British science fiction writer E. V. Odle made his living primarily as an editor, most notably with the popular fiction periodical Argosy Magazine. He only wrote two novels, one of which was published long after his death. Apparently Odle didn’t have enough of an authorial career to merit his own Wikipedia page. The one novel that was published during his lifetime, however, is regarded in hindsight as a notable and influential work from the early years of the sci-fi genre. The Clockwork Man was published in 1923. This was the era (now sometimes called the Radium Age) when science fiction was still referred to as “scientific romance.” While there is somewhat of a rickety, old-fashioned quality to Odle’s storytelling in this work, his futuristic vision is admirably advanced for the 1920s.
The Clockwork Man opens at a cricket match, which immediately reminded me of the 1911 novel The Wonder by another early English sci-fi writer J. D. Beresford, a book which also devotes an inordinate portion of its length to Britain’s favorite bat-and-ball sport. It turns out that Odle and Beresford were friends. Beresford encouraged Odle to write his novel and may have helped to get The Clockwork Man published. This would be a case of the student surpassing his mentor, because Odle’s novel is a far superior to The Wonder. The first two chapters of The Clockwork Man are occupied by the cricket match, in which three of the book’s main characters are engaged. The game is interrupted by a strange figure who appears on the scene, exhibiting awkward movements and erratic behavior. This stranger causes an incident, then flees the scene, leaving the rest of the cast to ponder his identity.
From its rather goofy comedic beginning, it is difficult to imagine this novel developing into a profound work of science fiction, but that’s exactly what occurs. I don’t think I’m giving too much away when I reveal that the “Clockwork man” is a form of automaton. The word “robot” had just been coined three years earlier by Czech author Karel Capek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). That’s not a term that Odle uses here. In fact, the Clockwork man is a cyborg, a human being augmented with mechanical parts, though the term “cyborg” was not coined until 1960. Odle uses the Clockwork man to examine the philosophical implications of how mankind’s relationship to its machines might shape the future of the human race. The story also ventures into the nature of artificial intelligence and the question of free will in both mechanical and biological beings. In addition, Odle includes some elements of time travel in the novel that allow him to speculate on the nature of time itself.
The problem with The Clockwork Man is that Odle wastes too much time on the silly comedic stuff early in the novel, like the cricket game. Also, the novel is less about the Clockwork man himself and more about the human characters’ reaction to him. There are three main characters who each have their own unique attitude toward the Clockwork man, which allows for some debate on the issues that Odle raises in the book. Odle, however, delves more into these characters’ personal lives and romances than is really necessary. When the novel does focus on the Clockwork man, however, it’s really quite an exceptionally precocious work of futuristic literature. For fans of early science fiction, it is worth sitting through a cricket match and a few lovers’ quarrels to experience the visionary pleasures of Odle’s unique and ingenious novel.
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