Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
London is out of control, the age of science is gathering pace and all the while reason is thrown to the ravages of the age, peculiar goings on, dangerous events are set in motion where plagues, automatons and a changed society are at odds with each other. George Mann’s The Affinity Bridge is not just a reflection of today’s world but one in which asks the reader one thing: Who is in control?
What makes the characters so compelling is how they are drawn, especially the role of Maurice Newbury who throughout the book comes across as the steampunk equivalent of Richard Hanney, a man of morals and truth but as would be expected in the modern era, a human being with a weakness, a flaw in which readers can empathise with, if not at least understand, as like the redoubtable Sherlock Holmes, the need for a stimulant to access the inner workings of the mind, to crush the doubt fully, is to rendered. It is this Achilles Heel that makes him a person and not some fledgling automaton, some slightly perverse early 20th Century Detective to whom there is a big divide between good and evil; instead George Mann really fleshes out the character in the first of his books and instantly becomes a man of distinction in the same way that Richard Hanney is observed to be.
Steampunk might not be for everyone, it has its draw backs in that many readers cannot identify with a past that did not happen, happily embracing a technological age that could not be or seeing an alternate future in which the timelines of Earth vary slightly is perhaps arguably for those more entwined with the irregularities of what ifs and maybe’s. However, this book is certainly not aimed at those who find such notions fanciful and whilst that is a pity for they are the ones truly missing out on George Mann’s wonderful style in The Affinity Bridge, the book and the author only request that it be given the same consideration as any other, that the story by itself is worthy of being read.
George Mann captures London as this gleaming spire but with the edges of society very much being seen as nothing more than a blight, a thought that would have gone through many people’s heads as they looked towards the East End at the time and to which they allowed fear to propagate. Despite being the most enjoyable and truthful part of the Capital, George Mann makes great play with the juxtaposition of Whitechapel and Kensington as two distinctive forces and even allows the reader to believe that one cannot exist without the other as vestiges off one rub off and infiltrate the other.
Control is all, control is power and George Mann asks the right question throughout, just how far do you go to assume that power? A cracking read and a reinvention of steampunk at the right time; George Mann has made the genre accessible again.
Ian D. Hall