Tregillis, Ian. The Mechanical. The Alchemy Wars No. 1. Orbit, 2015.
Call it steampunk, though the technology of The Mechanical depends more on clockwork and alchemy that it does on steam. Tregillis imagines a nineteenth-century war between Protestant Holland and Catholic France. Both wars are fought with the aid of clockwork robots called clackers or stemwinders, depending on their function and autonomy. The French use alchemy to power their clackers, Some, like our protagonist, Jax, have become self-aware revolutionaries. Self-aware clackers tend to have a lot of angst about free will and agency. Spinoza and Aquinas come up in their discussions, though Tregillis never allows the discussion to get very deep. I wish that the mechanics and alchemy were discussed in more detail and that the nineteenth-century world were more fleshed out. L. E. Modesitt, Jr. does this kind of thing much better. ( )

When I started reading this book and then looked at the author's other books, I was surprised to learn that I had already read something by this author: [b:Something More Than Night|17332272|Something More Than Night|Ian Tregillis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1380339039s/17332272.jpg|24035910]. I was surprised because the style and vocabulary and atmosphere are really different between these books! And obviously I never remember an author's name unless I really really like a book. But I'll remember Ian Tregillis now.

This book was awesome. It's basically an alternate history sci-fi novel - what if alchemical magic existed, and The Netherlands used it to create an army of mechanical golems that they used to become the biggest colonial empire on earth? I really liked that this book started from the perspective of Jax, one of the golems (called Clakkers), because we're immediately put into this underground world of consciousness and rebellion that humans never see. As readers, it is obvious to us that the Clakkers are sentient and intelligent, so we're immediately rooting for them to throw off the shackles of slavery and give the arrogant Dutch what-for. As you read, you learn that the Clockmaker's Guild (who create the Clakkers, imbuing them with the alchemical geasa which bind them into servitude) has an official party line that Clakkers are nothing more than scaled-up wristwatches, and the people buy into because there's not any evidence to the contrary. Only there is, but no one is listening hard enough - the Clakkers speak to each other in their own morse-like language made up of the ticks and rattles of their steampunk bodies, and no one appears to be aware of this, not even The Guild...

Though they must be aware of their creations' awareness. There are so many ethical layers to this situation that Tregillis either addresses outright or hints at, but nothing glaring is ignored - and more layers of religious morality and ideas of free will and the immortal soul are added, as the Dutch empire's main enemy, France, is Catholic and believes that Clakkers have souls. While none of the religious arguments ever hit home for me, considering I don't believe that immortal souls exist, the real existential crises that the characters went through were fascinating.

I loved all three of the main characters. The book switches between their points of view, and I was always excited to get back to any of them. Berenice was a particularly awesome character - a woman in a position of power, who is smart, capable, and speaks her mind, but is confident to the point of hubris. I imagine her weaknesses are borne out of learning how to defend herself and her position to a royal council full of arrogant men, and I loved her story so much.

On another feminist note, while sexism does exist in this world, sometimes as a plot point, Tregillis is really good at using female pronouns as much as male ones in side characters which I find are typically defaulted to male. In a group of soldiers, half are women. In a group of bystanders, half are women. I found myself paying more attention when I read a female pronoun in these cases, because I had already defaulted the nameless crowd members to male - I have been trained by media to view male as default and female as a characteristic added to default, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a female passerby scoffing or a female soldier holding a prisoner's arm or what have you. This is especially interesting to me considering that one of my main complaints about Something More Than Night was the 40's noir detective sexism of the main character.

So I'm pretty excited about the next book in this series. ( )

For the greater portion of this novel, I was sitting pretty at three stars because no matter how much action-packed escapades and beautiful worldbuilding it may have been stuffed with, I was only pretty much interested in Jax. The other two were only interesting in spurts.

That is, until they actually met one another in the denouement, and then things really picked up for me and made me feel less like I had just *wanted* to love this novel without quite liking it. After that point, though, I loved it.

It's a shame that it took so long to get there.

The only exceptions to this was Visser's discourse on Free Will and Berenice's maiming. I liked both of them much better after all the shit got poured all over them, but alas, only so far. Oh, a little correction. I did *begin* liking Visser enough, but all that talk of martyrdom started getting under my skin in a bad way.

Of course, what made this novel shine was the beautifully thought-out world of 1926 after several hundred years of mechanical slaves had revolutionized and marginalized all but the most technologically savvy of the 18th century, leaving the Dutch and the French as the clear winners on the map of the world.

I've read Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych, so I know that the author's voice had changed fairly significantly between then and now, and I can applaud the attempt even if I was a little annoyed at the execution. There was a lot of detail and repetition of the steampunk feel that made me feel somewhat as if I was being shortchanged with the extra effort I needed to use to follow the story without glazed eyes.

I feel like it might only be me, but who knows? I kept wanting to be doing something else, even when I appreciated, intellectually, what Tregillis was doing.

I'm continuing the series because of the spectacularly strong finish, even if I wish that the finish had come by about the mid-point and then continued from *there* to some more interesting conclusion. Alas, the interesting conclusion has got to be in book two, I think. :)

( )

I got to about the middle of chapter 4 before I gave up on this. I don't think this style of writing lends itself to audio format. The descriptions were just too long, I often forgot what he was describing before he got done describing it. Too many metaphors, too much information, too much telling.

I really didn't feel like there was a main character, or have a good idea who the main characters were. I also had a hard time understanding the technology level of the world. It seems to be set in medieval times but they have some very advance technology, except there seem to be some gaps in what technology they have. ( )

What a great premise and a story well told. But, man, these authors are killing me with these books that don't end. I get you are writing a trilogy but there should be some sort of narrative closure at the end of one of the books in the trilogy. That keeps this from being a five star review.

As for the actual book, the world is fascinating and well-built. It's a little light on the details of the magic/alchemy involved but that seems intentional since the main characters don't know about it either. There are clear parallels here with slavery (obvious) and colonialism (less obvious) which lend a depth to the novel. Adding to this deeper heft are the discussions of consciousness that occur throughout the novel. I hope for more of that to come in future books in the series.

The characters are well-drawn except for the two female characters which I kept confusing in early parts of the book. I'm imagining this might be intentional but it also seems a bit like the result of stereotypical characters.

One of the more fascinating bits in the book is the Clakker language. It's a smart invention and helps serve not only the narrative but also the deeper themes. I thoroughly enjoyed thinking through the implications of this "hidden in plain sight" notion even as it might apply to modern technology.

I'll likely read the next in the series at some point. ( )