K.W. JeterAngry Robot
He inherited a watchmaker's store - and a whole heap of trouble. But idle sometime-musician George has little talent for clockwork. And when a shadowy figure tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, music and sexual intrigue. A genuine lost classic, a steampunk original whose time has come.
I thought it was about time I read a book by the guy who coined the whole Steampunk thingummy although once I got going I realised that I had read a couple of his other books (the Blade Runner sequels) a good few years ago. They were OK and I remember pretty much enjoying them at the time.
This one was something that I’d been keen on checking out for sometime. It tells of George the son of a genius clock making father. George has inherited the shop and his father’s tools but unfortunately none of his talent so when a visitor brings one of his father’s creations into the shop for repair George is both stumped and lured into a world of intrigue and horror.
It is a full-on romp that sends George and his assorted compatriots and enemies from one end of the country to the other but unfortunately it doesn’t really do it in a way that even remotely grabbed me. George is a very unsympathetic character. His upright, uptight nature makes him both unsavoury and unlikeable. The other characters are either preposterous or just plain daft. The storyline has little depth, the end is unsatisfying and I was very disappointed by this whole experience
