 Cybermancy — (2001) Publisher: Normal men and women made mind-controlled zombies by a drug from another dimension. An ancient evil, fostered by occult Nazis scientists, unleashed to destroy the modern world. A gallery of rogues and heroes stretching back over generations. At the center of it all, Jon Bonaventure Carmody, the Cybermancer. With Cybermancy, Incorporated, Roberson introduces Carmody, modern-day pulp hero and scion of two proud families, both with centuries' long histories of struggling against the forces of oppression. In two linked novellas and a series of shorts, mixing science fiction, fantasy, and adventure fiction, Carmody and his associates continue the fight begun by his ancestors in generations past. Nazi sorcerers, lords of the jungle, super-spies and scientific detectives fill the world of Cybermancy, Incorporated, unveiling a rich tapestry of explorers and adventurers, rogues and villains, danger and intrigue.
Set the Seas on Fire — (2001) Publisher: Bonaventure is the hero in a later Roberson sci/fi novel called Paragaea. Publisher: 1808. While Europe burns and the Napoleonic Wars set the world aflame, the HMS Fortitude patrols the sea lanes of the South Pacific, harrying enemies of the British Crown. The Fortitude's captain sets his sights on a Spanish galleon weighted down with a fortune in gold and spices, but Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure thinks the prize not worth the risk. The ship is smashed by storms and driven far into unknown seas, the galleon and her treasure lost in the tempest. Bonaventure and the rest of the Fortitude's crew find themselves  aground on an island in uncharted waters. Beneath the island's beauty lurks a darker secret: an ancient evil buried at the living heart of a volcano.
 Set the Seas on Fire
Author of many short stories and novels, the three-time World Fantasy Award-nominated and two-time John W. Campbell Award-nominated Chris Roberson is also a co-founder of the writers’ collective Clockwork Storybook and owner/operator of the indie publisher MonkeyBrain Books (Michael Moorcock, Alan Moore, Jeff VanderMeer). Set the Seas On Fire is part of the Bonaventure-Carmody universe which includes the books Cybermancy, Incorporated
(2001-Clockwork), Here, There & Everywhere
(2005-Pyr), Paragaea: A Planetary Romance
(2006-Pyr) and The End of the Century (2008-Pyr, shown below), and was originally released in 2001 via Clockwork Storybook. This edition of Set the Seas On Fire is a considerably expanded and revised version of the original novel and was released by Solaris Books.
Set in the late 1700s/early 1800s, during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Revolution / Napoleonic Wars, and King George III, Chris Roberson’s Set the Seas On Fire is an engaging blend of historical and speculative fiction, with a dash of coming-of-age tale thrown in for good measure. So, following in the footsteps of protagonist Hieronymus Bonaventure — what a great name! — readers can look forward to some good old seafaring adventuring including an informative and realistic glimpse at how a British Naval ship is run. You’ll explore an undiscovered island where cultures will clash between the natives and the sailors, with love inevitably blossoming — think Christopher Columbus or Pocahontas. You’ll journey back to Hieronymus’ childhood to learn about the art of swordplay and how our hero’s early life lessons relate to Bonaventure’s current dilemmas. Prepare yourself for events both fantastical and terrifying, with the majority of the good stuff reserved for the end of the book.
Honestly, I’m not that big on period pieces and in particular, stories of the nautical variety, so I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Set the Seas On Fire that much even with the promise of mystical happenings. Surprisingly, I had a really good time reading the book and I think a lot of it had to do with the author Chris Roberson. Since I’ve never read anything by Mr. Roberson, I didn’t know what to expect, but the writing turned out to be quite accomplished, and even though the novel deals with a lot of familiar story elements, the skillful prose, scholastic knowledge of the historical material, and ripe imagination really elevated this novel to another level. Of course, having a main character like Hieronymus Bonaventure really helps too — he’s easy to relate to, somewhat flawed as every person is in real life, and well developed by the author. Thankfully, Hieronymus also shows up in Paragaea: A Planetary Romance, which I wouldn’t mind reading, and I hope to see further adventures with Hieronymus Bonaventure.
This edition of Set the Seas On Fire is a revised and expanded version of the original. Because I haven’t read the original, I can only speculate on what might have been changed or added on, but according to the author’s notes, the new version is some 25% longer, but contains the complete texts of the earlier version. The only issue I had with the book was that a couple of flashbacks seemed a bit out of place, but other than that, the story seemed to flow along pretty nicely, the pacing was up-tempo, and everything was resolved satisfactorily at the end. I think it would be interesting to compare the different versions with one another, but that is probably a project for another day.
In short, Chris Roberson’s Set the Seas On Fire is an impressively written and confidently realized novel that may appeal more to the historical fiction crowd, but embraces enough of the unknown to make it worthwhile for speculative readers as well. —Robert Thompson
Here, There, & Everywhere — (2005) Publisher: When Roxanne Bonaventure is eleven years old, a dying woman gives her a gift that changes her life utterly. With the strange device called the 'Sofia', she is granted the ability to travel anywhere in space and time, not only through times that were and will be, but also through the worlds that could have been and might someday be.
 Paragaea: A Planetary Romance — (2006) Publisher: Paragaea: A Planetary Romance is the story of Akilina "Leena" Chirikov, who shortly after launching from Star Town in the Soviet Union, finds herself thrown into another dimension, a world of strange science and ancient mystery. There she meets another time-lost person from Earth, Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure of the Royal Navy — who left home to fight the forces of Napoleon and never returned — and his companion, Balam — outlaw prince of the jaguar men. Bonaventure is interested only in adventure and amusement, while Balam only wants distraction until the day he can reclaim his throne. Having little better to do, they agree to help Chirikov find a way home. In the tradition of the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, Paragaea is in fact a "hard" science fiction adventure, grounded in the latest thinking in the fields of theoretical physics, artificial intelligence, genetics, and more. There is a rigorously rational explanation behind all of the unearthly elements, with most of the "magic" the protagonist encounters being the products of a forgotten, transhuman, post-singularity culture that has long since disappeared. Chirikov, a strictly rational Soviet cosmonaut, interprets these as best she can, using the framework of early 1960s science. Being a dutiful Soviet, she wants only to return home to Earth, to inform her superiors about what she has discovered. But she soon finds herself developing ties to her companion Bonaventure that make her wonder whether she really wants to go home at all.
End of the Century — (2008) Publisher: Three people. Three eras. One city. Endless possibilities. End of the Century is a novel of the distant past, the unimaginable future, and the search for the Holy Grail. Set in the city of London, the  narrative is interlaced between three ages, in which a disparate group of heroes, criminals, runaways, and lunatics are drawn into the greatest quest of all time.
End of the Century
In End of the Century, Chris Roberson takes us on an Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail. While that would be plenty for most writers, Roberson isn’t content to stop with only one story; he also tells the story of a search for a serial killer in London around the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and of Alice Fell, a sixteen-year-old following a vision that may simply be a symptom of epilepsy in 2000. The three stories have a number of factors that seem to be similar, particularly the big fellow who goes around attacking people with a sword that can slice through anything, accompanied by dogs with blood-red ears and teeth. Only in the last 75 pages or so do things start to come together in a startling way.
The book begins in 498 Anno Domini, when Galaad arrives in Caer Llundain, home of the Count of Britannia and victor of Badon, the High King Arthur. This is no Arthur of legend, but a man who led his countrymen in battles against the Saxons and now presides over his people as best he can, settling disputes and trying to make sure that the Saxons — who weren’t really defeated, precisely, but merely fended off for the time being — don’t take away the hard-won peace. He and his fellow knights are bored with the business of governing, but understand its necessity. Still, they are ripe for an adventure, and Galaad offers a great one: he has had visions of an island surrounded by water with a castle of glass in which a lady in white is kept prisoner.
Actually, we don’t learn all of this the first time Galaad appears in the narrative. He simply arrives in Caer Llundain and manages to get inside the city gates in the first chapter. A few pages later, we’re transported to 1897 AD (the nomenclature for the date changes each time a new date is introduced, to comport with the century’s practice), where Sanford Blank and Roxanne Bonaventure, scandalously enjoying each other’s company without the presence of a chaperone, come across a newspaper account of a stolen diamond. Before they can explore the issue much further, however, the Metropolitan Police arrive to escort Blank to the Tower Bridge, where his assistance is required, though the police will not tell him why.
After that short introduction to those two characters, we find ourselves in 2000 CE, where Alice Fell has just arrived in London after a flight from New York. She’s a smart kid; when asked by the customs agent upon her arrival if she has anything to declare, she briefly considers responding, “Nothing but my genius,” though she can’t quite remember whether it was Orson Welles or Oscar Wilde who said that first. Alice manages to gain admittance to the city, much as Galaad did in the first chapter — and back we go to Galaad’s time.
Roberson juggles all of his characters and their seeming disparate stories with great skill, slowly dealing out the similarities in the different time streams, slowly building the personalities of his various characters, slowly building a plot that is going to explode at the end of the book. It is quite enjoyable to skip among the centuries. I particularly enjoyed Roberson’s vision of fifth century London, and the realistic portrayal of the historical Arthur — assuming that there ever was a historical Arthur. The smell and feel of that time and place are brought so much to life that the reader starts to feel the cold and smell the dirty bodies. This portion of the book is so grounded in realism when the story begins that it is almost a disappointment when the story of Galaad, Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table takes off into the realm of the unknown. Almost, but not quite.
Blank and Bonaventure are interesting characters, too, even if the ambiance of the nineteenth century isn’t quite as cleanly drawn. There is something obviously peculiar about both of them, and it doesn’t stop with Blank’s resemblance to Sherlock Holmes — or even his resemblance to Oscar Wilde, which becomes apparent only late in the book. They both seem to know much more than they should, and while Blank’s knowledge seems to derive mostly from an uncanny ability to use deductive reasoning, Bonaventure is an altogether different story. Unconcerned with conventional mores regarding the deportment of women, she goes where she pleases and does what she will. She seems more a woman of our time than of the nineteenth century, and there’s a reason for that.
Alice Fell has been having visions, just as Galaad does, though it doesn’t seem that the visions have a great deal in common. She knows she needs to be in London, and she soon meets Stillman Waters, who has been in her visions for years. Stillman is at least as odd as Blank and Bonaventure, and seems to have something in common with the nineteenth century couple that goes beyond history.
The threads progress pretty much equally, and each is as interesting as the other. But things take a serious turn for the weird when Galaad, Arthur and the Knights find themselves inside an odd mist with even odder weapons, facing very, very strange adversaries indeed. Le Morte d’Arthur seems very far away at this point. And Alice finds herself in the Unworld, falling, endlessly falling, but she seems to have a mission. Suddenly this book starts to completely unravel, or perhaps to take a different shape, or maybe to find the shape it was heading for all along.
It’s a flaw of End of the Century that the final 75 pages do not seem to grow organically from the three stories that lead up to it, but instead to be almost an entirely new story. I have my suspicions that this may be because I have not read any of Roberson’s earlier novels, in which some of the characters may have had their first appearances, according to the Author’s Note at the end of the book. I seem to have started at the wrong place. But this only makes me want to read more of Roberson’s work — particularly Here, There and Everywhere, Paragaea: A Planetary Romance and Set the Seas on Fire, all three of which promise to tell me more about Roxanne Bonaventure and her family. I’ll also be on the lookout for new writing from Chris Roberson. He kept me captivated for almost 500 pages with excellent characterization and world building, even if the plot did sometimes make me feel lost. I really want to learn more about his alternate — or perhaps merely secret — history. —Terry Weyna
Book of Secrets — (2009) Publisher: Spencer Finch is a journalist. He's on the trail of the greatest secret in history. And it'll take more than angels and demons to stop him! Finch is on the hunt for a missing book, encountering along the way cat burglars and mobsters, hackers and monks. At the same time, he's trying to make sense of the legacy left him by his late grandfather, a chest of what appear to be magazines  from the golden age of pulp fiction, and even earlier. Following his nose, Finch gradually uncovers a mystery involving a lost Greek play, secret societies, generations of masked vigilantes! and an entire secret history of mankind. It's like The Da Vinci Code retold by the Coen Brothers in a summer blockbuster blur. FILE UNDER: Thriller [Conspiracy! / Ancient Mysteries / Pulp Fiction / Blow Your Mind]
Book of Secrets
Spencer Finch is an investigative journalist who is researching billionaire J. Nathan Pierce for one of his stories. In the course of his research, he discovers that a mysterious book was recently stolen from Pierce, and it’s this book that will lead Finch on a fascinating and unlikely journey with far-reaching implications. Early on in the story, Finch also receives his recently deceased grandfather’s inheritance: a box full of stories and other texts. These gradually add a whole new dimension to both his grandfather’s legacy and the secret, real history of the world...
If all of this sounds confusing, rest assured: Chris Roberson is a great storyteller who expertly reveals the layers of his tale as Finch slowly discovers the real reason for his story assignment. Finch is an interesting main character: a hard-drinking, chain-smoking investigator with a shady past and a chip on his shoulder. As the reader learns more about his past, it becomes increasingly clear that Book of Secrets is as much about Finch coming to terms with himself as about the mystery and arcana of the main plot. Along the way, the reader is also introduced to a number of colorful and often fascinating side characters — my favorite being the ex-convict bartender and enthusiastic preacher of the Gospel of Odin.
Book of Secrets has an interesting structure: the story is divided into seven chapters, each covering one day of Finch’s investigation. At the end of each day, when Finch is too wired to sleep, he reads one of the texts he received in his grandfather’s inheritance, and these texts are inserted into the novel after every chapter but the last one. The texts are offered in reverse chronological order, and while the first one (a pulp story about the exploits of a caped crusader called “the Black Hand”) may make you think that this feature is just a gimmick, by the second or third one you’ll start noticing some genuinely interesting patterns and parallels. Once those became clear, I could not put this book down and raced through it in record time.
Unfortunately, after almost 250 pages of simply excellent storytelling, Book of Secrets takes a sudden turn for the worse. One scene (the auction) is so over-the-top that it just doesn’t mesh with the rest of the book, and the new characters it introduces are too stereotypical. After this, the novel works its way to a deus ex machina ending that frankly felt like a huge letdown after the slow build-up of tension throughout the novel.
Still, Book of Secrets is an incredibly entertaining and rewarding read for most of the way. Chris Roberson doesn’t spell everything out for the reader, instead leaving some hints and references that, if you catch them, will have your head spinning. If you have any interest in secret history/conspiracy stories, definitely check out Book of Secrets. —Stefan Raets |
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