An excellent original

One of, some say THE first, Steam Punk novels. I almost gave up immediately on this as the narrator didn't strike me as very good, but I persisted and this ended up being an enjoyable, fast paced story with great steam punk devices and fantastical creatures. I loved it!

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Superb steam punk tale

This was my first venture into Steam punk as a written genre and I don't think I could have picked a better book. A style full of echoes of Verne and Wells with humour and invention galore!

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Infernally good!

I've actually owned the Paperback version of this book for quite a while and have been a fan of K.W Jeter for quite some years, this is a very good audio version of a what is seen as a "steam punk" classic by some and overlooked by many. unfortunalty Audable only seems to have a couple of Mr Jeter's original fiction and none of his Horror books (of which he has done some really good work) and a lot of serializations of TV shows (i've read the Blade runner books but would rather read his fiction), this and Morlock Night are on Audable and i advise you to listen to both of them. if you have a chance get to read or listen to the following:
Dr Adder (Sci-fi in the vein of PK Dick not for the faint hearted. he actually sent this to Dick when he was a student and Dick did the forward for the paperback i have),
Dark Seeker (great Horror - crying out to be a film)
Farewell Horizonal (great Sci-fi cyberpunk and very readable)
any of his horrorbooks

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1 person found this helpful

The Hermetic Order of The Golden Vibrators

Rambunctious romp through the byways of classic speculative fiction from K. W. Jeter. Located in a pseudo-Victorian world that sets bizarre automata, mad aristocrats and weird creatures alongside cut-throats, con-men and heaving bosoms, this book reads like a template for the nascent Steampunk sub-genre. Full of secret societies, time-travelling psychonautics and bawdy humour, Jeter's stylish writing and well-constructed plot suggests 'The Man Who Was Thursday' had it been written by Robert Anton Wilson; a clear debt to Angela Carter's 'The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman' can also be detected. However, unlike either of those sterling works, this book has no metaphysical or post-modern subtext, but is simply a fantastical adventure, well told; the ribald conclusion being a great example of dumb done smart.
Michael Page does a capital turn with the narration. His game performances are lively and distinct; there is something of Peter Sellers in his upper-class accents whilst several others seem to be drawn wholesale from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise. His approach generally works well and sweeps the story along at a tidy pace. Yet by favouring a lightly comic tone I suspect he has omitted some of the eeriness present in Jeter's prose. His portrayal of the protagonist cements that character's stuffed-shirt priggishness and makes for a slightly unsympathetic lead. Nonetheless, an extremely enjoyable tale.

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It's just... Not that great.

I really struggled to finish this one. I really expected more from the man who coined the term "Steampunk." I'm sure the story was fine, humorous even, but the delivery from the narrator was just way too dry for my liking. I suppose namers-of-things are not necessarily the best tellers-of-stories. If you're looking for some gripping steampunk nonsense, this probably isn't it.

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2 people found this helpful

not the worst book ever but ...

by far not the worse book I've ever listened to but lacks either the charm/interest of characters you want to know more about or Care for and the counter point of deeply stilted main character is jarringly put against crazy sudo American language of the other two main characters. better books out there!

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