Escapement has such potential. Jay Lake's imagining of a world embedded in a clockwork universe is at times stunning. His characters can be moving and his endings are wonderful. Unfortunately, the execution just doesn't live up to the potential here. Both Escapement and the previous Mainspring start and end well, but take a long time to get through the middle - way more than it should. Much of the time, Escapement seems to have characters moving without purpose across the world, and it seriously drags down the story. There's no reason these books couldn't be tighter so the dramatic tension stays high and the reader stays with the story. Will I try a third if Lake continues? At this point, I'm leaning to no. ( )

A novel in three strands, unlike the first.

Also unlike the first, it has the opposite problem, with the start being weaker than the end.

The three characters, a young girl genius, a dodgy petty officer, and a librarian find themselves in over their heads, and danger.

It appears in the background multiple secret societies that cross national boundaries are at work (e..g England, China, etc. all have agents of such) although you know little about them other than the general aims. E.g. Religious crazies, Rationalists, and a 'Middle Path' bunch trying to balance.

There are airships (and airships vs submarines), and Brass Men and chases and slaughter galore later on, but it is certainly a bit tedious in the beginning. For a secret society conspiracy piece it certainly lacks tension and atmosphere of that sort.

A book that can't make up its mind completely about what it wants to be, much like the first.

The front cover is great, the back cover with the usual blurb hyperbole not such - for example, Boing Boing delusionally compares the first book Mainspring to the best of Leiber and Howard - clearly they were smoking some of the opium to be found in Escapement to come up with that one.

When you begin to realise why the secret society interest the book comes together pretty well, but certainly a slog at times to get there, while the three main characters are separated. Because of that, better than a 3. Call it a 3.25 with some Martiniere art bonus to round it up.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/01... ( )