Novel Ninja

The cover and dust jacket text for Jim Butcher’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass have been released. io9 has an exclusive look at the second chapter, so just hop over there to take a look. Meanwhile, here’s the cover:

What, no hats?

This isn’t just an announcement, however. I’m going to take a closer look at what this book seems to have in store for us. 

Butcher’s promised us steampunk fantasy, and that seems to be what we get. There’s no steam here, and the excerpt has a conspicuous lack of gears, but we do get that classic steampunk feel from just the airship alone and the description of how it operates in combat. Yet it’s also clearly fantasy, with how it seems to operate using magical crystals instead of buoyancy from either hydrogen or helium bags.

I find myself puzzling over the worldbuilding, though. Civilization is apparently confined to these spires, which we glimpse in the background of that cover image. The German edition cover looks far more like what I’d pictured, so I’m not taking the English version here to be gospel (though Windjäger, “wind-hunter,” is a far more awesome-sounding title, if you ask me), but Butcher has said the surface of the planet is “inhospitable.” Butcher’s well-known for clever worldbuilding, so I’m sure we’ll get answers (and lots more questions), but I still find myself wondering where we get not just the wood for these airships but also the food to feed all these people. It might be we have terrace farming like the Inca, and perhaps trees grow at lower altitudes and harvesting lumber is more dangerous than coal-mining. (For that matter, where there’s steam technology, there ought to be lots of coal.)

The ship terminology also stands out to me. We have “destroyer,” “light cruiser,” “battleship,” and “dreadnaught,” mostly modern terms. I doubt this is an error or oversight on Butcher’s part. I suspect we have a society that has progressed far beyond Victorian terms, departing from typical steampunk in that respect. I don’t mind this. After all, the anachronistc charm of steampunk is the idea that both technology and society continue even though the widespread use of electric and diesel power have yet to be harnessed. It would make sense that airship terminology, since air travel is the only way around, would wind up having a more modern tinge to it. However, it makes me curious as to what else we might find has progressed.

Besides, whenever we get a statement like “from time immemorial . . .” we know that we’re going to get facts on the timeline pretty soon.

The weaponry strikes me as odd, though. No, not because they’re magic lightning-plasma cannons. I’m fine with that. It’s that they have broadsides. We’re getting a clear demonstration of three-dimensional air combat, but they’re still called “broadsides,” suggesting that they have no weaponry to fire above or below the ship. In air combat, your biggest blind spot is under you; and these ships apparently don’t have a need for envelops so there’s nothing in the way above either. (Not that this has been an obstacle in numerous other airship-combat stories, as the characters simply use rigid hulls and mount gun blisters on top.) My thought is simply that the destroyer Predator doesn’t have the room to spare for that sort of armament, and so they focus on the broadside where combat will happen most often. Still, I find it a curious thing.

Speaking of the cannons, I want to note a bit of description I enjoy. We’re told that a cannon “behaved in much the same manner as a common gauntlet—except on a far larger scale.” We have absolutely no basis for comparison here. Butcher is taking care not to break the fourth wall, while also giving us a feel for what the characters of this world are used to. And yet, we get two vital pieces of information here. First, we know there are personal small-arms versions of this weapon, shaped like a gauntlet rather than a pistol. Second, they’re common — not just common enough to be used as a simile, but common enough to be called common. When’s the last time you heard a modern handgun called “common”?

I doubt that everyone just walks around with this kind of weapon on them, but that little tidbit intrigues me. A society where it’s not unusual for people to be armed is normally very democratic, since totalitarian rule tends to fail if people have the means to resist. Grimm might be describing them as common just in the context of the military, but I’d have a hard time believing that Butcher would just slip that in without thinking of the consequences.

The last thing that truly stood out at me was the mention that they are fighting “just above the mezzosphere.” That’s a curious thing to say. If Butcher means the mesosphere, they’re over eighty kilometers (over fifty miles) straight up. For comparison, normal cruising altitude for a modern airliner is roughly one-sixth that height. The top of the mesosphere is also extremely cold. Odds are high that this means something different in this world, but it was a head-scratcher for me.

We know more information from Butcher talking about the story at conventions and signings. The crystals mentioned in the excerpt can only be manipulated by certain people, and they’re all “off.” That doesn’t just mean they’re weird, it means they’re downright bonkers, with inexplicable characteristics like only talking to crystals or being unable to open doors by themselves. Apparently, anyone with this ability who can seem normal are the ones you should be nervous around.

There’s also a part that I’m interested in, just because I’m a huge cat-person. This world has cats. Talking cats. Talking cats with opposable thumbs, in fact. If that doesn’t make your eyes widen in horror, then let me spell it out for you. An intelligent, talking cat with no need for a human to open a can of tuna is an animal with no need to be nice to humans. In short, a delightful event to be inflicted on someone else. And after all, Butcher is known for kicking his characters while they’re down, so I’m expecting this particular element to be played to the fuzzy feline hilt.

Plus, I’ve gotten used to the idea of feline masterminds in a gaslamp fantasy setting.

Finally, just an off-the-wall comment. I had to do a double-take at the cover for The Aeronaut’s Windlass. Not because it looks cool (though it does). Not because there were hidden details in it. No, just because of the guy’s face. I swear, that’s a dead ringer for an old classmate of mine in college. See for yourself:

Apparently Julian’s been moonlighting as a steampunk fantasy airship captain. I’ve been wondering why he hasn’t been on Facebook!