The Revolutions

Starred review from May 19, 2014
Gilman's interplanetary adventure, occult thriller, and all-round ripping yarn follows the struggles of a young Victorian couple in the grip of dastardly intrigue. Young journalist Arthur Shaw and stenographer Josephine Bradman are drawn into a web of dangerous psychic experimentation that leads to Jo's spirit being exiled to one of the moons of Mars. To rescue her, Arthur is forced to rely on the schemes of secretive and manifestly untrustworthy Lord Atwood, while different factions of magicians fight a clandestine but deadly war in London. More occult treachery is revealed after Arthur and Atwood lead a band of explorers psychically projected to the surface of Mars. Jo, meanwhile, has entered the body of a Martian so she can warn Arthur of impending danger before it's too late. Gilman (The Rise of Ransom City) pulls one surprise after another out of his hat, winking slyly as he does so, and floods of action never let readers come up for air. A remarkable, hugely enjoyable performance.

March 15, 2014
Magicians with murky motives clash in Gilman's (The Rise of Ransom City, 2012, etc.) peculiar spiritualist fantasy, which incorporates a healthy dash of Edgar Rice Burroughs and perhaps a hint of Lovecraft. Barely employed journalist Arthur Shaw meets occult stenographer Josephine Bradman during the terrible London storm of 1893. It's love, but a literally star-crossed love, as Josephine becomes drawn into the affairs of the Company, a magical society that is attempting to psychically journey to the celestial spheres beyond Earth. When Arthur rashly interrupts one of these astral attempts, Josephine's consciousness is lost near Mars and its two moons, and Arthur must take her place in the Company in order to get her back. Despite the fact that this novel contains many characters with telepathic powers, it's difficult to penetrate their motivations. Arthur wants to rescue Josephine, yes, and Josephine wants to go home, but the goals of their fellow magicians in the Company and those of a rival group led by the sinister Lord Podmore seem less clear. Magicians seek power--but power to do what? What does the Company's leader, Lord Atwood, gain by journeying to the spheres? Why is Podmore so anxious to stop them? What role is played by the mysterious woman who calls herself Jupiter? Or the inscrutable Mr. Sun? And who is Mrs. Archer, the crude but powerful crone who watches the stars? We never entirely understand anyone, so it's difficult to have any kind of emotional reaction (positive or negative) toward them. The story seems to drift through strange byways rather than heading in a straight direction. Odd, unsettling, inconclusive.

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April 15, 2014
In 1893, Arthur Shaw is a not-very-successful London journalist, but a strange and perhaps unnatural storm hits the city, wreaking havoc and destroying his newspaper's offices. Looking for work, Arthur stumbles upon a well-paying job at a very odd counting house where rooms of young men pursue arcane calculations that cause some of the workers to hallucinate or even go mad. The calculations are being used by a magical society, one in which Arthur's girlfriend, Josephine, is involved. All the numbers and symbols that Arthur has been transcribing might just be the thing that allows Jo and her colleagues to travel to other worlds. VERDICT Gilman ("Half-Made World") plays with the contradictory facts that the Victorians were not only interested in scientific discovery but were also fascinated by spiritualism and the occult. The first half of the book succeeds more than the second, when the metaphysical travels to Mars cause things to get more than a little surreal.

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