Mainspring (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765356368
• ISBN-13: 978-0765356369
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #168,595 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 42 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)

This review is from: Mainspring (Hardcover)

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.

16 of 16 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)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mainspring, September 19, 2007

By	Alex Telander "BookBanter" (Roseville, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mainspring (Hardcover)

MAINSPRING BY JAY LAKE: Mainspring is your classic cyberpunk novel: the world is run by machinery. The Mainspring is at the center of the world, constantly turning and working, making every other cog, wheel and spring turn and work. The world is split between the two hemispheres by a giant metal wall that reaches into space. The planet turns, and runs on an orbiting track around the sun and at midnight the wall connects with this track for one moment, obliterating everything on top of the Wall and starting anew. All this was created and set in motion by God: the Mainspring is the heart of the world and is also the heart of God.

In this world, the War for Independence never happened, and at the turn of the twentieth century, Britain still controls the colonies. Hethor Jacques is a sixteen year old boy and a clockmaker's apprentice. He is visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told that the Mainspring is not running well and requires the Key Perilous to set it in correct motion again. This is necessary once over many generations and the time has come again and it is up to Hethor to perform this task. With lots of problems and obstructions along the way, Hethor makes his treacherous journey to Boston where he is press ganged in the British navy on Her Majesty's Ship of the Air Bassett: an ordinary ship that is attached to a great air balloon sending the ship high into the sky. Commissioned to aid Her Majesty's ships at the Wall, the Bassett travels over the Atlantic to the great iron curtain where they come face to face with horrors and monsters never imagined. The Wall is a place of legend and story, of fabled cities filled with jewels and ghosts.

It is in a town on the Wall that Hethor meets the Jade Priest who aids him in his quest to cross the Wall and enter the southern hemisphere. He must travel to the South Pole where he will find the entrance to the Mainspring and attempt to carry out his duty. It is here, in the last third of the book, that the plot of Mainspring devolves and becomes quite dreadful, much like the devolved and chaotic world of this hemisphere. Jay Lake takes an uncertain direction in pushing forth the religion that has been secondary to the incredible cyberpunk world so far, making Hethor into a messiah like character and therefore able to survive every devastating attack and tragedy that befalls him. It is here also that Hethor becomes a leader of this simian race that are between monkey and human on an evolutionary scale, known as the "correct people." With Hethor leading the correct people south, it recalls the plight of Moses and the Israelites. Naturally there is a female in this group who has the incredibly developed and humanistic name of Arellya that Hethor becomes closer and closer to, eventually leading to a copulation scene that can only be described as bestiality: "He rubbed at her hairy back, enjoying the silky smooth feel, like petting a giant cat."

With this severe downward turn to the novel, Mainspring was hard to finish. The failing of the book was in going from a complex and fantastic world of air ships and machinery and exotic places to a religious dogma coupled with a fascination for an ape-like race. Nevertheless, Mainspring possesses many facets of the cyberpunk novel making it a classic in some ways, along with amazing cover artwork of the Bassett at the Wall.

For more reviews, please to go www.alexctelander.com.