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Spire City #1
Infected
Targeted by a mad scientist's deadly serum, these outcasts band together to uncover the truth and to fight back.
Spire City is home to mighty machines of steam power and clockwork, and giant beetles pull picturesque carriages over cobbled streets, but there is a darker secret behind these wonders. A deadly infection, created by a mad scientist, is spreading through the city, targeting the poor and powerless, turning them slowly into animals. A group of those infected by the serum join together to survive, to trick the wealthy out of their money, and to fight back.
Originally serialized in weekly installments, this book collects the entire first season of episodes in one complete novel.
Spire City is home to mighty machines of steam power and clockwork, and giant beetles pull picturesque carriages over cobbled streets, but there is a darker secret behind these wonders. A deadly infection, created by a mad scientist, is spreading through the city, targeting the poor and powerless, turning them slowly into animals. A group of those infected by the serum join together to survive, to trick the wealthy out of their money, and to fight back.
Originally serialized in weekly installments, this book collects the entire first season of episodes in one complete novel.
ebook
First published August 20, 2015
15 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Ausema
74 books27 followersDaniel Ausema grew up in West Michigan, surrounded by orchards, hay fields, glacial lakes, and stands of oak and maple trees. He earned his BA in English Literature and Spanish in 2000. After working in experiential and alternative education for a while, he moved to Colorado with his family and settled at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. He is now a stay-at-home father. His fiction and poetry have appeared in dozens of publications.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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August 7, 2017Spire City, Season One: Infected is a Steampunk, Dickens-esque story with a Kafkan twist.
Orgood, a renowned inventor on the surface but a mad scientist at the core, has created a serum that transforms the city's poor into literal vermin to be exterminated. The book follows the story of a street gang thriving in a world that seems specifically designed to eliminate them.
Ausema originally released this book in an episodic format, which I think is a really unique way to approach telling a story. In some ways, this format is beneficial. It presents the reader with the opportunity to reset after each "episode," and allows the author to seamlessly introduce new characters & perspectives much further into the story than what you'd expect. Ausema takes advantage of this well.
But the tricky thing about this format is that it requires a bunch of much smaller, more clearly developed arcs beneath the main plot umbrella. I would've liked for each episode to have a more distinctly defined rise & fall of action. A couple times, I felt those smaller arcs were a bit aimless & it caused certain parts of each "episode" to blur a bit in my mind.
One of my favorite aspects of this novel is Ausema's talent for description, especially when it comes to laying out Spire City. I got a very sharp image of the city's architecture, machinery, & bustling atmosphere, which is essential to pulling off the Steampunk theme. Billowing clouds of smoke, spires stretching into an overcast sky, and flying beetle taxis with beautifully designed carapaces! The construction of sentences really fit well with the setting.
"The spider webs in the corners of the shelves had something stale about them, as if they'd pulled the must out of the air and concentrated it."
My primary criticism for this book is that a lot of cases are opened, but almost none of them are closed by the end.
We see snippets of people from far off lands, immigrants living in small segregated corners of the city where they can freely immerse in their native cultures, but we don't get quite enough interaction with those aspects to satiate my thirst.
We are introduced to a handful of different gang members, but here at the end of the book I don't feel like I really know anyone well. They dynamic of the group is laid out well, but I could've done with a bit more of an explanation & development for the main crew, especially for Marrel and Williver. I don't want to rely on what I know of the "tough gang leader" and a "riches to rags pretty boy" archetypes to fill in the blanks for characters like these.
I wish we could've had more than a glimpse into the science behind the serum and the inventor, Orgood. He only makes a brief appearance at a party, but is otherwise a shadowy figure against an ominous background. Instead we focus on one of his key minions, a man named Mint. Mint is an interesting sub-villain, but he suffers from the same underdevelopment that some of the gang members do & ultimately I found myself a bit unattached to his obsession with exterminating the poor.
Finally, I really enjoyed the transformation aspect of this novel. There is an interesting variety of animal transformations & significant examples of the infection's development at different stages. The author mentions that he took inspiration from Kafka's The Metamorphosis, which brings up some interesting discussion points about whether or not life is worth living. I absolutely see the philosophical resemblance in in Ausema's work.
Would recommend this for fans of Steampunk & Dickens. As my reading of this novel is part of the SPFBO contest, I will not be giving it a rating.
This review and other reviews of mine can be found on Book Nest!
Orgood, a renowned inventor on the surface but a mad scientist at the core, has created a serum that transforms the city's poor into literal vermin to be exterminated. The book follows the story of a street gang thriving in a world that seems specifically designed to eliminate them.
Ausema originally released this book in an episodic format, which I think is a really unique way to approach telling a story. In some ways, this format is beneficial. It presents the reader with the opportunity to reset after each "episode," and allows the author to seamlessly introduce new characters & perspectives much further into the story than what you'd expect. Ausema takes advantage of this well.
But the tricky thing about this format is that it requires a bunch of much smaller, more clearly developed arcs beneath the main plot umbrella. I would've liked for each episode to have a more distinctly defined rise & fall of action. A couple times, I felt those smaller arcs were a bit aimless & it caused certain parts of each "episode" to blur a bit in my mind.
One of my favorite aspects of this novel is Ausema's talent for description, especially when it comes to laying out Spire City. I got a very sharp image of the city's architecture, machinery, & bustling atmosphere, which is essential to pulling off the Steampunk theme. Billowing clouds of smoke, spires stretching into an overcast sky, and flying beetle taxis with beautifully designed carapaces! The construction of sentences really fit well with the setting.
"The spider webs in the corners of the shelves had something stale about them, as if they'd pulled the must out of the air and concentrated it."
My primary criticism for this book is that a lot of cases are opened, but almost none of them are closed by the end.
We see snippets of people from far off lands, immigrants living in small segregated corners of the city where they can freely immerse in their native cultures, but we don't get quite enough interaction with those aspects to satiate my thirst.
We are introduced to a handful of different gang members, but here at the end of the book I don't feel like I really know anyone well. They dynamic of the group is laid out well, but I could've done with a bit more of an explanation & development for the main crew, especially for Marrel and Williver. I don't want to rely on what I know of the "tough gang leader" and a "riches to rags pretty boy" archetypes to fill in the blanks for characters like these.
I wish we could've had more than a glimpse into the science behind the serum and the inventor, Orgood. He only makes a brief appearance at a party, but is otherwise a shadowy figure against an ominous background. Instead we focus on one of his key minions, a man named Mint. Mint is an interesting sub-villain, but he suffers from the same underdevelopment that some of the gang members do & ultimately I found myself a bit unattached to his obsession with exterminating the poor.
Finally, I really enjoyed the transformation aspect of this novel. There is an interesting variety of animal transformations & significant examples of the infection's development at different stages. The author mentions that he took inspiration from Kafka's The Metamorphosis, which brings up some interesting discussion points about whether or not life is worth living. I absolutely see the philosophical resemblance in in Ausema's work.
Would recommend this for fans of Steampunk & Dickens. As my reading of this novel is part of the SPFBO contest, I will not be giving it a rating.
This review and other reviews of mine can be found on Book Nest!
June 7, 2024
This was very good! A great mix of dystopian & a little steam punk thrown in, made a really enjoyable world, well developed with a well written story! I liked the characters & the ideas & found myself nicely immersed in the adventure! I hope to read more by this writer!
January 22, 2016
Over the years, I have read many books from various authors; and a variety of genres, but never in my 30+ years on this planet have I read a serialized novel before. I’ll admit it, at first, it threw me, and I thought this book just wasn’t for me. However, the way Daniel Ausema crafts his story made me want to continue reading this book, and I was rewarded with an intriguing tale.
Chels is our main character, she is an immigrant orphan girl whose only real family is a bunch of misfits that are brought together by the fact they have all been touched by a virus that turns a regular human into an actual animal. She lives in a world where the rich and the powerful do not care about the poor and the weak and this brings me to an interesting observation about this book. I cannot help, but feel that Daniel Ausema was making some sort of social commentary on our world and society within his fictional world as a lot of elements he touches upon are very relevant in modern society. However, throughout this book I was struggling to find a motive as to why anyone would (one) create such and virus and (two) infect a person with said virus. I felt this was a major flaw in this book; until I realized the antagonist doesn’t have a reason he just does it; because he can. Once, I realized this, it sent a chill down my spine. The antagonist, in my opinion, is clearly psychotic and has delusions of grandeur. A man with a plan is dangerous enough, but a man without one can be absolutely terrifying in my opinion. Once, this realization hit me it blew me away; and the plot just unfolded perfectly for that moment on. But the book doesn’t deviate from its core element that this book is a story about the have and have-not of society and what use is a good man or woman; if he or she is unwilling or powerless to do anything to change the environment around them.
Daniel Ausema has crafted a really interesting tale that is both amazing and terrifying all at once; I can’t help, but be excited by it. One of the really cool things in this book is the flying, and non-flying beetles that are used as modes of transport; they’re really cool, and I want to ride one! Our band of misfits all seemed like really interesting characters. But would have preferred if more time could have been spent on fleshing them out a slightly more. The upper-class characters aren’t written as evil mustache twirling villains; because they’re not. They simply don’t care enough to realize what one twisted individual is doing towards a class of people that the wider population simply doesn’t care enough about to notice their plight.
So, will you, like it? Perseverance is necessary for this book in my opinion; as it does take a while to grow accustomed to the style of the book if you haven’t read anything like this before. But; not only that it’s a slow burner, and I know some people will not like that. However, if you stick with it, then you’re left with a memorable story that will leave you, wanting more. I’m definitely going to recommend this one to my friends. If you enjoyed the book, as much as, I have you really want to read the follow-ups Season Two: Pursued and the upcoming Season Three: Unwoven.
Chels is our main character, she is an immigrant orphan girl whose only real family is a bunch of misfits that are brought together by the fact they have all been touched by a virus that turns a regular human into an actual animal. She lives in a world where the rich and the powerful do not care about the poor and the weak and this brings me to an interesting observation about this book. I cannot help, but feel that Daniel Ausema was making some sort of social commentary on our world and society within his fictional world as a lot of elements he touches upon are very relevant in modern society. However, throughout this book I was struggling to find a motive as to why anyone would (one) create such and virus and (two) infect a person with said virus. I felt this was a major flaw in this book; until I realized the antagonist doesn’t have a reason he just does it; because he can. Once, I realized this, it sent a chill down my spine. The antagonist, in my opinion, is clearly psychotic and has delusions of grandeur. A man with a plan is dangerous enough, but a man without one can be absolutely terrifying in my opinion. Once, this realization hit me it blew me away; and the plot just unfolded perfectly for that moment on. But the book doesn’t deviate from its core element that this book is a story about the have and have-not of society and what use is a good man or woman; if he or she is unwilling or powerless to do anything to change the environment around them.
Daniel Ausema has crafted a really interesting tale that is both amazing and terrifying all at once; I can’t help, but be excited by it. One of the really cool things in this book is the flying, and non-flying beetles that are used as modes of transport; they’re really cool, and I want to ride one! Our band of misfits all seemed like really interesting characters. But would have preferred if more time could have been spent on fleshing them out a slightly more. The upper-class characters aren’t written as evil mustache twirling villains; because they’re not. They simply don’t care enough to realize what one twisted individual is doing towards a class of people that the wider population simply doesn’t care enough about to notice their plight.
So, will you, like it? Perseverance is necessary for this book in my opinion; as it does take a while to grow accustomed to the style of the book if you haven’t read anything like this before. But; not only that it’s a slow burner, and I know some people will not like that. However, if you stick with it, then you’re left with a memorable story that will leave you, wanting more. I’m definitely going to recommend this one to my friends. If you enjoyed the book, as much as, I have you really want to read the follow-ups Season Two: Pursued and the upcoming Season Three: Unwoven.
December 24, 2017
I found out about this book thanks to the SPFBO 2017 contest. It seemed interesting and decided to give it a chance.
It was a first time for me reading a episode-based book. It really took some time getting used to but I can understand why some people enjoy it. personally the seemingly unrelated pieces don't really work for me.
The thing that drew me in and i enjoyed the most was the concept. People getting infected en turning into rodents was a first for me and it paints an interesting picture throughout the book.
The world-building (city-building) Is also really good while reading everything is descripted in such a manner that you can paint beautiful pictures in your head.
The only thing that really threw me of was the pacing! Nothing really happens. The whole book just feels like one big introduction. If I really wanted I can summarise the whole book in three sentences (which I won't do because spoilers!)
In the end I think I will try the second part In the hope the pace picks up!
It was a first time for me reading a episode-based book. It really took some time getting used to but I can understand why some people enjoy it. personally the seemingly unrelated pieces don't really work for me.
The thing that drew me in and i enjoyed the most was the concept. People getting infected en turning into rodents was a first for me and it paints an interesting picture throughout the book.
The world-building (city-building) Is also really good while reading everything is descripted in such a manner that you can paint beautiful pictures in your head.
The only thing that really threw me of was the pacing! Nothing really happens. The whole book just feels like one big introduction. If I really wanted I can summarise the whole book in three sentences (which I won't do because spoilers!)
In the end I think I will try the second part In the hope the pace picks up!
November 10, 2015
Daniel Ausema's Spire City: Season One was entirely enjoyable. From the evocative descriptions of the city to the intriguing characters and ideas, these thirteen episodes crawled into a place in my head and have nested there.
The setting feels like a combination of something written by Neil Gaiman and China Mieville, with grungy urban lifestyles, gangs of orphans, underground sewers and catacombs but also giant beetles that are used as workhorses and mysterious singers chained to the tops of towers. These and other elements come together to create an unsettling world where the desperate poor try to survive while a seeming maniacal scientist schemes up a rather unique way to eradicate them.
The characters are easy to empathize with and through a variety of eyes, the reader is exposed to their various backgrounds, previous lives, and hopes for what may come.
I'm really looking forward to the second season, though I may wait for the entire season to be released as I did with this one. The serial nature works well and each episode comes to a great stopping place, though I wanted to be able to keep reading when one was finished and was glad that I could do so without having to wait for the next one to be released. I am very curious to see where Ausema will lead these characters in the upcoming seasons.
The setting feels like a combination of something written by Neil Gaiman and China Mieville, with grungy urban lifestyles, gangs of orphans, underground sewers and catacombs but also giant beetles that are used as workhorses and mysterious singers chained to the tops of towers. These and other elements come together to create an unsettling world where the desperate poor try to survive while a seeming maniacal scientist schemes up a rather unique way to eradicate them.
The characters are easy to empathize with and through a variety of eyes, the reader is exposed to their various backgrounds, previous lives, and hopes for what may come.
I'm really looking forward to the second season, though I may wait for the entire season to be released as I did with this one. The serial nature works well and each episode comes to a great stopping place, though I wanted to be able to keep reading when one was finished and was glad that I could do so without having to wait for the next one to be released. I am very curious to see where Ausema will lead these characters in the upcoming seasons.
December 28, 2015
Good series, but I keep getting lost on which is the next one!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews