I've not read much steampunk but if this is typical, I'll read much more. It was enchanting. Every page was a new delight. A fabulous story, though the fact I can't remember the very ending a couple of months after I read it might suggest that wasn't as satisfying as the rest. I loved reading it,it was pure pleasure. Books, history, pirates, more history, desert island, lizard queens, singing whales in the Thames, a quest to bring a loved one back from the dead...and more history. And literature references galore. Just marvellous, and stylishly written.And apparently, there's more to come... "I think a lot about the might-have-beens, the what-ifs. About the little places in history where one tiny, minute change can lead to a new and unimaginable future. It's like chess, so many permutations, probabilities, choices, cross-roads...I think a lot about the future, our future. And I see uncertainty.”This quote quite captures Tidhar's approach to creating his stories (the ones I've read and the ones I've heard about). There is some major twist that takes an otherwise historical piece into something else, changing its course, and following through with the what-if's (which is the very essence of speculative fiction).The Bookman is a steampunk science fiction story with automatons, lizard aliens ruling England, and characters from literature and their authors (including Gilgamesh, Moriarty, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, Captain Nemo/Prince Dakker, Tom Thumb) that are part of the cast. Lizards have ruled England, and events are coming to a head with the humans who want freedom from lizard rule and automatons who want some kind of autonomy, and there is a mysterious threat called the Bookman. Orphan, a nobody finds himself involved in this and having a role to play, though he understands very little of what is happening.Tidhar has a boldly imaginative premise that makes it worth the read. The steampunk setting is more than window dressing, a world that developed differently with the appearance of the lizards. The literary characters appearing in the story, as well as authors are almost a who's who in literature, including some Easter eggs (I totally enjoyed seeing a reference to Dune with the mention of In My Father's House by Princess Irulan). He tries something different and tricky with the part of the hero, playing with the ideas of the chosen one, the nobody who is somebody, destiny, pawns (with some nice chess analogies), and it is interesting to see those ideas play out, though it does make the story harder to read, with the more unusual (probably more difficult) setup of the protagonist who is more coward than they typical hero of the story. Plus, being in Orphan's point of view, readers are limited by what he knows and mostly how much he doesn't know, since he is the pawn. I found the result a little mixed, though appreciate the effort to do something different. This is the first book in a trilogy, so maybe the world will be fleshed out more in the later books. I get the sense Tidhar has a lot of interesting ideas going into the story, but it didn't come across that well, especially with Orphan's limited knowledge. I'm still not sure if I would call this science fiction or fantasy because of that, though the alternative history twist with how the world came to be the way it is fits right into science fiction (though not the usual associations with science or space). The villain reveal was a little bit disappointing and anticlimactic (he seemed such a large, scary force and the reality seemed like hype), unless there is more going on, especially since the trilogy is called the Bookman Histories.I enjoyed the literary connections, the book themes, and the chess analogies. This book has so many wonderful quotes related to books, myths, chess, and their connection to life (and I included several on The Bookman's quotation page :) ). I like how Tidhar crams so many ideas into a story and has such an imaginative premise, so it's not just an action story in a strange world. Definitely worth reading! I heard the sequel takes place in the same steampunk world with another set of characters.
What do You think about Bookman (2010)?
Great mix of pulp and steampunk, with plenty of literary and historical characters thrown together.
—veinlet
A bit of a slow starter, but it gets much better as the story and world are built.
—Lauren
Many interesting details to the background, but the plot was dull.
—nick
