The Fifth Automaton Scavenger Reviews
Aug. 20th, 2015 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
I plowed through a couple of books so let's talk about 'em.
First up Fifth House of the Heart by Ben Tripp. I was pretty jazzed about this book from the blurb and it didn't disappoint.
Asmodeous Saxon-Tang is an antiques dealer in his late 60'/early 70's who's made a comfortable fortune selling old and interesting items to the public. Where does he get his stock of wares to sell? Like any other dealer he goes to auctions and estate sales and the like. Unlike any other dealer, he also tracks down vampires, kills them and takes their horde of stuff. But Asmodeous is getting on and even in his younger days it was always a race between his greed for rare treasure vs. his deep desire to stay the hell away from near-immortal monsters. Now he figures that's all behind him and he can just settle down to a quiet life. Then he gets into a bidding war over an old clock and pays far too much for it.
The other bidder was, naturally, a vampire and now Sax has to assemble a team of experts to take care of the vampire before it takes care of him.
There is so much to like in this story. It's fun when protagonists are old -- what motivates an 18 year-old farm boy to save the world is a lot different than an 80 year-old. Older protagonists have a better sense of the stakes and the likelihood of failure so they have to make full use of their experience. It's also means that Sax has to put a team together and teams are a lot more interesting than The Lone Hero. Sax puts together a pretty good one with members from all over the world, male and female.
The vampires themselves are pretty good too. They aren't Dracula movie-vampires, they've got a more parasitic/predatory bent and they come in a variety of forms. They're also very dangerous and while modern weaponry is effective, they're very tough to kill.
Honestly, I was hoping for more of a caper/heist angle to the book when I picked it up, but it didn't really come out that way. It was all right in the end because it was really more of a D&D adventure -- go face down terrible evils, kill them, and take their stuff. Luckily, the writing elevates it from a tired dungeon crawler (though there are dungeons).
Anyway, I really enjoyed the book. If these things matter to you it does pass the Bechdel test, there are POCs on the team who make valuable contributions and Sax himself is gay. Beyond the liberal checkboxes, it's a well done adventure story of man vs. monster. Well worth checking out.
After that I picked up What Ho, Automaton! (A Reeves and Worcester Steampunk Mystery) by Chris Dolley. Many of you will probably deduce the conceit. Mr. Dolley has done up a Steampunk pastiche of P.G. Wodehouse's Worcester and Jeeves stories. In this particular story, Reeves is a steam-powered android who had been stuffed into the cupboard of the Drone's Club and forgotten until Regie Worcester rescues him. Reeves helps Worcester break up a bad engagement and then the pair solve the mystery of the missing debutantes.
It was a fun read, but the central idea of Worcester solving crimes (real crimes like kidnappings) just doesn't work for me. If they were shallow, petty crimes then yes, absolutely, but Bertie Worcester is all about avoiding serious matters (or minor matters if they involve a lot of work). Also, Worcester seems rather ignorant of a lot of Steampunk tropes and again, I see Worcester as someone who is an early adopter even when they don't understand the inner workings of their new toys. In the Wodehouse books, Bertie is always mad about some new craze. In this book, he seems to be constantly surprised at steampunk tech. To be fair, he still loves his car (a Stanley Steamer of course).
Finally, I dipped into YA and read through Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. I picked it up because there were favorable comparisons to the Westing Game and it posits a world-wide community of people who hide books and then leave clues for other people to find them (a bit like geocaching).
Twelve year old Emily Crane has just arrived in San Francisco. Her family is on a quest to live in all 50-states so she moves around quite a bit. She's also a Book Scavenger -- she hides, finds and reads books. The Book Scavenger site is set up and maintained by beloved children's author Garrison Griswold. As the family moves in, Emily meets up with James, a kid her age who also loves puzzles and ciphers (though he doesn't care much for book scavenging). The day she moves in is also the day when Mr. Griswold gets shot at a BART station and rushed to the hospital.
Bumming around town, Emily and James go down to the BART station and discover a book, The Gold Bug by Poe. Reading through the book, Emily notices some strange discrepancies and that kicks off a book/treasure hunt all across San Francisco.
I'm trying to decide if I didn't really care for the book or if I'm just not reading it like a kid. I suspect I don't care for it. I think part of my problem is that the book tries too hard to tie to other books and to real-world things. Mr. Griswold is described as looking like Willy Wonky and that resemblance is remarked upon several times. The Tourism Board of San Francisco should be sending regular checks to Ms. Bertman considering how many landmarks Emily and Co. hit up. I think a children's book should always be a little vague about the place that it's set in -- the idea that it could be almost anywhere.
While I was reading this I was also listening to the audiobook version of Swallows And Amazons by Arthur Ransome. I've ready the physical book a couple times already and had the audiobook on standby for a long drive with children. Turns out it wasn't needed but I had so I listened to it. I really preferred Swallows to Scavengers -- it just felt less encumbered. Granted, Swallows was written in the 1930 so no cell phones or computers or stuff. Still, it seemed to have a better focus on what it was trying to do and who it was written for.
In the end, I suppose I'd have to give Scavengers to a kid and see what they think. But I'd give them Swallows well before that.
later
Tom
I plowed through a couple of books so let's talk about 'em.
First up Fifth House of the Heart by Ben Tripp. I was pretty jazzed about this book from the blurb and it didn't disappoint.
Asmodeous Saxon-Tang is an antiques dealer in his late 60'/early 70's who's made a comfortable fortune selling old and interesting items to the public. Where does he get his stock of wares to sell? Like any other dealer he goes to auctions and estate sales and the like. Unlike any other dealer, he also tracks down vampires, kills them and takes their horde of stuff. But Asmodeous is getting on and even in his younger days it was always a race between his greed for rare treasure vs. his deep desire to stay the hell away from near-immortal monsters. Now he figures that's all behind him and he can just settle down to a quiet life. Then he gets into a bidding war over an old clock and pays far too much for it.
The other bidder was, naturally, a vampire and now Sax has to assemble a team of experts to take care of the vampire before it takes care of him.
There is so much to like in this story. It's fun when protagonists are old -- what motivates an 18 year-old farm boy to save the world is a lot different than an 80 year-old. Older protagonists have a better sense of the stakes and the likelihood of failure so they have to make full use of their experience. It's also means that Sax has to put a team together and teams are a lot more interesting than The Lone Hero. Sax puts together a pretty good one with members from all over the world, male and female.
The vampires themselves are pretty good too. They aren't Dracula movie-vampires, they've got a more parasitic/predatory bent and they come in a variety of forms. They're also very dangerous and while modern weaponry is effective, they're very tough to kill.
Honestly, I was hoping for more of a caper/heist angle to the book when I picked it up, but it didn't really come out that way. It was all right in the end because it was really more of a D&D adventure -- go face down terrible evils, kill them, and take their stuff. Luckily, the writing elevates it from a tired dungeon crawler (though there are dungeons).
Anyway, I really enjoyed the book. If these things matter to you it does pass the Bechdel test, there are POCs on the team who make valuable contributions and Sax himself is gay. Beyond the liberal checkboxes, it's a well done adventure story of man vs. monster. Well worth checking out.
After that I picked up What Ho, Automaton! (A Reeves and Worcester Steampunk Mystery) by Chris Dolley. Many of you will probably deduce the conceit. Mr. Dolley has done up a Steampunk pastiche of P.G. Wodehouse's Worcester and Jeeves stories. In this particular story, Reeves is a steam-powered android who had been stuffed into the cupboard of the Drone's Club and forgotten until Regie Worcester rescues him. Reeves helps Worcester break up a bad engagement and then the pair solve the mystery of the missing debutantes.
It was a fun read, but the central idea of Worcester solving crimes (real crimes like kidnappings) just doesn't work for me. If they were shallow, petty crimes then yes, absolutely, but Bertie Worcester is all about avoiding serious matters (or minor matters if they involve a lot of work). Also, Worcester seems rather ignorant of a lot of Steampunk tropes and again, I see Worcester as someone who is an early adopter even when they don't understand the inner workings of their new toys. In the Wodehouse books, Bertie is always mad about some new craze. In this book, he seems to be constantly surprised at steampunk tech. To be fair, he still loves his car (a Stanley Steamer of course).
Finally, I dipped into YA and read through Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. I picked it up because there were favorable comparisons to the Westing Game and it posits a world-wide community of people who hide books and then leave clues for other people to find them (a bit like geocaching).
Twelve year old Emily Crane has just arrived in San Francisco. Her family is on a quest to live in all 50-states so she moves around quite a bit. She's also a Book Scavenger -- she hides, finds and reads books. The Book Scavenger site is set up and maintained by beloved children's author Garrison Griswold. As the family moves in, Emily meets up with James, a kid her age who also loves puzzles and ciphers (though he doesn't care much for book scavenging). The day she moves in is also the day when Mr. Griswold gets shot at a BART station and rushed to the hospital.
Bumming around town, Emily and James go down to the BART station and discover a book, The Gold Bug by Poe. Reading through the book, Emily notices some strange discrepancies and that kicks off a book/treasure hunt all across San Francisco.
I'm trying to decide if I didn't really care for the book or if I'm just not reading it like a kid. I suspect I don't care for it. I think part of my problem is that the book tries too hard to tie to other books and to real-world things. Mr. Griswold is described as looking like Willy Wonky and that resemblance is remarked upon several times. The Tourism Board of San Francisco should be sending regular checks to Ms. Bertman considering how many landmarks Emily and Co. hit up. I think a children's book should always be a little vague about the place that it's set in -- the idea that it could be almost anywhere.
While I was reading this I was also listening to the audiobook version of Swallows And Amazons by Arthur Ransome. I've ready the physical book a couple times already and had the audiobook on standby for a long drive with children. Turns out it wasn't needed but I had so I listened to it. I really preferred Swallows to Scavengers -- it just felt less encumbered. Granted, Swallows was written in the 1930 so no cell phones or computers or stuff. Still, it seemed to have a better focus on what it was trying to do and who it was written for.
In the end, I suppose I'd have to give Scavengers to a kid and see what they think. But I'd give them Swallows well before that.
later
Tom
