Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon: Still solidly entertaining

Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon by David Barnett

Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon (2014) is David Barnett’s steampunk follow-up to Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl, and continues that first book’s solidly entertaining plot, even as it shares a few of the same missteps. As this is a direct sequel, there will be spoilers for the first book, so readers beware.

In book one, Gideon is proclaimed the Hero of the Empire for his part in saving London and Queen Victoria from an attack using a magical/technological marvel shaped like a dragon (it also flies and belches fire). His companions included:

• Maria, a mechanical girl with a human brain
• Bent, a cynical journalist with a love for alcohol and spiced sausage
• Rowena Fanshawe, the “Belle of the Airways” airship pilot
• Cockayne, an American airship pilot of questionable ethics/loyalties

At the end of the story, Cockayne has stolen both the dragon and its pilot Maria and, we find out in book two, has headed for the North American continent, which in this world, where the American Revolution failed, is a mix of New Britain, Japanese California, the slave-owning southern Confederacy, New Spain, French Louisiana, Free Florida (created by former slaves), Free Texas (a lawless hellhole of a place whose unofficial capital is Steamtown/San Antonio), and a few other places. Steamtown, ruled over by a mostly crazy (and mostly machine) Thaddeus Pinch, is where Cockayne hopes to sell the dragon and where Gideon and his friends travel in an attempt to stop him and rescue Maria.

Pinch is the major “evil” villain, while Cockayne plays the more amoral rogue with a softer heart than appears “villain,” and attempts to stop these two make up the core of the plot. But Barnett throws a lot in here. There’s a Zorro-like character, a nameless drifter looking for “America” that doesn’t exist but that he for some reason thinks is supposed to, a Japanese scientist working on something vitally important on the west coast, an attempted assassination of the governor of New York, a Romeo and Juliet type romance that greatly complicates things, aerial bombing raids, escaped slaves, a cyborg-like Charles Darwin, and a T-Rex (yes, a T-Rex).

As you can tell from the title, Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon is in the mode of the old-style pulps. And while there were a few pacing issues — at times it seemed to move a bit slowly and I’m not sure it needed all of its 300+ pages — for the most part Barnett pulls off that same rollicking, action-filled, grand-adventure kind of tone. And I’ll give him credit for a great opening scene.

Character-wise, Gideon himself still suffers from being a bit bland. Cockayne is somewhat more interesting, but he plays pretty much to type and his arc is easily predictable. Bent, as in book one, adds a nicely welcome bit of spice and cynicism, though I could have done without all the fart references and a lot less use of “effing this” and “effing that.”  My favorite characters were actually those with the least amount of page time — Charles Darwin, the Japanese scientist, and the mysterious nameless seeker of America. I wished we could have spent more time with each of them.

Stylistically, Barnett keeps things moving along without a lot of linguistic flourish. At times the language jarred a bit, as when a character referred to one of the women as a “chick,” but mostly the language/style doesn’t call attention to itself, which is pretty much what you want in this sort of adventure tale.

My biggest problem was with the ending section, but I don’t want to explain why since, well, it’s the ending section. Suffice to say it felt a bit jumbled and disproportionate, as well as a bit illogical/implausible (and yes, I’m saying that even as I’m happy to accept the flying dragon-like vehicle, the clockwork girl, and the Ghost of America That Should Have Been).

Though not quite as good as its predecessor, Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon was a quick, mostly enjoyable lark of a read. In many ways, its alternative North America setting and whether the current status quo will remain or not was for me the most compelling/intriguing aspect, and I’m really hoping that if Barnett continues the story this becomes the focus (as it appears it might). That’s a book I’d quite look forward to reading.