I wonder how the world might differ today if not for two hundred and fifty years of the subjugation of living, thinking beings. If the entire architecture of the modern world didn’t rest upon a fiendish foundation of imprisoning, torturing, and enslaving immortal souls. If the ingenuity you people celebrate daily hadn’t been devoted to the greatest possible affront to God.
Well that’s a fascinating book.
It’s an early 1900s world, full of mechanical slaves (Clakkers) run by the Dutch. With full on mindcontrol in their ‘hierarchical metageas’, which compels them to act–up until it doesn’t.
The hot ache of multiple geasa smoldered in his soul. At base, the slow, steady background throb of the hierarchical metageas, a constant reminder that he served many masters. In concert with that, filling out the lowest registers of discomfort, came dozens of generic geasa, those that only came to the fore in unusual or emergency circumstances. Layered atop these came the specifics of Jax’s circumstances. Madam Schoonraad’s admonition to hurry with the packing yet preserve the leather finish of her trunks and attend her guest: a sizzling brand plunged through his eye, melting through his skull case. Mr. Schoonraad’s order that Jax attend his guest, returning to the den as necessary to top up their glasses: banked coals that flared to agonizing life every few minutes. Pastor Visser’s order to deliver the microscope: searing flames licking at the edge of Jax’s imprisoned soul. Nicolet’s insistence that she ride on his shoulders after dinner: a white-hot marlinespike scraping the back of his mind.
It’s just such a fun idea (enough so that I have a similar story of my own! 😄), but it’s fascinating to see how differently it can be implemented.
It does tend to meander a bit, with some discourses on free will and experimentation on what it means to be ‘human’. But oh, it ramps right up in the end.
I somehow didn’t realize this was the first of a trilogy before I moved on to other books. I most definitely will have to come back to these to see where it goes next!
Onward! And remember:
Clockmakers lie.