Mainspring

By Jay Lake.
Begun 01 Sep 2008; finished 07 Sep.
Review originally written on 18 Dec 2008.

A novel with a steampunk setting and a Stephan Martiniere cover! Clockwork angels, a world that revolves by gears in a literal Primum Mobile! Of course I had to read Jay Lake’s Mainspring, if only to discover this singular reinterpretation of Earth in a clockwork/steampunk universe. Unfortunately, this novel fell far short of my expectations, and I’m rather disappointed in both the story and the world.

The premise of Mainspring is simple: the mainspring of Earth is slowing down, and the apprentice clockmaker Hethor is given the quest of winding up the world again. This promised to be an adventure-quest novel, where I would discover more of this world and all of Western civilization reinterpreted in clockwork logic. Indeed, Hethor’s adventure started off with a bang: his world is suddenly filled with political intrigue, exciting escapades, a secret code that he becomes privy to, strangers whom he falls in with (whose motives are yet uncertain), and his adventures in an airship travelling to faraway, exotic, Oriental lands. A good promise of lots of adventure and intrigue and excitement.

The world of the Western civilization was just as splendid. Lake exercises his creativity well, in imagining the United States still a British colony, the Moon and planets revolving on visible tracks through the sky (and the ease of astronomy and navigation that offers), Christianity in terms of the Brass Christ and perfectly crafted angelic beings, zeppelins and air-sailors, secret societies harbouring esoteric knowledge, the Wall of the Equator’s brass track and the exotic lands beyond, and a precise logic and rationality to the world. This was most fascinating, and I wanted to find out more about how this Western civilization operated.

But… all of that petered out somewhere in the middle of the novel, about the time that Hethor reaches the Equatorial Wall and crosses over into the savage tropical jungles far from civilized lands. Somehow all the fascinating world of the West just disappeared into oblivion. The characters Hethor meets, the schemes he initially falls into… all gone, as if they were only vessels to carry him to the Wall. All of the excitement and promise evaporated into nothing, leaving little more than a foot-slogging journey through jungle and wilds, Hethor’s strange falling-in with native savages, and a conclusion that was strange and illogical.

Ouch. What a jarring transition, as if it were two separate stories. Now there’s nothing wrong with this sea change, what with jungles being a world away from the civilized West. But I’m still baffled — firstly by how all the Western characters and intrigue disappeared as if they never were (and barely made any impression on Hethor either), without any reason or repercussion. It could well be that Hethor’s quest, important as it is, passed largely unnoticed by the high and mighty, indeed, would be hindered by them. But Mainspring really is sloppy; I felt that that many things were begun but none were concluded properly; in fact, they were left hanging and forgotten. This abrupt dangling of potential plot threads was very tangible.

Furthermore, I could not reconcile the savage jungle natives with this steampunk world. The clockwork universe permeates all levels of the Western civilization — technology, religion, politics, science. Yet nothing about the natives suggest that their existence is influenced by their universe, save for the most superficial “spirituality” (discussed later). They could well have originated from our Earth, so indifferent were they to the clockwork. Surely even most uncivilized peoples would be influenced by the ordering of a universe so tangible as this one! Again, it could be that the natives were being contrasted with the extreme logicality and rationality of Western civilization. But even this is not consistent with the worldview that Lake has espoused in this universe.

The novel’s conclusion was a huge letdown. Prior to this, Hethor had developed a kind of mystic spirituality during his journey, based on the mechanism of the clockwork universe and God’s identity within it. It didn’t work for me, mostly because I couldn’t see how or where the revelation/epiphany of the true nature of God and the universe came to Hethor. I tend to be critical of religions/spiritualities made up by authors. eg. Heinlein’s concept of God is believable, but I don’t agree with it. I’m still skeptical of Card’s, but there is some rationality behind it. Lake’s is juvenile; compared to those authors, it’s a load of peanuts. It seemed trite and superficial to me, an attempt at spirituality that falls flat. This was further compounded by Hethor’s manifestation of supernatural powers — itself interesting, but I couldn’t fathom either the rationale of Hethor suddenly acquiring them, or how/why he would wield them with such power! (Godmodding in novels is bad, bad!) But even more disappointing was the climax and conclusion, which seemed sloppy and not even faintly climactic. It appeared that Lake had run out of novel-writing steam, and just wanted to finish off the book.

In all, Mainspring was a basketcase of inconsistencies and sloppiness. The first half introduced rich intrigue and significant plot points that would be revisited later. This exciting narrative was completely discarded in the second half for a simplistic, bland, quest-adventure storyline. Alas, the novel promised me many things but delivered none of them. Perhaps I may be unfair, lambasting Mainspring for not living up to my expectations. Maybe my expectations were unreasonably high and this review too hard. But oh! I was so eager to read an interesting steampunk tale, but all these hopes were dashed, at the end of the story I couldn’t help feeling somehow robbed of pleasure.

I’m now wary of Jay Lake’s novels; a while back I attempted to read Trial of Flowers but didn’t get far, partly because the narrative was quite convoluted and didn’t grab me. In contrast, the few short stories that I’ve read were masterful, so I think Lake is far superior at short fiction than full novels. However, it seems that Escapement is much better than Mainspring, so I may give this world another chance.