A masked terrorist has brought London to its knees -- there are bombs inside books, and nobody knows which ones. On the day of the launch of the first expedition to Mars, by giant cannon, he outdoes himself with an audacious attack. For young poet Orphan, trapped in the screaming audience, it seems his destiny is entwined with that of the shadowy terrorist, but how? Like a steam-powered take on V for Vendetta, rich with satire and slashed through with automatons, giant lizards, pirates, airships and wild adventure, The Bookman is the first of a series. File under: Steampunk [Serial killer | Alternate Victorian London | Exploding Books | Historical Crime]
Bookman, The (Angry Robot)
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Review
"An emerging master" -- LOCUS Magazine Praise for Lavie's short fiction: "Tidhar beautifully evokes the power of technology " - The Fix, reviewing The Dying World (Clarkesworld Magazine) "richly detailed characters in a well paced and well thought out story" - Tangent reviewing The Pattern Makers of Zanzibar (Murky Depths) "Tidhar's story reads like a drug-infused John Le Carre novel, if Le Carre wrote science fiction and dropped LSD as he pounded on the typewriter... an amazing accomplishment, and highly recommended." - The Fix, reviewing The Shangri-La Affair (Strange Horizons) "Sultry and crackling, Lavie Tidhar's prose intimately evokes Ethiopian [?] weather and the high-running emotions of his characters." - Tangent, reviewing What The Thunder Said (Strange Horizons) "It's stomach churning and very sweet at the same time, bizarreness and beauty like most of Tidhar's stories." - The Fix, reviewing The Butcher and The Flykeeper - A Christmas Love Story (Murky Depths) "The strength of this work is the setting. It is incredibly inventive and fun... a wonderful story, especially for those who enjoy the more surreal edges of speculative fiction." - Tangent, reviewing High Noon in Clown Town (Postscripts "Tidhar's story is classic noir, but with its tongue firmly in its cheek from beginning to end. A very enjoyable read." - The Fix, reviewing Hard Rain at the Fortean Cafe (Aeon)
About the Author
Currently based in Laos, in South-East Asia, Lavie is an Israeli who has lived in places as exotic as Vanuatu, South Africa and Britain. As well as a clutch of highly regarded short stories and novellas, his website World SF has attracted much attention for focussing specifically on the SF and fantasy produced in non-English speaking countries of the world.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a type of book I'm beginning to refer to as a Dog's Breakfast Novel; it's messy, there's a little bit of everything, and hopefully it's palatable to the tongue and not simply snouts and entrails. What I mean is, the author seemingly throws everything into the mix, and in order for it to work, it better have verve, style, and entertainment value galore, or it's going to be really sticky (Gord Zajac's recent Major Karnage is another such example). Luckily, Lavie Tidhar (of the gloriously weird The Tel Aviv Dossier) has style to spare, and his steampunk adventure novel echoes Verne and Wells while reviving the go-for-broke cliffhanger style of classic pulp fiction. Tidhar's narrative ' set in an alternative history Victorian England where automatons converse with humans, martian probes are being launched into space, and intelligent lizards rule the land 'is a hodge-podge of indelibly cool ideas and gee-whiz enthusiasm, wrapped in loving affection for the genre and its progenitors. Tidhar has great fun mixing historical personalities such as Karl Marx and Jules Verne with fictional heroes of the time, and the pages are rife with in-jokes for the literary crowd. I cannot say as I fully understood the complexities of the plot (it gets sensationally strange at times), but as Orphan's adventures unravel, I found I didn't care. I'll be looking up the sequels Camera Obscura and The Great Game: The Bookman Histories, Book 3 as soon as I can.
Read the full review on my blog at [...]
Read the full review on my blog at [...]
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars
20 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshing and Enjoyable
Mar 7 2011
By Amber Marie
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first started this book with rather low expectations. It had several mixed reviews on Amazon, and I wasn't so sure about some of the concepts, such as lizards as the current royalty. However, I ended up really enjoying this book!
It was an strangely absorbing take on a revolution, complete with robots fighting for independence and equal rights, alien invaders, a love story, and strange but enjoyable appearances of well known people and characters. Jules Verne, Karl Marx, and Moriarty all show up, to name a few. The plot is, to put it bluntly, extraordinarily weird at parts, but somehow that doesn't get in the way of the story (which, by the way, is wonderfully full of twists and turns). Plus, Tidhar writes beautifully, with a distinct and very refreshing style. I disagree with another reviewer who said that Bookman was 'nothing new'. I thought it was very original. I read a lot a books, and I've never read one like this. While that's normally a bad thing, it was a great thing here.
I'd recommend it to steampunk fans and fantasy fans alike.
It was an strangely absorbing take on a revolution, complete with robots fighting for independence and equal rights, alien invaders, a love story, and strange but enjoyable appearances of well known people and characters. Jules Verne, Karl Marx, and Moriarty all show up, to name a few. The plot is, to put it bluntly, extraordinarily weird at parts, but somehow that doesn't get in the way of the story (which, by the way, is wonderfully full of twists and turns). Plus, Tidhar writes beautifully, with a distinct and very refreshing style. I disagree with another reviewer who said that Bookman was 'nothing new'. I thought it was very original. I read a lot a books, and I've never read one like this. While that's normally a bad thing, it was a great thing here.
I'd recommend it to steampunk fans and fantasy fans alike.
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not For Everyone
Oct 5 2010
By Nickolas X. P. Sharps
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I really have difficulty reviewing this book. It was a struggle for me to read The Bookman all the way through, only having spent money on it persuaded me to continue. Let me say that I don't think this is a bad book by any means, in fact it might be a good book. The Bookman just isn't the book for me. I didn't much care for Orphan, he never seemed to be his own man, as a character he was just a pawn in everyone else's game. He undertakes the adventure to save his beloved but the path from beginning to end is so convoluted that I found it hard to follow. There are a lot of literary references and historical figures which would probably be of great enjoyment to some readers. I personally felt like The Bookman tried to be too clever for its own good. The whole book felt really superfluous, the pseudo-steampunk setting was intriguing at first but it never really developed into a fully realized idea.
I feel like I should have more to say about this book after giving it a 2 star rating but I'm at a loss for words. The Bookman probably offers a unique experience to a different type of reader but to me reading it felt like a hassle.
I feel like I should have more to say about this book after giving it a 2 star rating but I'm at a loss for words. The Bookman probably offers a unique experience to a different type of reader but to me reading it felt like a hassle.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor Writing Style
Feb 7 2013
By Tex leChien
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Poorly constructed metaphors and similies, purple prose, reminds me of entries to the Bulwer-Lytton contest. The story picks up somewhat in the latter part of the book, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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