The stakes are high and I can’t promise a happy ending, but at least you can always enjoy the ride. The gang is back aboard the rickety airship Kestrel for another adventure in colonial Kenya. Beyond the Rails III: Slayer of Darkness is Jack Tyler’s third foray into the world of wild nineteenth century Africa and this time he upgrades from short stories to full-on novel-mode. I always liked his episodic structure, but this is a nice change of pace. The previous collections were always cohesive enough to be considered novels under the surface, and the slow-burn pacing here is a natural extension of the fact it has always been one long saga anyway. Tyler’s best scenes are always the character moments that fill in between plot-points and this only gives him more of them work with. Captain Monroe, hotshot pilot Patty Hobbs, and the mysterious American David Smith shine as the core cast. Previous holdovers like the new engineer Bakari and the tribal girl Darweshi stay mostly out of the way this time and I’m not sure how I feel about it. It means the leads get better development, but I kept waiting for these side-characters to rise to the surface and have their moment. As usual, it’s the guest-stars that standout, including the return of Jinx Jenkins from Book One. Newcomers like Jubilee Bellouard and her crew of bounty hunters are a nice addition as they attempt to collect on David Smith, if that is his real name… (it’s not). They add an unpredictable subplot to the mix that haunts the story unbeknownst to our heroes, like a coiled snake we keep waiting to strike. Tyler has fun with all this dramatic irony, keeping his crew in the dark until close to the end. At one point, the villain’s own right-hand man, Mutala, charters the Kestrel to get from A to B and nobody but the reader has any idea the implications. Tyler usually mixes an eclectic dose of old pulp adventuring into his Firefly-esque, steampunk-light vision, but this time I sensed just a hint of James Bond or the Man from UNCLE with the global governmental conspiracies just out of frame. He avoids letting these larger than life problems over-inflate the core premise by always presenting them through unreliable sources. At the end of the day, the world’s governments may be banding together in secret to fight a clandestine collection of mobsters and terrorists, but the crew of the Kestrel still has to earn their keep if they intend to keep hydrogen in the bag before the rainy season hits. It’s these down to earth mundanities that make Tyler’s stories so charming and relatable. I had some problems with Act III that I’ll get to in a moment, but it was Act I that really carried the novel for me with its strong setup. Old friend and previous crew-mate Ellsworth from Book I has been assaulted by accident when the enemy goes after the wrong storefront. It’s the perfect pulpy-noir kind of chance plot-point that carries you miles in verisimilitude. This is the dirty, chaotic world of Kenya, and the police are useless, say nothing of the precarious financial ruin Kestrel is always on the brink of. Act II is like lighting a long fuse and watching it burn. You know eventually something is going to explode, so even when things seem slow there is a subtext of inescapable tension. Tyler keeps his characters moving around from place to place, often completely oblivious to each other, as he sets up the final action. Unfortunately his reach maybe exceeded his grasp, or perhaps I let my anticipation get the best of me. The subplot with the bounty-hunters resolved itself too abruptly, and it had little to no consequence on the main plot, as it should’ve. Somebody should’ve instead gotten injured in a way that would’ve drastically complicated the main plot just in time for the final confrontation. Instead it got swept aside with some quick explanation and Jubilee scurries off when she could’ve stuck around to cause more trouble. Likewise the ever professional henchman Mutala, despite plenty of suspenseful ambiguity and a perfect build-up, made one little mistake and suddenly turned inept. He seems to have been shoved aside in order for his boss, Heir Reinhard, to come to the forefront near the end. They even argue about it in story, but the sudden shift never quite worked for me, and it didn’t lead to any worthwhile payoff. Had he turned out to be a spy for the good guys, or perhaps out of shame for his one mistake overcompensated and made even bigger mistakes that allowed the heroes to save the day at the last minute, it would’ve all been worth it. Even the fact that he was a paying passenger earlier in the story had little consequence beyond some short-term suspense. I kept waiting for that to matter but beyond someone eventually recognizing him, it didn’t really help or hurt anyone’s cause. In fact the entire climax as a whole felt rushed. I expected more twists and complications. Acts I and II provided such great setups for wild cards like the bounty hunters or the Irish airship crew or Jinx’s secrets, it was honestly hard to believe when the story wrapped up. One quick twist reveal before a battle with the badguy and next thing I know we’re neck deep in denouement. There’s at least a chapter or two worth of plot reversals and payoffs conceptually missing from this ending. Oh well. It’s easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback with self-published fiction and nitpick the stuff that otherwise requires professional editors to recognize and resolve. And squabbles aside, Tyler has proven he doesn’t need professional help. The quality of his stories on a technical level has only increased since the first book. Despite these late story stumbles, he still somehow sticks a proper landing, and the loose-ends he leaves us with after sending his crew on their separate ways only makes me want to read the next installment. This is his Empire Strikes Back, in so far as the story ends by breaking up the family at the threshold of an uncertain future. I guess I’ll just have to wait. Conclusion 4.5 out of 5 stars. Excellent setup and slow burn storytelling with our favorite characters is more than enough to keep this story afloat despite the Star Trek-like abruptness of its ending. Jack Tyler continues to be among the best of indie steampunk writers out there! Final Thoughts: Things I feel like Tyler has set up with his saga that I'm still waiting for... 1) A return to episodic format. Maybe it's all the same page count, but I like the idea of getting six stories instead of one big out. Just me. 2) Faraji, the barman, to take center stage in an adventure. 3) The redemption and relevance of Ellsworth from Book 1. He started out as the POV character but fell to the wayside when he turned out to be too annoying. It was a smart move to push him aside, but now that there's been a break, it's time to bring him back with his botany to the center of the ongoing mystery. As a guest star he can be as annoying as he wants because guest stars are allowed to be unique and unconventional and only add to the flavor. 4) Munroe's arrangement with the Crown from Book II still hangs in the background and I keep waiting for it to really backfire. Will they try to draft him into service of an immoral colonial war of some kind? Will they try to take advantage of him? Will they start meddling in more of his affairs? There are so many ways this deal will end up bad for the Kestrel and her crew, I need to see at least one of them play out. 5) A rivalry with another airship that gets out of hand. Even better if one of his former crew members works for them now (after Book III it could be anyone!) 6) Times are tough and Munroe has to downgrade to a small water boat briefly. I just like the idea of him doing the exact same thing on water and how that one change is so comically demoralizing. Whichever direction Tyler takes, I plan to book a passage and I recommend you get on board, too!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
C William PerkinsI write reviews for a few websites. Some of them I post here, too. Aeronautics AnonymousInterviews with Indie Writers Hosted by me! Get to know some soon to be favorites!
Archives
September 2018
Categories |