Infernal Devices - Softcover

Jeter, K. W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0586073450 ISBN 13: 9780586073452

Publisher: HarperCollins Distribution Ser, 1988

Synopsis

It all began when the Brown Leather Man, a mysterious being with a secret older than humankind, asked proper Victorian London gentleman George Dower to repair a weird device. How coud George have known that this was but one of the many infernal devices his genius father had built, and that he himself would soon be pursued by former clients of his father? For George had always been the unsuspecting key to his father's incredible plans, a key that others would like to possess - from the automaton who wore George's own face to the mad Lord Bendray, bent on using George to destroy the entire Earth.

A romp through Victorian England by an author said to have "the brain-burned intensity of his mentor, Philip K. Dick."

"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

About this title

About the Author

K.W. Jeter is a respected American novelist who wrote what was likely the first true cyberpunk novel, Dr. Adder, which was enthusiastically recommended by Philip K. Dick. His many original novels range between dark noir-horror and visionary science fiction. He has also written several authorised sequels to Blade Runner (aka Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep).

Review

“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

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins Distribution Ser
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0586073450
• ISBN 13: 9780586073452
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288