The Mechanical

[lunabee34]

The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really liked The Mechanical and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. In this book, the Dutch rule the world because they have mastered alchemy and used it to create a host of automatons to act as soldiers, servants, and weapons. The Dutch don't believe (or at least have a vested interest in maintaining) that the automatons are sentient beings that can achieve free will. The Dutch are pitted against the French who (among other differences) do believe that the automatons are enslaved and are sentient beings. The Mechanical follows the interlocking lives of one automaton, the top French spy, and a captured French spy. My favorite character is the automaton Jax. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens to him next. I'm rooting for him to be truly free.



View all my reviews

Comments

[wendelah1]

Your icon is marvelous.

The concept of the Dutch ruling the world, with robots created with alchemy yet, is simply hilarious. This is why I can't read fantasy anymore.

[lunabee34]

It's made by sallymn who makes scores of really fantastic icons. You should her out.

Awwwww, I like that it's the Dutch. I don't know much of anything about the Dutch, so this is cool to me. :)

[monanotlisa]

Aha! Shades of HUMANS the tv show?

[lunabee34]

I don't know that TV show but I'm guessing it's the ones with the robots with the green eyes in the commercial?

They're probably pretty similar except that this book is definitely set in a different tech level; kinda steampunky, dirigibles, no cars, 19th century level tech although I don't know exactly when it's set; I can't remember. It may even be supposed to be the 20th century but because of alchemy, science stalled out somewhere around then.

[umadoshi]

That's on my TBR list, so I'm glad you liked it!

[lunabee34]

I really did. There's apparently two more in the series (with very promising titles! Yay!), so I'll be trying to get those soon.