Review: "Rude Mechanicals", by Kage Baker
Sep. 9th, 2007 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayWhen this was first announced, I looked forward to it with great anticipation. A 'Company' novella, featuring those wacky immortal cyborgs Joseph and Lewis getting tangled up with Max Reinhardt's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" live at the Hollywood Bowl in the 1930s. Individually, I like all those elements, so it seemed like I should love this story.
Of course, I was a bit taken aback by the form factor. This was to see initial publication in that increasingly-popular form, the "hardcover chapbook". Not sure *why* it's increasingly popular, as it means paying over $20 for a single novella, an order of magnitude more than one usually pays. So I held off from buying it right away, making a mental note to keep an eye out for its eventual appearance in some more cost-effective venue.
While visiting![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cvirtue and metageek recently, I noticed a copy on their shelves, and asked to borrow it. Glad I borrowed rather than bought, as it was very disappointing. Not to the level of "I want my ninety minutes back", mind you, but certainly not worth buying as an overpriced hardcover.
The primary plot is a classic "follow the bouncing ball"; Joseph has to recover a McGuffin for the Company, only he keeps arriving Just Barely Too Late to keep it from ending up in the hands of yet another mortal. I'm sure his mounting frustration is *meant* to be funny, but I just found it stupid. The series has long established that these cyborgs can go into 'hyperfunction', speeding up their senses and actions to almost Flash levels for several seconds (objective) at a time. At practically every juncture that Joseph loses the McGuffin, a brief jolt of hyperfunction would have allowed him to easily get it. There's not even the out available of "this is a slightly different universe", since Baker makes references to hyperfunction within this very story. The result is that Joseph looks like an idiot throughout.
There are flashes of greatness here and there. A scene in which Reinhardt gives direction to his Bottom is most excellent. And the snippets of 1930s Hollywood gossip are always amusing. But these are, sadly, minor elements, greatly overshadowed by the A plot.
Similar complaints coul easily be made about some earlier entries in the series, especially _Mendoza in Hollywood_. It makes me wish that Baker would write a straight-up historical novel about the early days of Hollywood, with little or no fantastic elements. She has a great eye for interesting historical details and characters, more so than she has for her own inventions, at least in the context of the Company series.
Of course, I was a bit taken aback by the form factor. This was to see initial publication in that increasingly-popular form, the "hardcover chapbook". Not sure *why* it's increasingly popular, as it means paying over $20 for a single novella, an order of magnitude more than one usually pays. So I held off from buying it right away, making a mental note to keep an eye out for its eventual appearance in some more cost-effective venue.
While visiting
cvirtue and metageek recently, I noticed a copy on their shelves, and asked to borrow it. Glad I borrowed rather than bought, as it was very disappointing. Not to the level of "I want my ninety minutes back", mind you, but certainly not worth buying as an overpriced hardcover.The primary plot is a classic "follow the bouncing ball"; Joseph has to recover a McGuffin for the Company, only he keeps arriving Just Barely Too Late to keep it from ending up in the hands of yet another mortal. I'm sure his mounting frustration is *meant* to be funny, but I just found it stupid. The series has long established that these cyborgs can go into 'hyperfunction', speeding up their senses and actions to almost Flash levels for several seconds (objective) at a time. At practically every juncture that Joseph loses the McGuffin, a brief jolt of hyperfunction would have allowed him to easily get it. There's not even the out available of "this is a slightly different universe", since Baker makes references to hyperfunction within this very story. The result is that Joseph looks like an idiot throughout.
There are flashes of greatness here and there. A scene in which Reinhardt gives direction to his Bottom is most excellent. And the snippets of 1930s Hollywood gossip are always amusing. But these are, sadly, minor elements, greatly overshadowed by the A plot.
Similar complaints coul easily be made about some earlier entries in the series, especially _Mendoza in Hollywood_. It makes me wish that Baker would write a straight-up historical novel about the early days of Hollywood, with little or no fantastic elements. She has a great eye for interesting historical details and characters, more so than she has for her own inventions, at least in the context of the Company series.