Grim Expectations

Infernal Devices #3

by K.W. Jeter

A mind-boggling new sequel to Infernal Devices to celebrate thirty years of Steampunk.Some time after the events of Fiendish Schemes, George Dower finds himself a widower, of sorts. On her deathbed, Miss McThane entrusts Dower with a small, ticking clockwork box. The box is mysteriously linked to her. When she breathes her last, the box stops ticking and Dower is able to open it, to find hundreds of letters – written in an unknown hand, signed only with the initial S. They’re not love letters, but refer instead to the letter-writer’s ongoing search for some other person. The last is a simple note, reading “Found him”…File Fantasy

Genres: Steampunk, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Novels

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2017

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

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the end, this book concludes indeed in grimly fashion. To me, it was an interesting, daring go at dystopian criticism of our industrial world, drawn in bold strokes and flaring contrast.

The flaws in this book are the same as with the others, and I will never quite warm to Jeter's choice of spectacle. But strangely I very much warmed to the character, his tragedy, his loss; his personal charm and development.

Grim Expectations delivers what most third volumes in a trilogy fail to do: A sound conclusion. For its daring, its honesty and Jeter's unique ideas, I think it deserving of 5/5 stars.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally I've finished the whole trilogy; the delay was more rather my own in being busy as well as a preferrer of reading multiple concurrent books at once.

The high gems of this series also act simultaneously as its downfall:

1. The prose is so dense and descriptive, not in the detail it provides but rather in the verbose and elaborate way it goes about the narrative of even the most trivial events, sights, and streams of consciousness. This can be lovely and purely delicious to read, but--on the other edge of the sword-blade--it can require a certain frame of mood to fully enjoy.

And:

2. The personality of the protagonist, not having grown all that much through the series, is only as active and hands-on as a central character as he absolutely needs to be, and never does anything by choice, rather by being driven to. He remains his namesake ("Dour") and never wishes to engage, which drains any sense of adventure or novelty or thrill. The upside of it is that the vehicle of having a guy who just wants to have a regular, quiet, subdued life planted amongst chaos and oddity and depravity and disaster is also an interesting juxtaposition: the proper, well-mannered, passive, self-effacing, modest Englishman in the face of brash, insane, eccentric folks. His only overt actions are to directly oppose or resist suggestions of other characters or momentum of events, rather than making any real choices or actions himself.

Both aspects became repetitive, though at the same time still worked in each story.

A few interesting self reflexive elements, such as the exploration of the fact--which horrifies the protagonist--that legions of audiences are deeply enjoying the stories of exploits and adventures in steampunk; as well as the intriguing notion that the narrator claims he was not the author of the first book in the series, despite the character being the same.

There were still a few loose ends from the first two books that I had hoped might be resolved (or at least a little further explained), but I won’t add any spoilers by mentioning them specifically here. Namely the events which mostly took place at the end of either predecessor. One or two brief mentions, but only as references and not further developed.

While I was not surprised at the awesome scale of the epic conclusion, and of course the narrator's outlook, I will admit that the rest of the broad strokes I did not anticipate, and some of it felt a bit like an anticlimax with elements left unresolved.

Overall a fun and worthwhile read, but far from any standard expectation!

[Fred Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the final book in a trilogy and is by far the weakest of the group. It throws together what seems to be random adventures with limited linkage. The language is an attempt at Victorian diction and at times is so thick with words that it is hard to read. The end is the end of the protaganist.

The first two books are recommended but this is a Seinfeld kind if closure to the series

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third of the trilogy about George Dower, who inhabits an alternative Victorian England. I found the book better than the second in the trilogy, but way behind the first. After a poor showing in the second volume, I don't quite think that the author makes up the ground lost.

I wasn't all that engaged with the characters, and that's what is needed if the storyline is too fantastic. The story was fantastic - floating graveyards, sub-terranean amusement parks, travel across England in the blink of an eye - but the characters were so devoid of substance that I didn't fully accept the story. In many ways, this book is an apt demonstration of how to lose a reader. I had little sympathy with the main character, and I found the subordinate characters to be under-developed. It seems to me that if you are going to tell a fantastical story, then the reader needs to engage with the characters emotionally. I didn't in this case.

I wonder about the backstory to the book? It seems to be very rushed, with little forethought going into it. The characters are poorly planned and not well exectuted. It read to me like a book written under a contract that the author had to deliver, but not of a very high quality. I was drawn to the trilogy by the quality of the first volume, but the second and third volumes have left me very disappointed.

[Cailean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two thirds of the story were the same old song and dance as the previous two books, full of the typical absurdist scenarios and circumstances that always happen to George Dower, Jr. The last third of the novel, on the other hand, was thoroughly depressing and disappointing. After the second turning point, it got bleaker and bleaker, and it felt as though the author was either trolling whoever read all three books, or Jeter was giving the cowardly George Dower the ending he thought Dower deserved... or both.

If you're considering diving into this series, just read the first two books and forget about this third and final installment in the George Dower Trilogy.

[Michael O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read. Steampunk with an air of malaise. Meretricious prose, apparently attractive but having no real value. And yet value was found in so many phrases. "Times passage has not inured my sensibilities to malignant change". "Thus it is ever with humanity that we are not deceived by what others wish us to believe but by that which we wish to believe".

[Liviu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of this series. While I'll half-heartedly agree that it's not its highlight, "Grim Expectations" doesn't disappoint when it comes to imaginative follies. I love me a visually gifted writer, and Jeter's definitely there, with genre imagery that's on the verge of the surreal, to the point where the references are very much in your face (a flaming giraffe!). Floating dead babies as decorations, civil war-reenacting automatons, airborne graveyards... This book's setpieces are a sheer delight. I'm an artist, I draw for a living, and I want to paint each and every one of them.

Add a reluctant protagonist that you'd probably be too kind to call an anti-hero, add some delicious Victorian dialogue constantly dripping with sarcasm and cynicism, and you've got a pretty damn good book. Not necessarily a classic of the genre, but the steampunk's there, steamy and brimming with creative spins, the pacing is brisk - there's not a dull moment in it. There's some social commentary expertly woven into the narrative, cleverly playing upon the nature of the "steam" part of the genre... I really dug it. I'm a big fan of the Steampunk Triumvirate (Jeter/Powers/Blaylock), and this book is a fine addition to their previous cycle of similar-themed works.

It's a bit all over the place, but it's good.