The Company Man

May 23, 2011
The genius of a single 19th-century visionary financier transforms the early 20th century into a grimy, corrupt setting in Bennett's (Mr. Shivers) latest. In a world dominated by California's powerful and secretive McNaughton Corporation, the aspirations of the rising working class conflict with the desire of the moneyed class (specifically the über-powerful McNaughtons) to remain firmly in control. Investigators Hayes and Samantha Fairbanks find themselves caught up in the oddly subdued conflict between unions and management while investigating a violent mass murder, inextricably entangled with McNaughton's hidden past and the future looming for everyone else. Bennett's unusual steampunk setting feels out of place in this gloomy, pessimistic novel. The prose is competent, but the tale it tells is a bit dull. Furthermore, the final despairing revelation, despite messianic overtones, reflects on the general malaise in American Science Fiction without building on it.

Starred review from May 15, 2011
Bennett does the seemingly impossible here. Hes written an alternate-history novel that measures up in every respect to Philip K. Dicks masterful The Man in the High Castle. In Bennetts work, the path towards the future diverges in the 1870s, and by 1919, when the story really opens, 50 years of mind-boggling technological innovations flowing from quiet Lawrence Kulahee have changed the face of the world. After a chance meeting with Kulahee, ruthless entrepreneur William McNaughton realizes the economic potential of the unassuming genius. In short order, the skies are full of airships, the roads with automobiles, and the U.S. becomes the most powerful nation on Earth. But all is not well. Disparities in wealth have produced a society that seems headed towards social collapse. Unrest has spurred the formation of a labor-union movement, many of whose members and organizers are dropping like flies, killed in inexplicable circumstances. The body count is becoming a corporate embarrassment. Enter quasi-policeman Hayes to sort things out. Hes a highly troubled man but also seems to have psychic gifts rivaling in scale the intellectual gifts of Kulahee. Bennett weaves mystery into this strange but still recognizable world, and the result is one first-class book. Dont miss it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)