Trent Jamieson
Angry Robot Books
$7.99, 432 p. mass market paperback
$5.99 ebook
The publisher's website classifies this one as fantasy, but I'm going to pick nits and call it science fiction (which is why I'm reviewing it here rather than over on Adventures Fantastic), or as a compromise, science fantasy. Unless I misread something, this one takes place on another planet thousands of years in the future, after at least one civilization's global collapse. In other words, Roil is science fiction that reads like fantasy.
I've never read William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land, but from what I've read about it, I suspect there are similarities between that work and this one. The subtitle of the book, or rather the title of the series, is The Nightbound Land, after all. In addition, Roil has elements of steam punk with a dash of pulp adventure thrown in. There are airships, but they're organic, living things. There are examples of advanced technology in a milieu of Victorian era science. There's a man who is at least one thousand years old. There are strange races that are only partly human. And a cast of Dickensian characters. If any of these appeal to you, then you should check this book out.
