A review by markyon
Soot by Dan Vyleta
4.0
Soot is set in a Dickensian world of darkness, grime and wretched brutality, with an additional Fantasy element. The magic part is that what to us is unseen in this world, our emotions, is physically visible in this one. Love, sin, greed, and desire are all extruded as a plume of Smoke from the body. Other people can therefore see, taste and experience our emotions in a physical form. As a result, some people have embraced the liberation and clarity that such things provide whilst others, usually the aristocracy, wish for privacy and secrecy, see it as evil and wish to get rid of it. They use sweets to obscure the smoke so that others cannot see what they feel.
Originally the Smoke seems to be a British issue but in Soot the problem has spread to other parts of the world. Three people seem to be initially important in controlling the Smoke – Thomas Argyle, Charlie Cooper and, Livia Naylor, whose story was told in Smoke (2016).
Soot is set in 1909, ten years after Smoke. Although the events and characters of Smoke are summarised in this book as we go along, though there were times when I felt that I was missing something that may be important to those who have read more in this world. I would recommend that you read Smoke first.
In this second instalment we have new key characters taking centre stage, some of whom the reader may have met before whilst others are new. Much of the new book focuses on Eleanor Renfrew, niece of Erasmus Renfrew, the Lord Protector of England. Eleanor has been in hiding in the care of Cruikshank to escape her evil Uncle because in Smoke her Uncle kept her imprisoned in some sort of torture apparatus until rescued by Charlie. After the recent death of Cruikshank, Eleanor travels to New York, where she takes up with a theatre troupe run by Balthazar Black. (It is therefore entirely logical that part of the book’s set up here is as if it were a play, in five acts.) The troupe – with Eleanor tagging along – return to England, to the Minetowns of the North, where Balthazar hopes to stock up with a secret substance that can control Smoke, although his reason given is to return to England where the so-called Second Smoke has been and gone, although it has been taken up in other countries.
In a separate plot thread we also follow Nil, once named Mowgli, who was abducted from South America and is now on a mission to find out about his past. To do this he spies on the Company, the global trading business. He finds a strange Beetle whose importance becomes clear as the novel progresses.
Eventually the plot threads converge as Eleanor meets Nil and a strange character named Smith, who knows Eleanor, on her boat journey to England. There is a black storm over the Atlantic that seems to be generated by Smoke. The boat survives but Eleanor finds herself to be labelled as the ‘Madonna of the Storm’ who was able to sooth the storm.
Eventually Eleanor, Smith and Nil end up in the Minetowns of Northern England and in particular to Ekklesia, where there is a Worker’s Council trying to serve the needs of the locals in a place where hardship rules. Balthazar is presented to the Workers’ Council meets Livia and is requested to write a play about the Workers. Eleanor is captured and is blackmailed to return to her Uncle where she is once again put ‘in harness’.
Meanwhile Thomas Argyle, is in the Himalayas, searching for an expedition that is searching for the origin of Smoke. Their discovery leads to horror. As one of the origin points of the mysterious Smoke, he feels guilty about what he is responsible for and is determined to find a way of controlling or even removing the Smoke to make up for his previous mistake. This has enormous consequences for him.
In the end the plot meanders its way towards a resolution where the lead characters manage to thwart the plans of Eleanor’s Uncle, discover the origins of Smoke and the means of controlling it, as well as how to deal with the issues that the Smoke creates. The ending suggests that we may not be entirely finished with this world yet.
At 548 pages of small print, Soot is a big book. It’s also an immersive experience, and effectively evokes a world that is dark, dirty and creepy. This is certainly not a sanitised book, and in that respect taps into those Dickensian combinations of social niceties and squalor. This may be in part because of the detailed and colourful descriptions of places being as much a part of the book as the characters. In terms of prose, Dan can really write, and his descriptions of people and places are top class. The characterisation is detailed and nuanced beyond the basics, with a depth that is beyond many novels.
Whilst I must admit that I really wasn’t sure about the whole concept of Smoke at the start - that idea of ‘visible sin’ just felt a tad too moralistic for my own tastes – but the author manages that difficult feat of making the impossible seem credible. Soot covers the world, with sojourns to India, the USA and Britain, and this breadth draws you in to give a full picture.
This depth is also helped by the fact that the worldbuilding and setting is vivid and memorable. Whilst there are touches of genre that you may feel are familiar – you could see Soot as an alternative to Dust in Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials books, for example – this one is strong enough to stand on its own merits. Dan makes his own path through an elaborate alternate history combined with a quest story, a thriller and a mystery set within a 5-act play.
The downside of this is that there are many details and side-plots that may not be entirely necessary. Whilst they are enjoyable, I can see that for some they may make the pace of Soot a tad too leisurely, and when added to its mannered vocabulary they could make the novel a challenge – but at the same time and for the same reasons I can see many taking it to their hearts and it becoming a valued treasure. It is a book to be savoured - literate, thoughtful and memorable, a book that demands your close attention whilst reading. For me, I found it to be a superior piece of ambitious writing that managed to keep me coming back to read more, until it was done. Its pacing and detail meant that I appreciated it more than I loved it, though it is such a richly meticulous novel that I suspect that it will be one I’ll be thinking about long after I finished it.
Originally the Smoke seems to be a British issue but in Soot the problem has spread to other parts of the world. Three people seem to be initially important in controlling the Smoke – Thomas Argyle, Charlie Cooper and, Livia Naylor, whose story was told in Smoke (2016).
Soot is set in 1909, ten years after Smoke. Although the events and characters of Smoke are summarised in this book as we go along, though there were times when I felt that I was missing something that may be important to those who have read more in this world. I would recommend that you read Smoke first.
In this second instalment we have new key characters taking centre stage, some of whom the reader may have met before whilst others are new. Much of the new book focuses on Eleanor Renfrew, niece of Erasmus Renfrew, the Lord Protector of England. Eleanor has been in hiding in the care of Cruikshank to escape her evil Uncle because in Smoke her Uncle kept her imprisoned in some sort of torture apparatus until rescued by Charlie. After the recent death of Cruikshank, Eleanor travels to New York, where she takes up with a theatre troupe run by Balthazar Black. (It is therefore entirely logical that part of the book’s set up here is as if it were a play, in five acts.) The troupe – with Eleanor tagging along – return to England, to the Minetowns of the North, where Balthazar hopes to stock up with a secret substance that can control Smoke, although his reason given is to return to England where the so-called Second Smoke has been and gone, although it has been taken up in other countries.
In a separate plot thread we also follow Nil, once named Mowgli, who was abducted from South America and is now on a mission to find out about his past. To do this he spies on the Company, the global trading business. He finds a strange Beetle whose importance becomes clear as the novel progresses.
Eventually the plot threads converge as Eleanor meets Nil and a strange character named Smith, who knows Eleanor, on her boat journey to England. There is a black storm over the Atlantic that seems to be generated by Smoke. The boat survives but Eleanor finds herself to be labelled as the ‘Madonna of the Storm’ who was able to sooth the storm.
Eventually Eleanor, Smith and Nil end up in the Minetowns of Northern England and in particular to Ekklesia, where there is a Worker’s Council trying to serve the needs of the locals in a place where hardship rules. Balthazar is presented to the Workers’ Council meets Livia and is requested to write a play about the Workers. Eleanor is captured and is blackmailed to return to her Uncle where she is once again put ‘in harness’.
Meanwhile Thomas Argyle, is in the Himalayas, searching for an expedition that is searching for the origin of Smoke. Their discovery leads to horror. As one of the origin points of the mysterious Smoke, he feels guilty about what he is responsible for and is determined to find a way of controlling or even removing the Smoke to make up for his previous mistake. This has enormous consequences for him.
In the end the plot meanders its way towards a resolution where the lead characters manage to thwart the plans of Eleanor’s Uncle, discover the origins of Smoke and the means of controlling it, as well as how to deal with the issues that the Smoke creates. The ending suggests that we may not be entirely finished with this world yet.
At 548 pages of small print, Soot is a big book. It’s also an immersive experience, and effectively evokes a world that is dark, dirty and creepy. This is certainly not a sanitised book, and in that respect taps into those Dickensian combinations of social niceties and squalor. This may be in part because of the detailed and colourful descriptions of places being as much a part of the book as the characters. In terms of prose, Dan can really write, and his descriptions of people and places are top class. The characterisation is detailed and nuanced beyond the basics, with a depth that is beyond many novels.
Whilst I must admit that I really wasn’t sure about the whole concept of Smoke at the start - that idea of ‘visible sin’ just felt a tad too moralistic for my own tastes – but the author manages that difficult feat of making the impossible seem credible. Soot covers the world, with sojourns to India, the USA and Britain, and this breadth draws you in to give a full picture.
This depth is also helped by the fact that the worldbuilding and setting is vivid and memorable. Whilst there are touches of genre that you may feel are familiar – you could see Soot as an alternative to Dust in Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials books, for example – this one is strong enough to stand on its own merits. Dan makes his own path through an elaborate alternate history combined with a quest story, a thriller and a mystery set within a 5-act play.
The downside of this is that there are many details and side-plots that may not be entirely necessary. Whilst they are enjoyable, I can see that for some they may make the pace of Soot a tad too leisurely, and when added to its mannered vocabulary they could make the novel a challenge – but at the same time and for the same reasons I can see many taking it to their hearts and it becoming a valued treasure. It is a book to be savoured - literate, thoughtful and memorable, a book that demands your close attention whilst reading. For me, I found it to be a superior piece of ambitious writing that managed to keep me coming back to read more, until it was done. Its pacing and detail meant that I appreciated it more than I loved it, though it is such a richly meticulous novel that I suspect that it will be one I’ll be thinking about long after I finished it.