mschlat's review against another edition
4.0
I read and adored Nick Harkaway's debut novel, [b:The Gone-Away World|3007704|The Gone-Away World |Nick Harkaway|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328322676s/3007704.jpg|3038235], and I picked up his second work with little to no knowledge of what was inside the covers.
What I loved about the first book was Harkaway's ability to create these grand baroque frenetic set pieces --- almost as if someone poured out several quite good genre novels and assembled them with a blender. Or --- to pull out another strange simile --- it's like reading the complexity of a Neal Stephenson novel while huffing pixie sticks. There's a lot there, and it moves.
Well, in this novel, once it gets going, you see the same genre melange. There's a beautiful mix of British secret agent stuff, orientalism, serial killers, martial arts, Victorian automata, cults, the joy of handmade objects, and most especially old style British gangsters. And, like in The Gone-Away World, it's motivated by some science fiction with strong philosophical undertones. If Harkaway's previous work reflected on a post-apocalyptic world, this one is more pre-utopian.
However, it's a slow starter. I almost gave up after the first fifty pages. What I was reading looked like a lesser copy of lesser China Mieville (e.g, [b:King Rat|68498|King Rat|China Miéville|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312030792s/68498.jpg|1870961] or [b:Kraken|6931246|Kraken|China Miéville|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320551670s/6931246.jpg|8814204]) --- a lot of scene setting where we have both modern-day London and a criminal underground that resembles medieval guilds more than contemporary gangs. The slow start (focusing on our protagonist Joe Spork) does pay off in the end, but you really don't know that at the time.
Moreover, our conclusion appears to drop some of the emotional and philosophical complexity present in the middle of the book. Joe's love interest is a very sexy Capable Young Woman who seems more like an Adoring Sidekick by the end. And the nice philosophical questions raised by our plot macguffins mostly vanish.
It's a good read, if less audacious than his debut. If you're starting with Harkaway, this is a fine place to begin.
What I loved about the first book was Harkaway's ability to create these grand baroque frenetic set pieces --- almost as if someone poured out several quite good genre novels and assembled them with a blender. Or --- to pull out another strange simile --- it's like reading the complexity of a Neal Stephenson novel while huffing pixie sticks. There's a lot there, and it moves.
Well, in this novel, once it gets going, you see the same genre melange. There's a beautiful mix of British secret agent stuff, orientalism, serial killers, martial arts, Victorian automata, cults, the joy of handmade objects, and most especially old style British gangsters. And, like in The Gone-Away World, it's motivated by some science fiction with strong philosophical undertones. If Harkaway's previous work reflected on a post-apocalyptic world, this one is more pre-utopian.
However, it's a slow starter. I almost gave up after the first fifty pages. What I was reading looked like a lesser copy of lesser China Mieville (e.g, [b:King Rat|68498|King Rat|China Miéville|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312030792s/68498.jpg|1870961] or [b:Kraken|6931246|Kraken|China Miéville|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320551670s/6931246.jpg|8814204]) --- a lot of scene setting where we have both modern-day London and a criminal underground that resembles medieval guilds more than contemporary gangs. The slow start (focusing on our protagonist Joe Spork) does pay off in the end, but you really don't know that at the time.
Moreover, our conclusion appears to drop some of the emotional and philosophical complexity present in the middle of the book. Joe's love interest is a very sexy Capable Young Woman who seems more like an Adoring Sidekick by the end. And the nice philosophical questions raised by our plot macguffins mostly vanish.
It's a good read, if less audacious than his debut. If you're starting with Harkaway, this is a fine place to begin.
turrean's review against another edition
3.0
Oh, Nick Harkaway, you are wonderful. Imaginative. You have a vocabulary that would reduce my high school English teacher to stammering, incoherent, adoration. This was a marvelous work of invention. BUT... introducing an important female character by showing us a sexy body part? Bah. I thought, "love interest," in resignation. The character even complains at one point about being treated as a sidekick--too bad the author wasn't listening. The exuberant presence of other superb female characters just made this one appear even flatter and duller. I also cringed my way through innumerable scenes of torture. Yes, yes, monomaniacal bad guy, evil robotic myrmidons, got it, I didn't need 100 pages of the sadistic infliction of pain.
tacanderson's review against another edition
5.0
I first discovered [a:Nick Harkaway|1100593|Nick Harkaway|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1251220475p2/1100593.jpg] the author when I was browsing through the Seattle's excellent, Elliot Bay Book Company, and stumbled upon his excellent [b:The Gone Away World|3007704|The Gone Away World|Nick Harkaway|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328322676s/3007704.jpg|3038235]. I loved this book immensely. my review of TGAW. I loved the blend of post-apocalyptic setting, with Nick's humor and excellent story telling. Nick defies description and Angelmaker is no different.
This time the setting for Angelmaker is more current and accessible but instead of post-apocalyptic, he manages to work in elements of Steampunk and the clockwork world. He even works in flesh eating zombies, although they're not proper zombies like we typically think of them, they're the kind of zombies only Nick could create.
As enjoyable as the story, plot and characters are (I even fell in love with the old blond pug dog hero, and I hate pug dogs), the book is a marvel to read because Nick loves to write. He loves words and always finds the most amazing words to use. I would guess Nick had more fun writing this book than any writer should because it's apparent in his writing.
This is the best book I've read in years. If this book doesn't make several top selling lists and win several awards then it will be a great travesty.
The greatest surprise about Nick thought is probably the fact that he's so accessible online. He's all over the place on his blog, on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
This time the setting for Angelmaker is more current and accessible but instead of post-apocalyptic, he manages to work in elements of Steampunk and the clockwork world. He even works in flesh eating zombies, although they're not proper zombies like we typically think of them, they're the kind of zombies only Nick could create.
As enjoyable as the story, plot and characters are (I even fell in love with the old blond pug dog hero, and I hate pug dogs), the book is a marvel to read because Nick loves to write. He loves words and always finds the most amazing words to use. I would guess Nick had more fun writing this book than any writer should because it's apparent in his writing.
This is the best book I've read in years. If this book doesn't make several top selling lists and win several awards then it will be a great travesty.
The greatest surprise about Nick thought is probably the fact that he's so accessible online. He's all over the place on his blog, on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
tacanderson's review against another edition
5.0
Such a great book. Nick loves words and it shows in his verse. Angelmaker is part heist story, part spy novel, flavored with noir steampunk.
ewalrath's review against another edition
5.0
Short review: I loved this book so much I'm sorry I can't read it for the first time again.
Longer review: Right, so, it's hard to explain just how many of my favorite things this book managed to light on but just talking about my favorite things won't get you my five stars. This book stands mostly on the strength of it's writing and by that I mean more than just clever well-chosen words. The pacing is good. The rhythm of the words matches the emotional tone of the scenes; the metaphors are creative but not precious (YMMV, I am a sucker for an unusual metaphor) and the funny bits are actually funny. I suggest reading the first chapter and seeing if the writing is in a style you like.
Now for the plot- there will rarely be anything I love more than a plot from the past raring it's head and disturbing the present. I love spies. I love lovable rogues. I REALLY love older women who are tired of being underestimated. I love secret societies of the Christopher Fowler-type rather than the more obvious Dan Brown-type. And I love bees.
Longer review: Right, so, it's hard to explain just how many of my favorite things this book managed to light on but just talking about my favorite things won't get you my five stars. This book stands mostly on the strength of it's writing and by that I mean more than just clever well-chosen words. The pacing is good. The rhythm of the words matches the emotional tone of the scenes; the metaphors are creative but not precious (YMMV, I am a sucker for an unusual metaphor) and the funny bits are actually funny. I suggest reading the first chapter and seeing if the writing is in a style you like.
Now for the plot- there will rarely be anything I love more than a plot from the past raring it's head and disturbing the present. I love spies. I love lovable rogues. I REALLY love older women who are tired of being underestimated. I love secret societies of the Christopher Fowler-type rather than the more obvious Dan Brown-type. And I love bees.
knp4597's review
2.0
Meh. Not for me. Frenzied. Lots of jumping back and forth in time that lost me. Parts reminded me of “His Dark Materials” trilogy - which I’m not a fan of, and Orwell’s “1984”.
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
I'm torn on this one. For every dazzling section that Nick Harkaway writes that is cool, unpredictable, lively and just awesome, he then writes a section that is meandering, show-offy and self-indulgent. It's too bad that he can't harness the greatness more often as this would be an epic entertainment involving a wide assortment of characters and action. But, he can't do that, as he goes on way too many off-shoots that slow the pacing and are just not needed. There is a re-occurring theme I have with some of these young writers that I've been reading lately as they try to write these big books with a lot of ideas, a lot of characters and a lot of themes---EDIT yourself! I'm not sure what their editors are doing to be honest as had Harkaway cut out some of the unneeded or wanted extras here, ANGELMAKER would have taken off like gangbusters for me. He wants to stuff the story with so much though that it just weighs it down, slows it down and fills it with too much. Too bad. Saved by the amazing moments, ANGELMAKER never truly becomes what it could of been due to the major flaw of excess from Harkaway.
bookishlymichelle's review against another edition
2.0
this is the most 2012 book i've ever read. on the one hand, you have a great sapphic MC. on the other hand: .
the other woman is very hot, sometimes badass, often fucked, and mostly used as a boost to the male MC's ego.
other women have boobs. they're beautiful. men kiss them. they're jealous of them. they steal their underwear. they want to see them naked (but they'd rather see carrie fisher naked). they're the wife, the secretary, the assistant whose name we don't need so we'll call all of them BETHANY. they have great skin. they have amazing, naughty legs and toes. what they don't have: actual on page time/lines.
they are mothers that their sons describe as lustful, attractive, fuckable. (LIKE WHAT????)
if you don't think these jokes are funny, please rest assured that the MC thinks you are a "waifish, angry woman". (i don't think these jokes were funny at all and i am personally okay being described as waifish and angry :)
the "social commentary" is so heavy-handed within jokes or "clever" one-liners that it becomes offensive (again, i'm okay with whatever you want to call me for that so save ur breath! it's not worth it, promise)
there are passages that are beautifully written, and parts of the plot that i found intriguing enough to plow through all 566 pages of this text even though it could have been 366. but my god if this dude didn't wear a fedora in the 2000s and tell women they're pretty AND funny and how is that possible, then idk what :/
Spoiler
she then dies in the space of one pitiful sentence like she was a secondary, nay, tertiary sidekick to a side characterthe other woman is very hot, sometimes badass, often fucked, and mostly used as a boost to the male MC's ego.
other women have boobs. they're beautiful. men kiss them. they're jealous of them. they steal their underwear. they want to see them naked (but they'd rather see carrie fisher naked). they're the wife, the secretary, the assistant whose name we don't need so we'll call all of them BETHANY. they have great skin. they have amazing, naughty legs and toes. what they don't have: actual on page time/lines.
they are mothers that their sons describe as lustful, attractive, fuckable. (LIKE WHAT????)
if you don't think these jokes are funny, please rest assured that the MC thinks you are a "waifish, angry woman". (i don't think these jokes were funny at all and i am personally okay being described as waifish and angry :)
the "social commentary" is so heavy-handed within jokes or "clever" one-liners that it becomes offensive (again, i'm okay with whatever you want to call me for that so save ur breath! it's not worth it, promise)
there are passages that are beautifully written, and parts of the plot that i found intriguing enough to plow through all 566 pages of this text even though it could have been 366. but my god if this dude didn't wear a fedora in the 2000s and tell women they're pretty AND funny and how is that possible, then idk what :/
mendelbot's review against another edition
4.0
A thoroughly entertaining sci-fi/spy vs. spy lark. The plot - and villain - are straight out of James Bond, which makes the book perfectly absurd and silly. Still, the central themes of loyalty and family are presented seriously and are the major strengths of the book. Like many books that devolve into cinematic action-adventure, this one feels a bit anti-climactic. Still, a terrific read.