept of gears is fundamental??? Try thinking about the shape of a gear for a second, just one second, a fraction of time less than it would have taken the author to google a picture of a gear, for example...); let's ignore foolish exposition and grade school philosophy and metaphysics that makes the Matrix look like holy revelation by comparison; let's ignore long, tedious travelling scenes followed by condescendingly short and ridiculous action scenes with monsters who appear for no reason and out of nowhere... What's left to ignore?

There was a tiny fraction of potential in this novel, and it was wasted.

I think Jay Lake should go read Polystom: Two Universes in One Reality (Gollancz). That was an excellent take on a similar idea. It even had a point! This, however wasn't and hadn't.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to be chewed and digested, June 22, 2007

By	naruvoll "naruvoll" (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Mainspring is one of those books that you know is 5 stars within a few pages and the impression never leaves. It puts you in to the story immediately without a boring introduction. Even at the end, which I feel some ambivalence towards (having just finished it an hour ago), I felt I had read a particularly good book worth recommending to others. The book is in its essence a clockpunk heroes journey through a deeply imagined setting. If you have a love for any of the cyberpunk descended genres this book should satisfy you. But unlike most of the punk genres, faith is on the side of the heroes, since the hero is on a journey given to him by the archangel Gabriel. In many instances it is the faith of the hero and his allies that provides for them in crisis.
Much of the story felt like it would have been a masterwork of counter-cultural critique at the height of the British Empire which initially made it feel written too late, but on consideration seemed to apply just as much today to the casual hubris of modern empire. All of this makes the book sort of a slow read as I often felt compelled to think on what I had read rather than to keep reading. Don't mistake this for the book being preachy, it is not, it merely gives the amorphous feeling of meaningfulness and import. This might be due to how well the hero has been characterized. Since his entire journey is full of import and meaning to him, it passes that impression to the reader.
While there are a few tried and true recyclings in the book, most notably the discovery of sex leading to the realization that this is what has all the preachers angry on sunday, the book in the main avoids dully repeating what we have all seen before, even in other genres. It does follow the hero's journey, but Jay lake has definitely flexed his imagination in the execution of it. This book strays pleasantly from the beaten path and ends up being a true pleasure to read.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A setting with potential but a story that gets lost, May 27, 2008

By	Sarah O'Hara (Seattle, Washington United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mainspring (Mass Market Paperback)

I feel guilty for putting such a low review (**) but I really can't find enough in the story to justify much higher. Steampunk is a fantastic subgenre and in many ways this story does an excellent job capturing that setting. At times I could just close my eyes and mull over how cool something was (like the cliff side city). Yet rattling around in this Steampunk world was a rather tiresome plot and some slightly offensive overtones. It's difficult to put into words.

There's a thin line sometimes between having certain traits exist within a world you create and a glorification of those traits. Not recommended for people who aren't 16-28 years old, white, straight and male.