Where the Clakkers Want Free Will

The Rising by Ian Tregillis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Outstanding novel.

I loved the first book, and this continues with the same action, a few new characters, and the same great premise: a mostly-defeated remnant of France in the New World is trying to survive against the world's greatest power, the Dutch Empire, which is based on mechanical creatures controlled by alchemy. The French resistance needs to find a weakness that they can exploit in order to survive, and the enslaved mechanicals ("Clakkers") want their freedom, making their interests line up to some degree. A few of the mechanicals (quite accidentally) gain their freedom, like Jax did in the first book, and the novel partly follows their efforts to live without layers of compulsion placed on them. Maybe even take some revenge.

The French defenders do have some weapons, including chemical and electrical weapons, that can immobilize the Clakkers, but they're losing the war, and the city that would be Montreal in our world is about to fall. A few key people are standing in the way. Jax, a liberated mechanical, wants to free his people, and Berenice, a disgraced but loyal spymaster, wants to learn enough alchemy to turn them against their masters. Between them and the defenders, the besieged people might have a chance.

Lots of great action--spy stuff, chases, battle scenes--and lots of cinematic moments. The conflicts follow that rule where the main characters keep fighting forward while getting more and more unfairness stacked on them, and it's nerve wracking, but it keeps you turning pages. The imagination here is fantastic, big and noisy and bright, and I'm eager to get at the final volume.

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