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General notes:
It’s been a while since I read these books now. I’m going to write about these sequels to Lost Things together because (1) the first three are an omnibus - very good value - and (2) the others were just there, on Kindle, I couldn't stop myself. I’m going to take a look at Oathbound again before I review that.
There is to be another book beyond 5 and hopefully more, because damn it, I want to know the rest of this story. I’m not going to try to cover all the events except very generally because there’s so much and I feel overwhelmed by the idea of trying, but just give them a try. They’re pretty special. Also there are some much better reviews of all of them on Goodreads, so look there.
I researched the books a bit and found a lot about them and other books linked with them from Jo Graham’s Live Journal. There’s another series set later in time which they are somehow connected to, but I did fine without knowing those books. It’s irritating that they are put out by an American indie press, not because it’s indie but because that means they’re hideously expensive for American paperbacks. So although I’d like to have them as actual books, I’m probably not going to.
I’ve discovered a disadvantage of ebooks is that when you’re trying to review them and want to remind yourself about events in it, it’s really difficult to leaf through it and find the bit when it’s just text on a screen and you can't remember the precise wording in order to search.
I’m not sure now which writer did most of the books or whether it’s a 50/50 split of effort and credit. It’s a good sign that I can’t tell, though I always try to work it out when I read a book by more than one writer. Jo Graham’s books seem to be more historical, while some of Melissa Scott’s are set in fantasy worlds. Alternate Victorian London and things like that. Gay characters are a trademark of Melissa Scott, and I like that the stories aren’t about them being gay. That may change how they react to certain situations and their life experiences are certainly pertinent, but it’s not the story in itself. In the world of 1930s America – and elsewhere – Dr Jerry Ballard certainly has to be extremely circumspect for the sake of his career and perhaps, in some quarters, his survival, but he is also an archaeologist, a scholar and a magician and it is those traits that drive the story.
I love the rickety, dangerous, colourful little planes. The detail about the aircraft of the 1920s and early 1930s is fascinating, though I suspect my tendency towards airsickness would manifest itself early and often if I was ever to fly in one. If neither of the authors is a flier of antique aircraft, then I’m sure they have someone on tap who is, because I’d swear they’ve lived through this. And they don’t feel antique while reading it, there’s no sense of looking back from our “enlightened” age to the early planes. They’re new and exciting things. As a character says at one point; forty years earlier there were no aircraft.
It’s always a challenge for a historical fiction book to reflect the sense of that age. Peter Beagle said it best in The Folk of The Air and I’m reproducing it without checking so a word may be out here or there. Spoken to a modern day player of medieval music:
You can’t escape the fact that your music believes in God and Hell and the King.
Specific book notes
Steel Blues takes up a few months after book 1 with Gilchrist Aviation trying to make ends meet in the Great Depression. The main event is an air race, which they enter to make money, helped along by a cursed necklace which a charming pseudo-Russian con woman/countess steals from a friend of Alma, Mitch and Jerry. Stasi Rostov, which is definitely not her real name, seems to be just a plot twist, but ends up being much more a part of the group’s lives than expected. It also evens things up a bit; Alma is no longer the only woman in the lives of three men; not that that's as interesting as it sounds at first.
I didn’t like it as much as the first book, but since I got the first three in an omnibus, it was pretty easy to keep reading on through Silver Bullet. The Gilchrist Aviation crew, as all pilots in the area, are part of a regular search and rescue effort whenever a plane goes down. So they notice there’s rather a lot of them. At first they wonder whether the mine is haunted.
Spoilers follow.
Well, yes, if a mad scientist experimenting with electricity has created an artifact which emits an EMP pulse, downing any plane in the affected area, particularly new-fangled ones with actual electronics on board. I wasn’t sure how historically accurate the portrayal of Tesla was. It included some of his idiosyncrasies, such as never touching anyone, but he seemed a bit normal to me, mad scientist or not. There is also an enemy, a magician from another lodge, who is showing rather too much interest in events.
I felt the pace picked up again with Windraker, which involves an archaological dig in 1935 Hawaii to try to discover whether the Chinese discovered it centuries before Europeans. Jerry is doing fieldwork for the first time in many years as an archaologist, desperate to restart his career after losing his leg in WW1. The shadows of future war are already showing themselves, with the Nazi presence overlooking the work of German archaologist Willi Radke, who is definitely overqualified for this job. Also cute, according to Jerry :-) Alma, Mitch, Stasi and Lewis come into things when they’re requested to fly test Catalina flying boats in Hawaii. This brings their skills both as flyers and as magicians into play, because Something definitely wants them all there.
The occult elements are simply part of the characters’ lives, there is no sense of a sudden quest and abilities “wakening” in someone in order to defeat an evil. They don’t and they can’t; all they do is to keep things on track to the best of their ability. Again, the authors seem to know something of ceremonial magic aka the Golden Dawn, the organisation which is the basis for the series’ system of magical lodges which exist across the world.
There’s a sort of subplot in Windraker about reincarnation and who the characters have been in past lives, which I also found rather fascinating.I would here recommend reading the poem Through a Glass Darkly by Gen. George Patton.
It’s been a while since I read these books now. I’m going to write about these sequels to Lost Things together because (1) the first three are an omnibus - very good value - and (2) the others were just there, on Kindle, I couldn't stop myself. I’m going to take a look at Oathbound again before I review that.
There is to be another book beyond 5 and hopefully more, because damn it, I want to know the rest of this story. I’m not going to try to cover all the events except very generally because there’s so much and I feel overwhelmed by the idea of trying, but just give them a try. They’re pretty special. Also there are some much better reviews of all of them on Goodreads, so look there.
I researched the books a bit and found a lot about them and other books linked with them from Jo Graham’s Live Journal. There’s another series set later in time which they are somehow connected to, but I did fine without knowing those books. It’s irritating that they are put out by an American indie press, not because it’s indie but because that means they’re hideously expensive for American paperbacks. So although I’d like to have them as actual books, I’m probably not going to.
I’ve discovered a disadvantage of ebooks is that when you’re trying to review them and want to remind yourself about events in it, it’s really difficult to leaf through it and find the bit when it’s just text on a screen and you can't remember the precise wording in order to search.
I’m not sure now which writer did most of the books or whether it’s a 50/50 split of effort and credit. It’s a good sign that I can’t tell, though I always try to work it out when I read a book by more than one writer. Jo Graham’s books seem to be more historical, while some of Melissa Scott’s are set in fantasy worlds. Alternate Victorian London and things like that. Gay characters are a trademark of Melissa Scott, and I like that the stories aren’t about them being gay. That may change how they react to certain situations and their life experiences are certainly pertinent, but it’s not the story in itself. In the world of 1930s America – and elsewhere – Dr Jerry Ballard certainly has to be extremely circumspect for the sake of his career and perhaps, in some quarters, his survival, but he is also an archaeologist, a scholar and a magician and it is those traits that drive the story.
I love the rickety, dangerous, colourful little planes. The detail about the aircraft of the 1920s and early 1930s is fascinating, though I suspect my tendency towards airsickness would manifest itself early and often if I was ever to fly in one. If neither of the authors is a flier of antique aircraft, then I’m sure they have someone on tap who is, because I’d swear they’ve lived through this. And they don’t feel antique while reading it, there’s no sense of looking back from our “enlightened” age to the early planes. They’re new and exciting things. As a character says at one point; forty years earlier there were no aircraft.
It’s always a challenge for a historical fiction book to reflect the sense of that age. Peter Beagle said it best in The Folk of The Air and I’m reproducing it without checking so a word may be out here or there. Spoken to a modern day player of medieval music:
You can’t escape the fact that your music believes in God and Hell and the King.
Specific book notes
Steel Blues takes up a few months after book 1 with Gilchrist Aviation trying to make ends meet in the Great Depression. The main event is an air race, which they enter to make money, helped along by a cursed necklace which a charming pseudo-Russian con woman/countess steals from a friend of Alma, Mitch and Jerry. Stasi Rostov, which is definitely not her real name, seems to be just a plot twist, but ends up being much more a part of the group’s lives than expected. It also evens things up a bit; Alma is no longer the only woman in the lives of three men; not that that's as interesting as it sounds at first.
I didn’t like it as much as the first book, but since I got the first three in an omnibus, it was pretty easy to keep reading on through Silver Bullet. The Gilchrist Aviation crew, as all pilots in the area, are part of a regular search and rescue effort whenever a plane goes down. So they notice there’s rather a lot of them. At first they wonder whether the mine is haunted.
Spoilers follow.
Well, yes, if a mad scientist experimenting with electricity has created an artifact which emits an EMP pulse, downing any plane in the affected area, particularly new-fangled ones with actual electronics on board. I wasn’t sure how historically accurate the portrayal of Tesla was. It included some of his idiosyncrasies, such as never touching anyone, but he seemed a bit normal to me, mad scientist or not. There is also an enemy, a magician from another lodge, who is showing rather too much interest in events.
I felt the pace picked up again with Windraker, which involves an archaological dig in 1935 Hawaii to try to discover whether the Chinese discovered it centuries before Europeans. Jerry is doing fieldwork for the first time in many years as an archaologist, desperate to restart his career after losing his leg in WW1. The shadows of future war are already showing themselves, with the Nazi presence overlooking the work of German archaologist Willi Radke, who is definitely overqualified for this job. Also cute, according to Jerry :-) Alma, Mitch, Stasi and Lewis come into things when they’re requested to fly test Catalina flying boats in Hawaii. This brings their skills both as flyers and as magicians into play, because Something definitely wants them all there.
The occult elements are simply part of the characters’ lives, there is no sense of a sudden quest and abilities “wakening” in someone in order to defeat an evil. They don’t and they can’t; all they do is to keep things on track to the best of their ability. Again, the authors seem to know something of ceremonial magic aka the Golden Dawn, the organisation which is the basis for the series’ system of magical lodges which exist across the world.
There’s a sort of subplot in Windraker about reincarnation and who the characters have been in past lives, which I also found rather fascinating.I would here recommend reading the poem Through a Glass Darkly by Gen. George Patton.