The Waking Engine by David Edison

Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Tor (February 11, 2014)

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy’s Rating: 2 of 5 stars 

Not for the first time, I wish I had a system in place for giving two ratings to a book: 1) An objective rating in which I give a book stars based on its own merits, uninfluenced by my personal feelings, and 2) A subjective rating which is based on how a book worked for me personally, or how well it meshed with my personal tastes. This is going to be a very tough review for me to write, simply because I’ve never read a book like this, where those two ratings could not be any more different, but I’m also glad I have the chance to explain why.

The book begins with a young man named Cooper waking up in an unfamiliar place to two strangers fussing over his sudden appearance, and the answers he gets are decidedly not reassuring. Apparently, he is dead. Contrary to what we know about death, when someone dies they merely wake up as themselves somewhere else, appearing on one of a possible million universes where they will once again live out their lives and the whole process repeats itself. That is, until you reach the end and wind up at the City Unspoken, also known as the City of the Dead, because only on this world a person can find true death.

This is where Cooper wakes up. But he has also come at a very unsettling time, where something seems to be preventing True Death from happening, leading to widespread frustration and panic among the denizens of the city. There are some who believe Cooper may be the solution to the problem, as he is different. For one thing, he has a belly button. A navel is really nothing but a scar left over from the attachment of the umbilical cord, and because all are born only once but die many times, waking up on new worlds with their bodies whole and unmarred, the fact Cooper has one holds great significance. He may not be really dead.

And from here on out, it gets even stranger. But hey, you’d be strange too if you were Cooper, dragged across the metaverse by a goddess, kidnapped by faeries, drugged by Cleopatra, engulfed by a machine-flesh creature, and pursued by undead monsters and evil elf beings. I love it when I find a unique book with very different, offbeat ideas, but The Waking Engine treads into seriously bizarre territory. More bizarre than I could handle, perhaps. It’s the kind of book I can’t tackle at night right before bed, because I wake up in the morning and can’t remember if I actually dreamed or read these weird images. I tried really hard to embrace the weirdness, but it soon became clear that I was in way over my head.

And that’s a real shame, too. It almost breaks my heart to say I didn’t like this one as much as I thought I would. The ideas in this story are some of the most original ones I’ve ever encountered in science fiction and fantasy, and the characters are unconventional and diverse as well. Unfortunately, the strangeness was a barrier for me, preventing me from appreciating all of the positive aspects of this book to its fullness. It’s difficult to connect to a character, for instance, when instead I’m putting all my effort into trying to make sense of everything that’s happening. The world is also wildly imaginative, which is another huge plus to this book, but words cannot describe just how amazing and fantastical it is. I mean that literally in this case; I get the sense from Edison’s writing that the environments he pictures in his mind are so vast and visionary that they transcend mere language.

I wanted to like The Waking Engine so much because objectively, it is a great book, deftly and beautifully written with ground breaking ideas, interesting characters, and incredible world building. But I have to be honest, it was just not my style. There’s lots to love about this book, but it just has to find its intended audience, which unfortunately is not me. On the other hand, I think fans of “un-reality” or the metaphysical or more abstract elements in their speculative fiction will be very well pleased with this one. Give it a shot if that’s the type of stories you like, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.