Description
The classic Steampunk novel from the creator of the term itself - thirty years ago this month.
When George Dower's father died, he left George his watchmaker's shop - and more. But George has little talent for watches and other infernal devices. When someone tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, music and sexual intrigue.
File Under: Steampunk
About the Author
K W JETER attended college at California State University, Fullerton where he became friends with James P Blaylock and Tim Powers, and through them, Philip K Dick. Jeter coined the term "steampunk", in a letter to Locus in April 1987, to describe the retro-technology, alternate-history works that he published along with his friends, Blaylock and Powers. As well as his own wildly original novels, K W Jeter has written a number of authorized Blade Runner sequels.
Website: https://steamwords.wordpress.com/
Social media: https://twitter.com/kwjeter
Author hometown: Las Vegas, USA
Reviews
"This is the real thing - a mad inventor, curious coins, murky London alleys and windblown Scottish isles... a wild and extravagant plot that turns up new mysteries with each succeeding page."
- James P Blaylock, author of Homunculus
"What we see in Infernal Devices is not just the presager of what steampunk is, but what it could have been, a marvellously self-aware and inventive attack on the obsessions and degradations of the present."
- Strange Horizons
"Goddamn, what a book. This is like H G Wells with H P Lovecraft's descriptions of darkness run through the mind of Sherlock Holmes writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It's about as screwy as it gets, complete steampunkery, with a duo who are scamming their way across the land through an entirely different set of devices. Must read... Pure joy. I couldn't set it down."
- SFBook.com
"Suddenly I can see exactly what the whole fascination with Steampunk is all about. Jeter sets the Victorian scene here so skilfully, it's absolutely perfect. I could easily have been reading a novel written in 1840. He's impressively deft and accurate in his language of the time, making the novel completely believable, and yet he still writes in a style that is effortlessly readable. His Victorian London is dark, menacing, and compelling."
- Fantasy Nibbles
"A delicious and quite insane romp through the gas-lit streets of London. Absolute must-read!"
- SFRevu
"I'll save you the trouble of reading this entire review by simply saying that K W Jeter's Infernal Devices is one of the best executed novels I've read in a long time, and I easily expect it to be one of my top reads for the year. I guarantee you will enjoy it."
- The Little Red Reviewer
"A truly fantastical journey that requires a suspension of disbelief - but makes you all the happier for it."
- My Shelf Confessions
"A skillfully handled, wonderfully inventive, and agreeably witty adventure."
- Kirkus Reviews
"Infernal Devices is a ripsnorting, grandly comical Victorian-era potboiler that is far more entertaining than the most recent Indiana Jones movie; indeed it is more exciting than any big budget Hollywood blockbuster that I have seen in the past five years. It is that rare book that is both literary and cinematic. You can't help but pine for a movie version even as you realize that it could never be as good as the book. It's full of crazy, clockwork automatons, cliffhanger chapter endings, sinister conspiracies, and gloriously impossible super-science. It is a book which will transport you to another reality."
- Tetsuo Broker
Book Information
ISBN 9780857666857
Author K. W. Jeter
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Angry Robot
Publisher Watkins Media Limited
Series George Dower Trilogy
Weight(grams) 263g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 130mm * 20mm
When George Dower's father died, he left George his watchmaker's shop - and more. But George has little talent for watches and other infernal devices. When someone tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, music and sexual intrigue.
File Under: Steampunk
About the Author
K W JETER attended college at California State University, Fullerton where he became friends with James P Blaylock and Tim Powers, and through them, Philip K Dick. Jeter coined the term "steampunk", in a letter to Locus in April 1987, to describe the retro-technology, alternate-history works that he published along with his friends, Blaylock and Powers. As well as his own wildly original novels, K W Jeter has written a number of authorized Blade Runner sequels.
Website: https://steamwords.wordpress.com/
Social media: https://twitter.com/kwjeter
Author hometown: Las Vegas, USA
Reviews
"This is the real thing - a mad inventor, curious coins, murky London alleys and windblown Scottish isles... a wild and extravagant plot that turns up new mysteries with each succeeding page."
- James P Blaylock, author of Homunculus
"What we see in Infernal Devices is not just the presager of what steampunk is, but what it could have been, a marvellously self-aware and inventive attack on the obsessions and degradations of the present."
- Strange Horizons
"Goddamn, what a book. This is like H G Wells with H P Lovecraft's descriptions of darkness run through the mind of Sherlock Holmes writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It's about as screwy as it gets, complete steampunkery, with a duo who are scamming their way across the land through an entirely different set of devices. Must read... Pure joy. I couldn't set it down."
- SFBook.com
"Suddenly I can see exactly what the whole fascination with Steampunk is all about. Jeter sets the Victorian scene here so skilfully, it's absolutely perfect. I could easily have been reading a novel written in 1840. He's impressively deft and accurate in his language of the time, making the novel completely believable, and yet he still writes in a style that is effortlessly readable. His Victorian London is dark, menacing, and compelling."
- Fantasy Nibbles
"A delicious and quite insane romp through the gas-lit streets of London. Absolute must-read!"
- SFRevu
"I'll save you the trouble of reading this entire review by simply saying that K W Jeter's Infernal Devices is one of the best executed novels I've read in a long time, and I easily expect it to be one of my top reads for the year. I guarantee you will enjoy it."
- The Little Red Reviewer
"A truly fantastical journey that requires a suspension of disbelief - but makes you all the happier for it."
- My Shelf Confessions
"A skillfully handled, wonderfully inventive, and agreeably witty adventure."
- Kirkus Reviews
"Infernal Devices is a ripsnorting, grandly comical Victorian-era potboiler that is far more entertaining than the most recent Indiana Jones movie; indeed it is more exciting than any big budget Hollywood blockbuster that I have seen in the past five years. It is that rare book that is both literary and cinematic. You can't help but pine for a movie version even as you realize that it could never be as good as the book. It's full of crazy, clockwork automatons, cliffhanger chapter endings, sinister conspiracies, and gloriously impossible super-science. It is a book which will transport you to another reality."
- Tetsuo Broker
Book Information
ISBN 9780857666857
Author K. W. Jeter
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Angry Robot
Publisher Watkins Media Limited
Series George Dower Trilogy
Weight(grams) 263g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 130mm * 20mm
