Escapement - Jay Lake

I had been looking forward to this book ever since reading Mainspring, so I was happy to myself a copy.

The book is set a couple of years after the events in Mainspring. The world still turns and most people seem to have forgotten that there was ever something wrong. We meet up with two characters from the first book, namely Chief al-Wazir and the Librarian Childress. The first is sent to the Wall to watch over an expedition trying to drill through the wall. The latter is sent away from Boston by the Avebianco to be tried for her involvement with Hethor. Both will meet Paolina, a girl from the Wall, who built a clockwork that can change the world.

The tale is told in a way that reminded me of Gibson's Neuromancer, i.e. three seperate yet interwoven story lines and paints a wonderfully rich picture of the various cultures both on the wall and on te flat water earth. We also, finally, get a closer look at the biggest threat to the British Empire: the Chinese one. Lake manages to make them look almost alien.

Much to my surprise the book promises a third part, titled Pinion¹.

Recommended

¹Thanks Beth