July's choice for the ERC is The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis, the first in his new Alchemy Wars series. There were plenty of options for steampunk sci-fi, but something about The Mechanical struck me as different. The concept behind The Mechanical is one that is familiar, ever since the revelation of Asimov's I, Robot: that of robot sentience and self-awareness. Set in an alternative universe where Dutch scientist Christiaan Hyugens invented a magic-imbued clockwork automaton for use in the Dutch army, revolutionizing the technological advancement of the era, as well as the tenuous link between the Dutch and the French. 300 years after this discovery, the Dutch Empire has incorporated these mechanicals into every fiber of their society. Jax is a servitor mechanical, known colloquially as a Clakker in the jargon of the text, which is a mechanical man bound by something called a geas, an intrinsic set of rules and requirements the mechanicals are physically incapable of disobeying. The story opens with Jax on a mission from his owners, taking a painful break to watch some heretics being hanged, including a rogue Clakker. Jax watches as his compatriot declares his freedom from the geasa, and it is a beautiful juxtaposition of the nearly incapacitating strictures of the geasa under which Jax still labors and the apparent free will and self-actualization of the rogue Clakker who staunchly meets his unmaking. It is established from the back cover blurb that Jax would at some point become such a rogue, and it is part of our journey as readers to watch this unfold.
One of the most salient threads throughout The Mechanical is the discussion of the soul and what it means to have Free Will. Jax's errand to begin the our story is to visit Pastor Vissor, who is, unbeknownst to him, a secret French Catholic and therefore heretical member of the underground revolution. I will give fair warning that after this paragraph there will be slight SPOILERS, so read on if you dare. The thread becomes even more tangled when Jax and Visser meet again toward the end of the book, after Jax has been freed of the geasa and possesses his own Free Will. The snarl is that Visser was captured in his attempt to elude the authorities and was forced to undergo an experimental procedure that imbued him, a human being, with the painful and unbreakable geasa. So, the next time they meet, their roles in the narrative have essentially been reversed, and Jax spends a good amount of time pondering how their respective "souls" change throughout the text:
This dichotomy is dealt with in many different and subtle ways throughout the text, proving that Tregillis is truly emerging as one of the top new voices of his genre. His writing style is eloquent and practiced, and his vocabulary is to die for. Tregillis is so deft with his perspective shifts: it is as simple as changing the pronouns used in reference to Clakkers depending upon who is speaking. For example, at one point when Jax is freed from the geasa, he meets a high-ranking but disgraced member of the French resistance who has different views on Clakkers than most of Dutch society, but still sees them as not entirely citizenry. As Tregillis shifted perspectives between Jax and this revolutionary, the pronouns used to describe Jax shifted from he/him to it almost imperceptibly and I loved it.
One of the most salient threads throughout The Mechanical is the discussion of the soul and what it means to have Free Will. Jax's errand to begin the our story is to visit Pastor Vissor, who is, unbeknownst to him, a secret French Catholic and therefore heretical member of the underground revolution. I will give fair warning that after this paragraph there will be slight SPOILERS, so read on if you dare. The thread becomes even more tangled when Jax and Visser meet again toward the end of the book, after Jax has been freed of the geasa and possesses his own Free Will. The snarl is that Visser was captured in his attempt to elude the authorities and was forced to undergo an experimental procedure that imbued him, a human being, with the painful and unbreakable geasa. So, the next time they meet, their roles in the narrative have essentially been reversed, and Jax spends a good amount of time pondering how their respective "souls" change throughout the text:
"This shell before him wore the flesh of Pastor Luuk Visser. But its soul, if it had a soul, had changed. This man-shaped thing before him was something twisted." (p346)At earlier places in the text, references are made to Jax being human-shaped, so this is an especially striking comparison of Visser's change. The line between human and machine is blurred, as is the heretofore-apparent characteristics separating one from another.
This dichotomy is dealt with in many different and subtle ways throughout the text, proving that Tregillis is truly emerging as one of the top new voices of his genre. His writing style is eloquent and practiced, and his vocabulary is to die for. Tregillis is so deft with his perspective shifts: it is as simple as changing the pronouns used in reference to Clakkers depending upon who is speaking. For example, at one point when Jax is freed from the geasa, he meets a high-ranking but disgraced member of the French resistance who has different views on Clakkers than most of Dutch society, but still sees them as not entirely citizenry. As Tregillis shifted perspectives between Jax and this revolutionary, the pronouns used to describe Jax shifted from he/him to it almost imperceptibly and I loved it.
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