Fiendish Schemes

Infernal Devices #2

by K.W. Jeter

In 1986, K. W. Jeter coined the term steampunk, applying it to his first Victorian-era science fiction alternate-history adventure. At last he has returned with a new tale of George Dower, son of the inventor of Infernal Devices , who has been in self-imposed exile…accumulating debt. The world Dower left when he went into hiding was significantly simpler than the new, steam-powered Victorian London; a mad whirl of civilization filled with gadgets and gears in the least expected places. After accepting congratulations for his late father’s grandest invention—a walking, steam-powered lighthouse—Dower is enticed by the prospect of financial gain into a web of intrigue with ominously mysterious players who have nefarious plans about which he can only guess. If he can make his father’s Vox Universalis work as it was intended, his future is assured. But his efforts are confounded by the strange Vicar Stonebrake, who promises him aid, but seems more interested in converting sentient whales to Christianity than in helping George. Drugged, arrested, and interrogated by men, women, and a steam-powered Prime Minister, Dower is trapped in a maelstrom of secrets, corruption, and schemes that threaten to drown him in the chaos of this mad new world. “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 on Infernal Devices “Jeter is a modern Arthur Conan Doyle…. [Fiendish Schemes] reads [like] a Sherlock Holmes adventure.” —Tee Morris, author of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series

Genres: Steampunk, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Novels, Historical, Speculative Fiction

Audio CD

First published October 15, 2013

About the author

Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He is also credited with the coining of the term "Steampunk." K. W. has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universe, and has written three (to date) sequels to Blade Runner.

Series:
* Doctor Adder

Series contributed to:
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* Alien Nation
* Blade Runner
* Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars
* The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
* The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

Reviews

[Shawn Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute hoot! I thought the first book was just ok, but this was hysterical. A lot of clever satire and social commentary wrapped in Dickensian language. Nicely done!

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Skuzzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is horrible.

Let me start by saying that K.W Jeter is a competent writer. His command of the English is certainly something to marvel at, but as a story telling his skills of engaging his audience, are, well, non-existent.

After World War 1, we see a dramatic shift in the style of writing. Less became more - and all one had to do was compare the writing of Hemmingway to those who came before. K.W Jeter eschews these conventions, turning 'less is more' into 'more is more'. The result is painfully dull descriptions of scenery, events, and even dialogue that feels horribly disconnected from everything surrounding the characters. There are few characters who engage in anything that feels like even semi-plausible conversational matter. Descriptions are wordy: not in the sense that the words are too difficult to comprehend, but they are unnecessarily long. The book could've been cut down to a third of it's length if he had simplified the way he described scenery, and it probably would've come out a lot more concise. As it is, the book is incredibly dull because it spends an impressive amount of time saying an incredible amount about very little - and it is already a rather short book that squanders the majority of the time it has to entertain you on lengthy descriptions of even the most mundane things such as the raising of an eyebrow.

The book is filled with dull characters with very little to say. The plot is nonsensical. The premise itself is rather silly (Trying to use a machine to learn what whales have to say so people can essentially become rich off of ocean currents) which is odd considering how even when this book tries to be funny it often falls on its face due to the horrendous presentation of it's jokes due to the incredibly aloof dialogue.

The pacing is terrible. Normally, in a book of this length, events go fast. There's a story to tell, and not a lot of time to tell it. Not so in this. Everything moves at a crawl. Two hundred pages in and it felt like essentially nothing had happened to move the story closer to the end goal.

I love the Steampunk genre, and I'm not foreign to books written in this sort of style. K.W Jeter just manages to make it inexplicably boring through dull characters motivated by greed trying to hatch an incredibly hare-brained scheme that defies all belief in its' stupidity (I can only suspend my disbelief so much) combined with a style of prose that would put most people to sleep makes this one of the most difficult books I have ever slogged through. My inability to become invested in what was happening often led to me forgetting entirely what was happening and had my eyes glaze over entire pages in the hopes that something - anything - interesting would happen, but often events moved so slowly that by even skipping pages at times I was grinding my teeth to find that I was missing nothing of import.

This is my second time attempting to read this book. The first time I managed to force myself through a hundred pages; now I started over and I am nearing the finish more than a year later. Usually after taking a break from a book I am not enjoying, I come back and find it much more pleasant to read - this is not the case in this. Reading this book feels like a chore such as scrubbing the toilet, when the alternative is being outside and playing with your friends in the sun.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imaginative and reasonably entertaining if a little long, but disappointing compared to its prequel Infernal Devices.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 1.0 of 5

I...

Oh, boy. I don't know what to say.

I can't recall the last time I was so bored with a book.

This book is a sequel to K.W. Jeter's Infernal Devices, which I have not read. And based on this, I'm going to stay away from it.

Jeter is credited with coining the phrase "steampunk" and since the term has developed a bit of a cult following with cosplayers dressing up in steampunk garb, I thought it would be fun to read a book in the (sub)-genre by the man who coined the phrase. But boy was I wrong. It was not fun.

This is the tale of George Dower whose most significant accomplishment through this book is that he is the son of a famous inventor (see previous book, apparently). Some "mysterious players" (I'm quoting the description as found on Goodreads) offer some untold riches if George can find one of his father's inventions and make it work. Of course there are some obstacle in the way, not least of which is the slow pace at which this story moves.

I greatly prefer character-driven stories over plot-driven (a good blend of the two is best) but this features neither. Dower has nothing going for him that would draw us to him or make us care about what he does. I'm more interested in his inventor father (though not enough so to read his story yet). And the plot? Workable, certainly, but what might be an interesting search for a lost invention is inexorably drawn out so that we stop caring about it as well.

This was not my first attempt to try to read the book, but I hate giving up on a book and so I persevered, but it wasn't really worth it and I would not recommend this to anyone. This was a huge disappointment from an author who cites Philip K. Dick as an influence (one of my very favorite authors).

Looking for a good book? Fiendish Schemes by K. W. Jeter is a sequel to his book Infernal Devices and maybe if you've read that book, you would enjoy this second, but I highly doubt it.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the first novel - Infernal Devices - which introduced George Dower. This is a sequel and follow on from that story. It describes what happened after Mr Dower retired to live a quiet life in Cornwall. Sadly, I didn't really get on with the book at all.

I found the story to be a little rushed and not particularly well written. I did like some of the imagery, and it dealt with some interesting themes around the question of humanity integrating with machinery, but, on the whole, the progress of the book was a bit too ponderous for me. The narrative was quite bloated. Mr Dower does have a way that inflates his speech, but there were a good deal of unnecessary words that a thoroughly good edit could have taken away without affecting the impact of the book at all.

I do wonder if my view is partly determined by the relative implausibility of the main story. The main premise - steam power derived geo-thermally - does have a ring of truth to it, but there is too much intervening technology that is missing from the story that renders it too unbelievable. I tried to suspend my disbelief, but I was unable to.

The introduction of Mrs Fletcher as a character, in my view, didn't work. As a character, she wasn't even flimsily based upon the real Mrs Thatcher. The parody was very evident, and it simply didn't work. I did like Mr Dower as a character, along with Scrape and Miss McThane, but I liked them in the first volume too, so perhaps I have not been as critical of their development as I ought to have been.

All in all, I found this book to be too rushed, to be poorly written, and to contain cardboard characters. It was OK to read because it basked in the glory of Infernal Devices. However, if the reader hasn't read that volume, they may be tempted to cast this one aside before finishing it.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant book in the steampunk series around Mr. Dower!

It didn't hit me with the first book, but with this one I finally fully embraced the British black humor that comes with the consumption of this book. Hilarious figures, scenes and concepts presented in dry words, from, as it was said, the "charmingly reluctant hero" of the book.

What really makes such an entertaining comedy outstanding is the complex intrigue and inter-connecting schemes of various characters. Just like before, the reader is presented a seemingly chaotic world of events and crisis, the protagonist helplessly stumbling from one unfortunate, pitiable situation into the next, until by the end it all gets unraveled and the vast master-plan is laid out to the reader, and all the pieces, even the last minute detail, combines into the greater puzzle.

The building-up can be tiresome if one is insensitive to the humor and too sympathetic for the hero. If those concerns are out of the way, though, there comes an entertaining adventure of sorts!

[Kyle Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the first George Dower story was a Victorian satire that somehow bled into the burgeoning steampunk genre then the second, Fiendish Schemes is a steampunk satire that somehow bleeds into the realm of fantastic horror. It is clearly a satirical response to the steampunk craze that has grown over the 25 years since its author coined the term. Everything from typical steampunk archetypes to the setting to the name 'steampunk' is mocked. The plot is not as good as it's predecessor, mostly due to the extensive world building employed in its 400 pages that often causes the plot to be sidelined in favor of exposition. But, boy is the world building good. The character motives and plot points are just as confusing as ever (rest assured, everything is explained in the end) but they take backseat to the wonderfully weird, frightening and hilarious characters and world that Jeter has built upon.

[Nick Rollins · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dower: Where are you taking me?

Every other character: You'll see.

[They take him there.]

Dower: I don't understand what's going on.

Every other character: [Explains what is happening in the most exhausting possible language, just pages and pages of exposition delivered in absolutely dreadful prose.]

Dower: I hate this and don't want any part of it.

Every other character: You have to be part of it, because your father.

[Repeat for hundreds of pages.]

This book is dreadful. The protagonist doesn't do anything for the entirety of the novel, despite every other character claiming he's the key to their entire operation. The novel is a series of events that happen to him, that are then told to us in interminable soliloquies.

Also: I've read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, and the conceit of train/human hybrids is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book nearly as much as its predecessor. I love the descriptions, eloquence, diction, characterization, creative storylines and links, etc. ...

My only trouble is that much of the content takes what (only to me perhaps) should be a joyful immersion in Steampunk fare and makes for quite a disturbing and traumatizing scenario. Though I understand he is not the only author to go in this direction.

On to the 3rd in the series!

[Larry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeter was a protege of Philip K. Dick. I really like some of this other work, but, like Infernal Devices, this was disappointing.

[Holly Mcentee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. I have a vision of James Blaylock and Tim Powers digging KW Jeter out of some dive bar in Quito and bullying him into writing this book. Only for the dedicated steampunk completist.

[Samantha Hynd]

DNF. Can’t do it, this trilogy is awful. idk if I’m in a rut but I’ve had way too many DNFs in the last month but reading other reviews say this one is valid.

[Hus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the writing style and the scenes described. I wish the Iron Lady would've got more screen time, though.

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 1 out of 5]

A wast of a poor tree and ink. George is unchanged and uninteresting.

[Chris Branch · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the beginning I was reminded of why I still consider Infernal Devices one of the best steampunk novels ever.

With the return of George Dower in this book, we get more of his late father's ingenious clockwork inventions, plus gigantic walking lighthouses, steam mines, and hints of communication with whales and with the oceans themselves. It's clever absurdity of the best possible kind, and Jeter is the absolute master of the pseudo-Victorian writing style with its subtly humorous language.

Unfortunately, the story takes a couple of turns in the middle that left me much less impressed. I'm not sure if the reader, along with Dower, is meant to find the ridiculous concept of "fex" to be distasteful or not, but along with other half-joking references to bizarre kinkiness, it came across as juvenile and not particularly funny.

Then the initially fascinating lighthouse concept is transformed into a squalid and implausible conspiracy led by the unfortunately ridiculous major villain. This so-called Iron Lady is too absurd to be taken seriously, not creative enough to be taken humorously, and the conspiracy she leads makes little logical sense.

Toward the end, when the action cranks up for the climax, there's a slight return to the bright promise of the beginning, but it's too little too late, and leaving me with a barely average impression of the book overall.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiendish Schemes is not for the casual reader. Written as an alternate history during Victorian England, the book reads as a novel written in that time period as well. Full of lyrical and contemplative prose reminiscent of Alexandre Dumas, the writing style might be too much for readers who aren't expecting it, or aren't in the mood to really sit down and dig in.

This isn't a book where the main character does things, instead you follow George Dower as things inexplicably happen to him. I'm not typically a fan of passive characters (see my rather negative review of The Hobbit for an example), but I found myself truly enjoying Dower's rather horrified observations on the effect steam power has had on London's society (and geography) while he was hiding in his rural abode. Fiendish Schemes takes humanity to an extreme to point out some very fascinating human tendencies, both on an individual level and a larger herd mentality.

A little slow paced, Fiendish Schemes was nevertheless an entertaining read. I'd recommend it just for its darkly humored look at humanity, but this is definitely not a book for everyone. If you're looking for a quick paced easy read, look elsewhere.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this book on the heels of reading his first book in the series, Infernal Devices, for the first time. While that book was a little confusing at times, I loved the dark humor of it, and was very excited to see this one coming.

Having finished Fiendish Schemes...I'm still confused. About the first 80% of the book didn't feel anything like its predecessor. While the absurdity was there, gone was the cleverness of the main character and his sidekicks, gone was the dark humor. In its place was terribly juvenile jokes based around bum-raping mechanical orangutans and a brothel for steam-enhanced nobility.

At about the 3/4 mark, we get a visit from a few old friends, and the story more or less coalesces into something fun again, but it was too little too late. I would much rather have just read the first few chapters and the last few, and left out the middle bits.

[Cal Bowen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is only good for you if you enjoy the style of writing from 100 years ago. This reads like a Jules Verne novel (in writing style, not in quality) and that is not a compliment.

Jules Verne is known for his wonderful tales, but the writing style from his time was so wordy while saying nothing. This reads like someone that spent too much time reading Verne so that he could write his own coined term, "Steampunk". This novel was published in 2013. Speech can be indicative of the time period, but not the exposition. The boredom of this novel makes me never desire to read a Jeter novel again - ever.

Again, if you like the older style writing, this might be enjoyable for you, but 25% in and i couldn't care less about anything in this book, and I felt like i was covered in the dust of a long bygone age.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst I still enjoyed reading Fiendish Schemes, I feel it lacks the punch of Infernal Devices and, at least until towards the end of the novel, the wit and humour from the original is missing as well.
The storyline meandered for a while before finding its way and the characters at times seemed like cardboard cut-outs.

If you read and enjoyed the first book, you might, like me, find something to enjoy in this one, but, if you are coming to Jeter's writing for the first time, this is not likely to be a good book with which to start.

I received this book as a free e-book ARC via NetGalley.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm at 20% and from what I understand. Dower has came across a steam powered Lighthouse that walks on legs like spiders and now he is in search of the creator, which he believes is his father.

Just like the first in series "Internal Devices" the story extremely drags and makes you feel lost and bored to death. Maybe one day again I will pick this up and try again. I will however say I will check out some of the authors other work.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers but my cup of coffee is getting cold while I try to grasp on whats going on. Rating pending on re-read.

[Aj · Rating 2 out of 5]

I sat this down months ago... it wasn't ever able to hook me and reel me in, hold my attention. I struggled to pay attention to it and have any serious investment, and I could never bring myself to pick it back up and finish. Shame, I pre-ordered, and really looked forward to it. I've been a fan of Jeter for years, but between this and the new Kim Oh series, which I feel is luke warm and middle of the road, but he seems to feel is a rather serious swing in his writing, I'm feeling I may have to part ways with a favoured author, sadly.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not near as good as the first one, which is a shame as it was this one that led me to the first. Seems like in the intervening couple of decades he spent a lot of time with a thesaurus or otherwise learned a lot of big words and felt it necessary to use as many as possible. Now I don't have a problem with big words but when they get in the way ... and the story wasn't as interesting either. Not a bad read but could have done without it. Its copyediting was head and shoulders above the rushed out paperback edition of the first, though.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this is now on my Couldn't Finish shelf because I just really despised the protagonist. Whiney, depressing, dare I say stupid (not ignorant, but pursues bad decisions when he knows they're bad). The language is a little overwrought, but I'm sure that was the author's intent considering the timeframe it's set in. Good job on getting that wordy Victorian tone, but I just couldn't feel any emotion toward the protagonist except boredom.

[Evie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first foray into the steampunk genre, and I must admit, that it was good to be ushered into it by the "father of steampunk," Mr. K. W. Jeter. I was quite surprised by the reading, not really knowing what to expect, but I do think I am hooked! The book was slow to get to the point, but as a reader, I was guided to the end through interesting tales of occurrences that happen to the main character. I'd recommend the book, but it was a slower-than-usual read for me.

[Tim Thraeryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

One has to sink down into Victorian language AND Victorian writing style to read this book.

It's not always easy or pleasant.

The plot seems to meander as though Jeter had four or five "destination" cards laid out, occasionally shifting the storyline from one to another. I suppose it worked out decently in the end.

You can have this book if you come take it away from me.

[Alias Pending · Rating 2 out of 5]

The short of it: Sometimes humorous, but mostly tedious. It is never good when the main character wants to kill himself in the first chapter and you really hope he succeeds at some point before the end of the story.

[Jim Sanderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whacky, weird and wonderful... filled with vexing fex and other ferric follies. Grand stuff and a great conclusion. My heart goes out to all who fail to feel its pull. Personally, I enjoyed the affected lampoon of Victorian speech and attitudes... I was most amused by the steamier bits.

[David Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although some of the debating goes on too long, the essential surrealism or absurdist fantasy (otherwise known as steampunk) is a great success.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2013/1...

[Joshua Macer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won/ received this novel on a goodreads giveaway!

This is a very indepth read. I was confused through a good bit of it. However, I still found myself looking forward to what was coming next. Mr. Jeter, I really liked this read. Fans of off the wall steampunk books give this a go. Enjoy!