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Pax Britannia #2.5
El Sombra
In the closing years of the 20th century the British Empire's rule is still going strong. Queen Victoria is about to celebrate her 160th birthday, kept alive by advanced steam technology. London is a fantastical sprawling metropolis where dirigibles roam the skies, robot bobbies enforce the law and dinosaurs are on display in London zoo. Welcome to Magna Britannia, a steam driven world full of fantastical creations and shady villains. Here dashing dandies and mustachioed villains battle for supremacy while below the city strange things stir in the flooded tunnels of the old London Underground. Stormtroopers diving out of the sun to prey on the innocent Engines of Mass Destruction tearing apart homes and families The monstrous torture-parlours of Master Minus and his Palace Of Beautiful Thoughts There is no escape from The Ultimate Reich But there is El Sombra With his razor sharp wit and his sword will he liberate this small Mexican town from the mechanized horror that threatens it?
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 22, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 18, 2013
2.5
I love Pax Britannia series and even though it isn't the same author, I expected more.
The whole book is written as a chain of short scenes that would work better in a comic book. Such as it is, even with the initial attack on the village that was supposed to get me on the side of El Sombra, it didn't leave any lasting impression. I don't mind hating the Nazis though. There is something satisfying in their deaths after all they do to these people and have the nerve to call them savages and subhuman when someone fights back.
Everything is exaggerated here. The Nazis are over the top, the Mexicans spineless. Most characters are cardboard stereotypes of one trait or another: El Sombra former coward turned avenger, the martyr Catholic priest, Josef Mengele wannabe torturer, a beautiful and evil psychopath Alexis and so on.
On the one hand, I want to strangle those creeps who thought they are better than the rest of the world and on the other I feel manipulated by the sheer number of comments of inferiority ('subnormal intelligence', 'if you could call them people', 'the lower races' and similar get tiresome pretty quick). I got they are evil the first twenty times. Still, even while being aware of this manipulation I hated them with passion. Go figure. How can I not? They came to this small peaceful town, killed the rebellious, put numbers on foreheads of everyone else, made them construct and demolish a Hitler's statue for nine years and when someone is finally killing them, they call him an animal, a grotesque abomination and subhuman. If there is one reason I am rating this higher, it is all the death this uncommon hero called El Sombra gives back to the powerful Reich.
You really have to be in the right mood to read this story. Otherwise, it would be tedious to go through all the cartoonish fights, a couple of short torture scenes and one really long torture scene. The end of that one couldn't have come sooner.
There is a great bonus story that is from the actual Pax Britannia series featuring Ulysses Quicksilver. Fruiting Bodies is also in The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection
I love Pax Britannia series and even though it isn't the same author, I expected more.
The whole book is written as a chain of short scenes that would work better in a comic book. Such as it is, even with the initial attack on the village that was supposed to get me on the side of El Sombra, it didn't leave any lasting impression. I don't mind hating the Nazis though. There is something satisfying in their deaths after all they do to these people and have the nerve to call them savages and subhuman when someone fights back.
Everything is exaggerated here. The Nazis are over the top, the Mexicans spineless. Most characters are cardboard stereotypes of one trait or another: El Sombra former coward turned avenger, the martyr Catholic priest, Josef Mengele wannabe torturer, a beautiful and evil psychopath Alexis and so on.
On the one hand, I want to strangle those creeps who thought they are better than the rest of the world and on the other I feel manipulated by the sheer number of comments of inferiority ('subnormal intelligence', 'if you could call them people', 'the lower races' and similar get tiresome pretty quick). I got they are evil the first twenty times. Still, even while being aware of this manipulation I hated them with passion. Go figure. How can I not? They came to this small peaceful town, killed the rebellious, put numbers on foreheads of everyone else, made them construct and demolish a Hitler's statue for nine years and when someone is finally killing them, they call him an animal, a grotesque abomination and subhuman. If there is one reason I am rating this higher, it is all the death this uncommon hero called El Sombra gives back to the powerful Reich.
You really have to be in the right mood to read this story. Otherwise, it would be tedious to go through all the cartoonish fights, a couple of short torture scenes and one really long torture scene. The end of that one couldn't have come sooner.
There is a great bonus story that is from the actual Pax Britannia series featuring Ulysses Quicksilver. Fruiting Bodies is also in The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection
May 28, 2012
On its surface, "El Sombra" is a pulp book about a mexican swordfighter and all round murder-machine killing a whole load of Nazis and saving the girl. Really though, it's really a book about brutality, heroism and consequences.
Nazis are that universal, faceless bad guy that everyone loves to hate. Indeed, the main few antagonists of the book are unquestionably despicable, and they have an army of cannon fodder at their disposal. Some of their soldiers are bad men, but many are good men working for a bad system. All of the soldiers are shaped by their past experiences, most being themselves brutalised or brainwashed as part of growing up in Nazi Germany. Good or bad, they're still all Nazis though, and so are slaughtered indiscriminately by El Sombra, who never knows and doesn't care about the people he kills and the many lives he destroys. You though are told about each person who dies and, for better or worse, who or what has been lost because they got in El Sombra's way.
It sounds as though El Sombra might be an unsympathetic character but that's not the case, he's as much a product of brutalisation as any of the people he kills. However, his reaction to his own brutalisation is shaped outside the influence of the Reich and he decides to become a masked avenger. The book explores what it is to be a masked avenger, the choices you have to make and their consequences. A good example of this is the chapter takes place in a burning building. To become a hero to the people, El Sombra has to do things which are distinctly un-heroic. This compares with the far less extroverted heroism of the people caught in the building, whose spirits weren't crushed by the system and are rebelling in their own small way, but must still face the horrifying consequences.
This book gives you exactly what you want and expect from a pulp novel: heroics and lots of fighting. However, violence and heroism is not glorified or celebrated but presented realistically and brutally. Just like El Sombra is continually faced with the consequences of his actions, so are you faced with the consequence of wanting violence for entertainment. This isn't just any pulpy hero novel, and it is all the greater for it.
Nazis are that universal, faceless bad guy that everyone loves to hate. Indeed, the main few antagonists of the book are unquestionably despicable, and they have an army of cannon fodder at their disposal. Some of their soldiers are bad men, but many are good men working for a bad system. All of the soldiers are shaped by their past experiences, most being themselves brutalised or brainwashed as part of growing up in Nazi Germany. Good or bad, they're still all Nazis though, and so are slaughtered indiscriminately by El Sombra, who never knows and doesn't care about the people he kills and the many lives he destroys. You though are told about each person who dies and, for better or worse, who or what has been lost because they got in El Sombra's way.
It sounds as though El Sombra might be an unsympathetic character but that's not the case, he's as much a product of brutalisation as any of the people he kills. However, his reaction to his own brutalisation is shaped outside the influence of the Reich and he decides to become a masked avenger. The book explores what it is to be a masked avenger, the choices you have to make and their consequences. A good example of this is the chapter takes place in a burning building. To become a hero to the people, El Sombra has to do things which are distinctly un-heroic. This compares with the far less extroverted heroism of the people caught in the building, whose spirits weren't crushed by the system and are rebelling in their own small way, but must still face the horrifying consequences.
This book gives you exactly what you want and expect from a pulp novel: heroics and lots of fighting. However, violence and heroism is not glorified or celebrated but presented realistically and brutally. Just like El Sombra is continually faced with the consequences of his actions, so are you faced with the consequence of wanting violence for entertainment. This isn't just any pulpy hero novel, and it is all the greater for it.
May 12, 2008
El Sombra is the second book in Abaddon’s Pax Britannia line.
A kind of Zorro fights Nazis who use big steam driven weapons to reclaim his town.
That is the shortest version of plot summary for this story.
What I didn't like are the torture scenes.
After 80 pages I was thinking to stop reading this book but fortunately I didn't.
So I got the good descriptions of the steampunk stuff.
But If you
- don't mind torture scenes and a lot of violence,
- like bigsteampunk driven machines and weapons,
- a fast paced story
- and a partly open end
then read it. You don't need more than one day to read it.
Included in the book is a short story - Fruiting Bodies - by Jonathan Green (creator of the Pax Britannia series), featuring his dandy hero, Ulysses Quicksilver. The story is set some months after the events in Unnatural History, the first novel of the series. Quicksilver has to deal with a strange death in the East End. A prostitute is found dead, her body covered with strange fungus...........
I was an amazing read and I look forward to the next adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver.
I liked the steampunk parts of El Sombra and I liked Fruiting Bodies
So finally I give three stars.
A kind of Zorro fights Nazis who use big steam driven weapons to reclaim his town.
That is the shortest version of plot summary for this story.
What I didn't like are the torture scenes.
After 80 pages I was thinking to stop reading this book but fortunately I didn't.
So I got the good descriptions of the steampunk stuff.
But If you
- don't mind torture scenes and a lot of violence,
- like bigsteampunk driven machines and weapons,
- a fast paced story
- and a partly open end
then read it. You don't need more than one day to read it.
Included in the book is a short story - Fruiting Bodies - by Jonathan Green (creator of the Pax Britannia series), featuring his dandy hero, Ulysses Quicksilver. The story is set some months after the events in Unnatural History, the first novel of the series. Quicksilver has to deal with a strange death in the East End. A prostitute is found dead, her body covered with strange fungus...........
I was an amazing read and I look forward to the next adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver.
I liked the steampunk parts of El Sombra and I liked Fruiting Bodies
So finally I give three stars.
July 19, 2017
The author has a revisionist historic perspective involving Pasito, Mexico that unfolds over a few hundred pages. The main character reads like Zorro but plays like a (beneficial) demonic possession. The characters are crisp, briefly developed (and sometimes rapidly so), and distinct. The visualizations are graphic yet concise (see: Mr. Plus, Mr. Minus). There is a decent narrative that is fairly engaging and fleshes out the notion of post-modern Nazis occupying Pasito.
Where the substance falls unfortunately short is the key question: why in the WORLD are the Nazis dedicating so many resources to a small (seemingly architecturally significant) town in the Chihuahua province of Mexico? (note: Pasito is not an actual town in Mexico) It would seem the author chose a fictional setting of minimal importance in order to razor focus the conflict between the 'hero' (El Sombra) and the 'villainy' (the Nazis). The reader is left to speculate: how did the Third Reich come to reach so far inland of North America? Why Mexico at all? Why is Hitler so well-informed about a tiny town in far western Mexico? The author provides no indication that there is any need to address any of these questions, resulting in a bit of a mess. Another literary review utilized the word 'pastiche' as an honorific, however as a pastiche it is a _pale_, _vague_ attempt at imitating anything steampunk or alt-history.
The sequels are tragically awful and NOT recommended, even to those who enjoy C-level writing. It's really unfortunate that the author churned these out with so little substance: they _really_ have a number of very worthwhile, very intriguing concepts but fail to substantiate them in a meaningful or even useful way. The author ALSO has a neat way to rapidly filling in the history of a specific character, in that rapid-flashback approach, that is somewhat engaging (although does wear out its novelty value) that is actually a strength. Such style could be built up to be more of a stage-whisper or 'narrator's sidebar', or even wickedly satirical/biographic footnotes (ala Terry Pratchett) that would sustain the novelty value and let the reader opt-in to the added depth.
Where the substance falls unfortunately short is the key question: why in the WORLD are the Nazis dedicating so many resources to a small (seemingly architecturally significant) town in the Chihuahua province of Mexico? (note: Pasito is not an actual town in Mexico) It would seem the author chose a fictional setting of minimal importance in order to razor focus the conflict between the 'hero' (El Sombra) and the 'villainy' (the Nazis). The reader is left to speculate: how did the Third Reich come to reach so far inland of North America? Why Mexico at all? Why is Hitler so well-informed about a tiny town in far western Mexico? The author provides no indication that there is any need to address any of these questions, resulting in a bit of a mess. Another literary review utilized the word 'pastiche' as an honorific, however as a pastiche it is a _pale_, _vague_ attempt at imitating anything steampunk or alt-history.
The sequels are tragically awful and NOT recommended, even to those who enjoy C-level writing. It's really unfortunate that the author churned these out with so little substance: they _really_ have a number of very worthwhile, very intriguing concepts but fail to substantiate them in a meaningful or even useful way. The author ALSO has a neat way to rapidly filling in the history of a specific character, in that rapid-flashback approach, that is somewhat engaging (although does wear out its novelty value) that is actually a strength. Such style could be built up to be more of a stage-whisper or 'narrator's sidebar', or even wickedly satirical/biographic footnotes (ala Terry Pratchett) that would sustain the novelty value and let the reader opt-in to the added depth.
November 26, 2023
This is amazing. It's a violent take on The Shadow/Zorro and the like, fighting Nazi's in a steampunk present in which the Nazi's are conducting an experiment in occupied Mexico. An alternate history in which Hitler is still alive as a brain in a Wizard of Oz mechanical contraption. It could be the perfect book.
June 23, 2024
Well, here we are. I’ve never written a Goodreads review - trying it on to see how it feels. It’s been a few months since I finished El Sombra, but if I’m writing my first review, what better place to start than with my favorite writer’s first novel?
In many ways, this is a very simple book. It’s a straightforward revenge story: a man with a sword killing the Nazis who destroyed his home and remade it in their ghastly image. It’s almost video-game-like; a series of increasingly elaborate fight sequences, as El Sombra (our titular swordsman) works his way up to the biggest, baddest Nazi in town. Given that this is a debut novel, this was a wise choice. Ewing had, to this point, primarily written short comics for 2000 AD; prose was a new language, and he needed time to practice it. Keeping the plot slim allowed him to focus on honing his craft as a prose writer, rather than getting caught up in complexity of story and character. He could get ambitious with future books; here, he establishes the fundamentals.
Fortunately, Ewing’s sensibilities fit prose quite well. Comics writers who jump to prose often get bogged down with the weight of narration, overwriting in an attempt to prove themselves “literary.” Ewing doesn’t have this problem. His text is wonderfully rhythmic; scarcely a page goes by without a one-sentence paragraph emphasizing a beat. This authorial tick can become distracting if one hones in on it (as I did), but is indicative of how he’s thinking about the story he’s telling. El Sombra may not be a comic, but it has the flow of one. Rather than overcorrecting in an attempt to fit his new medium, he takes the lessons that he learned cutting his teeth on 5-page pieces (primarily, “keep it moving”) and uses them here. Comics, after all, owe much to pulp novels, which this manifestly is.
However, this similarity to comics also creates the novel’s most significant flaws. As I said above, this book is structured around - and, therefore, defined by - its action sequences. Large swathes of the text consist of descriptions of El Sombra creatively dismembering his opponents, or his opponents attempting (and usually failing) to do so to him. This is not something that prose, as a medium, is very well-equipped to portray. The nature of prose means that, instead of showing these things happening, you have to describe them. Not only does this take longer - it’s also, frankly, kinda boring. Ewing can keep the pace clipping along as much as he wants; it doesn’t change the fact that 30 pages of “Then he sliced! Then he parried! Then he jumped!” every chapter is going to get dull.
One of the ways Ewing attempts to get around this is through backstory. The book’s most prominent narrative trick is that it makes everyone, from the Big Bad down to the most unimportant henchman, an individual. They all have names. They all have lives. They all have desires. Though he attributes this trick to Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont in his introduction to the omnibus edition of The Sombra Trilogy, it’s an early example of the deep humanism that will prove to be a theme in his work: every character is a person, even if they're monstrous. And these diversions prove useful in keeping the action sequences entertaining: the backstories provide an impressive variety of mini-narratives, many of which are more interesting than the fights they’re interrupting.
But that’s the problem. In the side-stories, in his creation of atmosphere, in the conversations between his characters, Ewing’s writing sings. But that’s, by my off-the-top-of-my-head estimation, less than half of the text. The majority of it is the action sequences, and the action sequences are the reason why it took me so long to get through this. I’d pick it up, see that El Sombra was STILL going mano-a-mechano with der Zinnsoldat, the Nazi killing machine, and put it back down again. I was rarely in the mood to keep slogging through the stuff I didn’t enjoy to get to the stuff I did.
Still, despite my complaining, there’s a lot to like in here. The portrayal of authoritarian rule and what it does to a people, the exploration of El Sombra’s shattered mind, and the entire “Psychological Warfare” sequence of Chapter 8 (which features a narrative trick so good I had to put the book down and tell my wife about it) are all remarkable. There are lots of good ideas in this novel, and even if it took some wading through some less compelling material to get to them, they were entirely worth it.
Plus, even more than being engaging, this book was necessary. As I said at the beginning, this book is Ewing learning on the job. Coming out of El Sombra, he knows not only how to craft engaging prose, but what prose does and doesn’t do well. He’s gotten his practice in. He’s established the fundamentals. Now he’s ready to build.
In many ways, this is a very simple book. It’s a straightforward revenge story: a man with a sword killing the Nazis who destroyed his home and remade it in their ghastly image. It’s almost video-game-like; a series of increasingly elaborate fight sequences, as El Sombra (our titular swordsman) works his way up to the biggest, baddest Nazi in town. Given that this is a debut novel, this was a wise choice. Ewing had, to this point, primarily written short comics for 2000 AD; prose was a new language, and he needed time to practice it. Keeping the plot slim allowed him to focus on honing his craft as a prose writer, rather than getting caught up in complexity of story and character. He could get ambitious with future books; here, he establishes the fundamentals.
Fortunately, Ewing’s sensibilities fit prose quite well. Comics writers who jump to prose often get bogged down with the weight of narration, overwriting in an attempt to prove themselves “literary.” Ewing doesn’t have this problem. His text is wonderfully rhythmic; scarcely a page goes by without a one-sentence paragraph emphasizing a beat. This authorial tick can become distracting if one hones in on it (as I did), but is indicative of how he’s thinking about the story he’s telling. El Sombra may not be a comic, but it has the flow of one. Rather than overcorrecting in an attempt to fit his new medium, he takes the lessons that he learned cutting his teeth on 5-page pieces (primarily, “keep it moving”) and uses them here. Comics, after all, owe much to pulp novels, which this manifestly is.
However, this similarity to comics also creates the novel’s most significant flaws. As I said above, this book is structured around - and, therefore, defined by - its action sequences. Large swathes of the text consist of descriptions of El Sombra creatively dismembering his opponents, or his opponents attempting (and usually failing) to do so to him. This is not something that prose, as a medium, is very well-equipped to portray. The nature of prose means that, instead of showing these things happening, you have to describe them. Not only does this take longer - it’s also, frankly, kinda boring. Ewing can keep the pace clipping along as much as he wants; it doesn’t change the fact that 30 pages of “Then he sliced! Then he parried! Then he jumped!” every chapter is going to get dull.
One of the ways Ewing attempts to get around this is through backstory. The book’s most prominent narrative trick is that it makes everyone, from the Big Bad down to the most unimportant henchman, an individual. They all have names. They all have lives. They all have desires. Though he attributes this trick to Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont in his introduction to the omnibus edition of The Sombra Trilogy, it’s an early example of the deep humanism that will prove to be a theme in his work: every character is a person, even if they're monstrous. And these diversions prove useful in keeping the action sequences entertaining: the backstories provide an impressive variety of mini-narratives, many of which are more interesting than the fights they’re interrupting.
But that’s the problem. In the side-stories, in his creation of atmosphere, in the conversations between his characters, Ewing’s writing sings. But that’s, by my off-the-top-of-my-head estimation, less than half of the text. The majority of it is the action sequences, and the action sequences are the reason why it took me so long to get through this. I’d pick it up, see that El Sombra was STILL going mano-a-mechano with der Zinnsoldat, the Nazi killing machine, and put it back down again. I was rarely in the mood to keep slogging through the stuff I didn’t enjoy to get to the stuff I did.
Still, despite my complaining, there’s a lot to like in here. The portrayal of authoritarian rule and what it does to a people, the exploration of El Sombra’s shattered mind, and the entire “Psychological Warfare” sequence of Chapter 8 (which features a narrative trick so good I had to put the book down and tell my wife about it) are all remarkable. There are lots of good ideas in this novel, and even if it took some wading through some less compelling material to get to them, they were entirely worth it.
Plus, even more than being engaging, this book was necessary. As I said at the beginning, this book is Ewing learning on the job. Coming out of El Sombra, he knows not only how to craft engaging prose, but what prose does and doesn’t do well. He’s gotten his practice in. He’s established the fundamentals. Now he’s ready to build.
December 24, 2017
The first book OK without being great, sort of an alternative superhero but the second book of the series! I just gave up after a while, just seemed a pointless rambling?
August 21, 2020
In which a Mexican superhero takes on a horde of steam-powered flying Nazis.
El Sombra doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's all good pulpy fun.
El Sombra doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's all good pulpy fun.
December 21, 2012
I was not surprised to later read that Ewing is also known as a comic book writer - this book is literally filled with the kind of exaggerated drama and stylized violence that's so often present in that genre. That's not necessarily a bad thing - but unfortunately for me, it also owes a lot to whatever genre Quentin Tarantino movies fall into. Actually I think I've only seen one, so I'm probably not qualified to make that comparison, so let me just say that this book seems to revel in the violence, lingering over every detail of every bloody battle among characters using swords, guns, glass and whatever else comes to hand. As for those characters, the bad guys are Nazis, either unrepentantly evil or pathetic grunts following orders. The good guy is devastated by past failings, reinventing himself as an unstoppable hero. The setting and story I actually liked, and had the writing style had a bit of a different emphasis, I might have given this much higher marks. Anyway I am sure there is an audience who'll enjoy this book as written, but it turns out I'm not really a part of it.
August 5, 2012
Set within the Pax Brittania steampunk universe, El Sombra is a tricky book to review. Pure pulp nonsense, with a by the numbers plot (lone crusader battles the oppressive regime, saves the girl, and comes out on top) and almost no character development whatsoever, this is nevertheless a thrilling read. As a Zorro fan, I particularly enjoyed the channelling of that character into the titular freedom fighter's archetype, though in truth there's a healthy dose of Rambo thrown in to balance things out. Ewing's writing hurtles from one unlikely but thrilling set piece to the next, and while the prose is superficially straightforward, it's dotted with neat turns of phrase and effective literary tricks. Particularly diverting is the tactic of briefly visiting the lives of the men El Sombra slaughters, just before the deed is done, which gives the impression of a much larger world than is presented in the main story. I couldn't help being entertained.
June 14, 2012
Like a deranged zorro or odd mariachi from rodriguez, el sombra throws us into a world of Nazi and steampunk, where one man seeks redemption for being a coward.
9 years the ultimate reich have brainwashed and tortured the townsfolk of a small town in mexico until one day a masked mad man appears, 9 years wandering the desert becoming el sombra and now he's back to save his home from the clutches of hitler's men.
A fast, and action packed novel of fun.
Highly reccomend to anyone who is just looking for some fun adventure.
9 years the ultimate reich have brainwashed and tortured the townsfolk of a small town in mexico until one day a masked mad man appears, 9 years wandering the desert becoming el sombra and now he's back to save his home from the clutches of hitler's men.
A fast, and action packed novel of fun.
Highly reccomend to anyone who is just looking for some fun adventure.
August 5, 2011
I'm coming to this from Ewing's sensational "I, Zombie", and it's nowhere nearly as good. That said, this is an entertaining potboiler (or, as Ewing says, "Penny Dreadful") with more action than ideas. Master Minus's lecture on the art of torture is an amusing bit of politcal satire, and El Sombra's means of escaping his ministrations is outrageously unexpected.
September 4, 2013
Amusing, pulpy, ironic, meta. It eventually totally excuses it's mediochre plotting and exploitative language by revealing what a pastiche it was of violent simplistic action adventure stories. That said it only used the most worn and basic steam punk ideas.
September 21, 2014
Zorro versus the Nazis in an alternative steampunk universe. Took this on holiday with me and throughly enjoyed this sci fi swash buckler. It reads like a novel based on a comic book and it comes as no suprise that author Al Ewing, also writes for 2000ad, the UK's top comic.
October 25, 2009
Very promising debut from Ewing
January 11, 2017
Just adding a backstory to those slaughtered does not humanise a tale. Slight and cartoonish depiction of National Socialism
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews