Tag: James T. Lambert

DETAILS:
Series: Moon Men, Book One
Publisher: Bert Books
Publication Date: November 18, 2022
Format: Paperback
Length: 416 pg.
Read Date: July 8-12, 2024

What’s Steam Opera About?

I’m both tired and apt to meander too much when trying to answer this question, so I’m just going to lift the answer from Lambert’s website:

London, England, 1894

Patrick Smythe lives a comfortable life in London coming up with new inventions. His close friend Thomas Melton finances many of these ventures and together they advance technology. Geoffrey Trenton takes the occasional investigative work after retiring from Scotland Yard.

Airships fill the sky

The world is on the move with dirigibles and Zeppelins hauling freight and passengers. On land and sea people travel at will in an era of plenty.

Unbridled invention fills the laboratories

New discoveries fill the news as scientists probe past the boundaries of human knowledge. Every field advances as knowledge of the natural world drives new innovation.

Telescopes scan the heavens

The Royal Observatory at Greenwich has a new telescope and the astronomers are using it to view the universe. Even when they’ve been told to take the night off. A strange discovery and a brutal murder draws Trenton out of retirement to investigate.

And we want to go to the moon!

Patrick develops his most ambitious project: a trip to the moon and back! With Thomas’s help securing financing and Trenton running security, what could possibly go wrong? But a mysterious organization wants to prevent this and will go to any length to stop them!

My Big Complaint

The next section will touch on a maybe larger concern. Or maybe it’s a quirk. I’m not sure. But I had an easier time getting over it than this part. There’s a quick arc that introduces us to the future security chief for this endeavor—it starts out pretty interesting, maybe more interesting than the “go to the moon” story at that point. And just as that story gets your hooks into you…it’s dropped. I do think that I can see where and how Lambert is going to pick it up again in the future. But the way he abandoned the story in this novel was abrupt and off-putting.

Lambert is capable of better.

Um…Where’s all the Steam?

You call something Steam Opera, you set it in the latter 1800s in London, you make it about inventors and engineers (among others), you give it that color scheme and cover design—you sorta indicate to your reader that this is going to be a Steampunk novel.

But we really don’t get one—we get a lot of Zepplins and dirigibles, science that’s more advanced than it should be, and the rest of it is pretty era-appropriate. No gadgets, no science that’s hard to pull off on this side of the Industrial or Digital Revolutions. Sure, there are plenty of people wearing goggles—but that’s about it. This is the least Steam-punky Steampunk I think I’ve read.

And I know Lambert can pull off Steampunk gadgets—Aether Powered demonstrated that clearly. So why not here?

Really, why not?

So, what did I think about Steam Opera?

Okay—all I’ve really said after the description sounds negative, and I don’t want to sound that way. Because once you get past the above quibbles (which is really pretty easy), this is a perfectly entertaining read.

This is easily the most ambitious of Lambert’s first three novels, and his writing has improved over what his first books delivered (and I liked those I want to stress). His characters, prose, eye for detail, and imagination are better represented here (as is a capability to carry a story for another 100 pages or so than he has in the past). If he keeps improving like this, he should get the fanbase he deserves.

Lambert does a good job with the pacing—sometimes it seems he speeds up more than is advisable, and occasionally he swings the other way—but overall, he keeps things moving well enough to keep you engaged while dipping into some pretty technical areas (even if the technology is made up). It’d have been very easy for him to get so into the technical descriptions that he’d kill any momentum and turn this thing into a slog. All things considered, he made the right choices on that front.

And the technical bits themselves? I think Lambert really succeded there—both the way he adapted Zepplin-esque technology to mimic the work that the Atlas and other rockets did in our timeline and in the way he described their flight while still in Earth’s atmosphere—I bought it all. It seemed plausible enough for this world (moreso than, say, the music devices that The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences enjoyed, for example)—particularly the in-flight moments.

I wouldn’t have minded some more named characters—and some female characters would’ve been good to see*. This is very much a book about Moon Men. However, the characters we did get were engaging and interesting (even the antagonists). The more time we spent with all of them, the more I wanted to spend time with them—which is always a good sign.

* The lack of female characters probably deserves its own section, I now realize—but what more is there to say? Yes, the Victorian-era was dominated by men in engineering and business, so it helps things ocme across as more realistic to not have women around. But if we’re going for that level of realism…maybe keep everyone on Earth?

What we learn in the closing pages and what leads up to them is came out of nowhere—or so it seems, but really didn’t. What’s better is it sets up the next book and satisfies your curiosity about “Why is this a Book One?” Sure, it creates a whole bunch of new curiosity about Book Two (and maybe beyond, I’m not sure how long Lambert is thinking), but that’s the point. As long as you give me some answers, you can add all the questions you want.

In short, I had plenty of fun with this book and this world, and am eager to return to it. As good as Lambert’s next release, Relics of War, looks—I can’t help but be irked that it’s not Moon Men Book Two. I really want to know where he’s going with this. But that’s a problem for future-H.C. Present-H.C. is happy to recommend this to you and strongly suggests you become familiar with the very pleasant experience that is reading a James T. Lambert novel.

3 Stars

Literary Locals logo

Proxies by James T. Lambert: The Marx Brothers, Interstellar Threats, a Meddling Mother—Proxies Has it All

By HCNewton

On September 4, 2023

In Fiction, Literary Locals, Science Fiction

Proxies

by James T. Lambert

DETAILS:
Publisher: Bert Books
Publication Date: August 13, 2022
Format: Paperback
Length: 246 pg.
Read Date: July 19-20, 2023

What’s Proxies About?

Jair Howard is a tech working to maintain the Faster-Than-Light network. Lambert doesn’t give us a lot of details about it, so I’m going to give you even less. The pilot he works with during his maintenance runs, Merab, is his girlfriend. Or maybe. Jair’s reluctance to commit to starting a family has put things on the ropes.

A bigger—or more pressing, anyway—concern is that during their last trip, Jair found some disturbing evidence of hacking into the security network. He’s having trouble convincing anyone of it because the evidence is largely gone. Jair keeps digging, though, he knows what he saw and anyone who can do what he saw—and remove all traces of it—is someone to worry about. Then some of the evidence reappears, and it points at Jair. Suddenly everyone who doubted what he said about a security breach believes it and is coming for him.

To keep his freedom for a little while longer—and hopefully to find proof of what’s really going on—he needs to get into space and get access to the network. The only way that’s going to happen is with Merab’s help.

Remember When AI Wasn’t the Enemy?

Jair doesn’t work alone—in fact, he doesn’t do most of the work. He has a team of AIs helping him. Jair’s a classic movie fan. Black and White Movies that we consider classics today—he’s far enough into the future that he has to think of them as practically ancient. He’s such a fan that he’s given his four primary AIs the names and personalities of the Marx Brothers.

He spends a lot of time tweaking their personalities and humor to get them to better match the versions he knows from film—and finding a way to get Harpo to be able to communicate what he needs to while capturing the essence of the silent brother. It’s something for him to fiddle with while waiting during interstellar travel or while a report generates and the like.

It’s a fun bit of whimsy in the book—and it felt very strange to read while being hit with headline after headline after headline about the problems with AIs this summer.

So, what did I think about Proxies?

The heart of this book isn’t the threat posed by the hacking that Jair found and then lost, etc. Nor is it the efforts that he and Merab undertook to expose and maybe stop the threat. It’s in Merab and Jair’s efforts to get their relationship to work. The bulk of that is on Jair, to be sure—but Merab has some work to do, too.

That’s about all I’m willing to say about that, although it deserves more—because Lambert did a great job with that. As much as I enjoyed the relationships that the protagonist of his first book found himself in, they didn’t feel as grounded as this one. They were clearly there to serve a story, create conflict, and so on. Here, the relationship is the story—and that makes all the difference. If he continues to grow as an author this way, I’m going to be happy reading him for a long time.

This is a Space Opera, so the details of space flight and other science-y stuff don’t need to be really well worked out or discussed—which is good, because Lambert doesn’t bother to (whether that’s because of the genre, or he went with the genre so he didn’t have to doesn’t matter). And a lot of the detailed work into the investigation can be waved away with “Groucho and Zeppo did a thing and came back to tell Jair the results.” I both wanted to see more of the science-y/investigation bits and was perfectly satisfied with the lack of them, because that left time for all the people-y stuff. (I’m clearly in the mood to talk in generalities today).

If you’re looking for some light Space Opera with a lot of heart—you’ll want to pick up Proxies. If you’re not looking for that, you still might want to try it, it’s a fun way to spend a few hours.

3 Stars

Irresponsible Reader Pilcrow Icon

Aether Powered by James T. Lambert: 21st Century Steampunk

By HCNewton

On December 15, 2022

In Literary Locals, Science Fiction, Steampunk

Literary Locals logo I’ve got a fun Q&A with the author, James T. Lambert, coming up in an hour or so—be sure to come back for it!

Aether Powered

by James T. Lambert

DETAILS:
Publisher: Bert Books
Publication Date: January 18, 2022
Format: Paperback
Length: 224 pg.
Read Date: November 30, 2022

What’s Aether Powered About?

I feel like I’m in danger of just going full-bore “here’s everything that happened in the novel” or not really giving you enough to know what the book’s about. Let’s give it the ol’ college try, though.

Joseph is studying Electrical Engineering and is just scraping by—his gig in the bar can pay the bills and come close to treating his girlfriend, Carol, in the manner she is accustomed to. But there’s no wiggle room in his budget—so when he gets an inheritance from his weird uncle, he could really use some money. Instead, he gets an oddly heavy trunk. Which isn’t going to do much for the huge tax bill he just received that’s going to hit his financial house of cards like a bowling ball.

The trunk is full of odd-looking bits and pieces, strange devices, sketches, and notes from a distant relative who’d collaborated with Nicola Tesla. Joseph doesn’t know what to make of them. He plays around with one a little bit and discovers that it seemingly has anti-gravity properties. Anti-gravity? You don’t have to think too hard to realize this could be the solution to his money problems—and a few other problems as well.

But wait…what was that thing Uncle Harry said about “Malevolent powers are at work…would do anything to secure this…”? Maybe Joesph should’ve paid a bit more attention to that because before he can figure out how to use the device to his advantage, someone tries to take it.

Joesph and Carol find themselves on the run and looking for allies they can trust (and end up finding in the least expected places).

Carol

The charitable way of describing Joseph’s girlfriend is that she’s “a real piece of work.” You know that at one point there had to be something between Carol and Joseph beyond the fact that she’s attractive, but they’ve been together long enough that it’s not evident why. The relationship isn’t in a great place, but when Joseph calls for help—she answers.

She’s out for herself at the same time, but she’s there to help, too. She proves to be both resourceful and creative.

I cannot tell you, however, how much time I spent wondering why Joesph was with her. It’s an interesting choice on Lambert’s part because I can’t imagine a lot of readers are going to warm to her for long. A morally gray protagonist, an anti-hero, or that sort of thing is pretty easy to get behind—some readers are drawn to them. But an unlikeable love interest is harder to accept (at least as I’ve been thinking about it since I read the book, maybe I’ll think of exceptions to this later). I think it’s a gutsy move, and I think it pays off.

The Seafair Pirates

On the other hand, you have the Seafair Pirates…these guys are great. There’s never a moment of doubt about what the reader is supposed to think about them, and I can’t believe a reader isn’t gladly going to fall in line.

Without getting into details they’re a bunch of people from a variety of backgrounds and industries in the Seattle area who like to get together, cosplay as pirates, drink a lot, sing pirate songs (they probably would’ve really gotten into the sea shanty craze of a year or so ago), and generally have fun together. A series of events brings Joseph into contact with them and they also end up proving to be a great source of aid to him in his struggles.

I’m not going to say more from a risk of oversharing, but I’d sign up for another book featuring them with or without Joseph.

The Steampunk Science

Most (not all) Steampunk that I’ve read dips a toe into the science, and explains a little bit of what’s going on in their contraptions, but largely, it can be summed up as: there’s a thing and it works. Not unlike the way that Philip Marlowe turns on a lamp or Kinsey Millhone uses a pay phone—we don’t need to know how electricity lights a bulb or how you can deposit coins into a…you know what? Never mind, that might not be the best example anymore.

The point I was trying to make is that Lambert doesn’t get down into the nitty-gritty to give us an explanation for how the devices from the trunk function. There was a part of me that wondered how our Electrical Engineering major was going to explain everything, and I was a little disappointed that he didn’t. But I got over it quickly—it’d have interrupted the flow of the novel, and honestly, I really don’t care. I just want to know that if he flips this switch and turns that dial, things happen. No one wants a Steampunk à la Tom Clancy.

The trunk isn’t big enough to contain too many devices, so this novel is primarily filled with things we all know and use—but we get a little Steampunk mixed in with smartphones and the Internet. Frankly, I love this combination and would gobble up more like it—from Lambert or anyone else.

So, what did I think about Aether Powered?

I don’t know that I’d consider this book a “cozy” of any particular genre. Although I probably should—it delivers the same sense of fun and warmth. Almost immediately, I had this warm attraction toward the book and Joseph—and ultimately, just about everyone in the novel. I don’t know a better way to describe it. There’s been a lot of talk this year about “cozy fantasy,” “hopepunk,” and things along those lines—and I get the same kind of feel from this book.

There’s some good action, some tense moments, and some believably unsavory characters/groups. But most of the characters you spend time with are the kind you want to see succeed and want to spend more time with because you like them. More than that, this is a fun story—it won’t take you long to see the general outline of the book as a whole, you’ll be pretty sure where you’re going to end up at the end. But it’s a fun ride along the way, and that’s the important part.

Also, as I touched on above—Steampunk tech in our world? Why don’t we see more of this? I’m all for full-on Steampunk novels. But a dash of it in a contemporary setting? It’s a great idea. Aether Powered is worth picking up just for the conceit. That Lambert surrounds this conceit with a good protagonist, rollicking supporting characters, and a fun adventure is a great bonus.

Check this out, you’ll be glad you did.

3.5 Stars